The Family and the Early Church

The overall objective of this course is to understand the idea of the church as a family and the individual family as a "family within a family," using the implications of this reality to develop strategies for building strong households within the context of the church. Specifically, this means that each person studying the course would:

• Contrast the biblical view of the family with that of contemporary western technological society, reviving the biblical orientation of the family as a "family within a larger family," the local church.

• Examine Paul's "household texts" to develop an understanding of the nature and character of the "family within a family," orienting our households toward the building of Christ's church.

• Examine specific implications of how a family should live in community (the larger family--the local church) in those areas which are of immediate concern to both the larger family (the local church) and the individual family unit (such as divorce, care of older widows, etc.).

• Build a guide for functioning as a "family within a family," promoting harmony with God's order for the larger family and freeing the family and the believing community to become all that God intended.