The CEO Family

The CEO Family. I heard this term while listening to an NPR broadcast in which the speaker admitted to being part of this family at one point in his life. If you go to church regularly, you know who I’m talking about…or maybe you don’t because you never see them. That’s right, I am talking about the Christmas & Easter Only family. Most CEO families only attend because they feel like this “fulfills their Christian duty” for the year, not the mention that these are two of the most important holidays in the Christian calendar which makes their case even better. Or does it?

Christmas and Easter are two major events on the Christian calendar and I think it is great that people feel the need to go somewhere to celebrate Jesus’ birth and resurrection. But, what I would like to know is what is keeping them from going the rest of the year?

I recently had a conversation with a friend about why they aren’t going to church. My friend said that they work five, sometimes six, days every week outside and the weekend, especially Sunday, is the only time they have to rest. Now, if you read one of my previous posts “Remember the Sabbath” you know that I agree that God calls for the Sabbath to be our day of rest, but not when it comes before God. God gives us 7 days in a week and all He asks for in return is only an hour (two if you go to Sunday school:). Think about it.

While I am in Greensboro, I go to First Baptist and I have had an amazing experience there. The college department does a wonderful job reaching out to college students and they are so friendly. There is one couple a lot of us consider to be kind of like our grandparents away from home. They are also great teachers, not only during Bible studies, but also by the way they live their lives. They are there if we have questions, need prayer, or just need to hang out off campus for a while. I love having a church family like this because they are more experienced and can offer an outside, Godly perspective on things that I may not have thought about before.

Sometimes we think that we have it all figured out – that we can read the Bible and talk to God and we are ready to go. While those are great things to do and I encourage everyone to do them daily, we need support, guidance, and affirmation from other Christians who have had different, and more, life experiences than us. Learning more about your faith and how to apply it is kind of like riding a bike. You can’t do it the first time, so you have to have someone hold the bike up while you pedal and try to find your balance. That person will whisper in your ear “Steer a little to the left”, “Keep looking ahead”, “Pedal faster”, or “You are doing great – keep it up!” Eventually that person will let go and we can try to go on our own. Sometimes we may fall or hit a bump in the road, but that will be there to pick us back up or show us a less bumpy path.

Similarly, a church family can be there to guide you and hold you up as you journey through life. They can be there to tell you “Stay on the narrow path”, “Keep looking up”, and even “You are doing great – keep it up!” We may go off track in our Christian walk, but that church family will be there to show us the way back or that "less bumpy path.” Not only is it helpful to have this kind of church family, but fellowshipping with other believers is something God has called us to do. We cannot let our lives get in the way of simple things God has asked us to do because this ultimately hurts our relationship with God.

Let’s go back specifically to the CEO families. Again, Christmas and Easter are great holidays to celebrate especially at church, but you don’t have a child, celebrate its birthday every year and then say “See ya next year!” do you? We should treat God in the same way. Coming to know God better is sort of like raising a child. With children you have to spend time with them, talk to them, let your friends see them and get to know them, get to know your friends children, and try to be involved in your child’s life as much as possible. In the same way, we have to spend time with God, talk to Him, share Him with our friends, maybe learn a different perspective from our friends (or church family), and have Him be a part of our lives as much as possible.

In other words, God isn’t something to be celebrated or praised once or twice a year. It is an ongoing “event” that the members of the CEO family are missing out on. So, if you are a member of this family, or know someone who is, keep in mind that God is an every day, every hour, every minute kind of person – not Christmas and Easter Only.