5 minute read
RICHARD MOOMJIAN PAGE
I BELIEVE
We Are Real Family
Richard Moomjian
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)
EARLY ON
I grew up in San Diego (CA) in what could be described as a broken home. I remember many late nights of my mom and dad fighting. Nights of raised voices and “Richard, get your brother and go to your room.” When I think long and hard about it, my childhood home was marked with constant relational and emotional tension. When I was in third grade, my parents divorced, and my mom started looking for answers. She had grown up in the Catholic church and had a strong sense that my brother and I needed to be in a church. The year of 2003 was spent traveling to different churches in San Diego, trying to find a church home.
Just a mile and a half from our house stood a Bible-preaching Baptist church. My mom went to an adult Bible study. We went to Vacation Bible School. One day, that summer of 2003, our almost fourth-grade VBS class was brought to
an upper room for a Bible lesson. We all sat crisscrossapple sauce on the carpeted floor. I remember hearing the teacher talk about a heavenly Father who loved me so much he gave his Son, Jesus, to die for me. “Raise your hand if you want to know him and give your life to Jesus.” I wanted to know that kind of love. My hand shot up. God saved me that day and gave me new life in Christ.
The best part is my mom threw a party. Prodigal Son style. I remember my godmother and other family friends were there. I think we had cake. My mom gave me a Bible and I started to read it. We went to our new church home every Sunday. I went to youth group every Wednesday. When there were tensions at home, I would walk to church and spend time with my youth pastor. Some days he would pick me up from school. My church family became real family. Not a perfect family, but a holy one.
LATER ON
For the most part Christians who serve their church family are ordinary. At least by the world’s standards. And while they may not be famous, they are faithful. Their names are great in the eyes of those they serve. Jim Benge was one of those people for me. Every week we would meet at McDonalds and study the Bible. We started in the Gospel of John and got all the way to James over the course of my time in high school. He taught me to be an honest man. Control your anger. Love Jesus. He taught me to say sorry. “Christianity starts in the home,” Jim declared as he held up a vision and dream of a family of my own. A family in which Christ would rule and be its foundation.
Along with a vision for Christian family, my home church affirmed my sense of calling to serve as pastor. Opportunities to lead in worship and Bible study were followed by encouragements to further theological study. I knew I wanted to serve the church but wasn’t sure where to go next. My mom was taking counseling classes at a nearby seminary and asked her professors where I should go. They all had the same answer: Wheaton College. When I received my acceptance letter, I went. No college visit, no afterthought. The night before I left for college, I googled Illinois; then I ordered a down jacket and long johns.
My time of study at Wheaton College was sweet. God gave me new delight in the disciplines of prayer and Bible meditation. I learned Greek and Hebrew. I met my wife, Shelby. And I began to serve here at College Church. God began using and is still using people like Ben Panner and Zach Fallon pastorally to sharpen my heart and mind. Similarly, my time in seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was sharpening and clarifying many of my theological convictions—a high view of the Bible, God’s sovereignty, the necessity of the local church. After the past two years in San Diego, God made it clear to Shelby and me that he was leading us back to College Church. Back to this church family. I praise God that I can look back on my childhood and see that God was using the church—that church in San Diego—to be the family of God to me. God is also using this church—College Church—to be a church home to both the healthy and broken families here in the Wheaton area. We have the enormous privilege to be the loving, godly family many people have never known. While some see church as an add-on to the family, the Bible shows us that the church is family.
I am going to be serving college students during my pastoral residency. Students who come from miles away will, in almost an instant, find themselves church homeless. As a church family, we are the ones who will invite students into our Sanctuary, into our homes and into our lives as family we have not yet met. I hope to paint for these students an inherited vision of the local church. A vision of the Church as the place of spiritual nurture. A vision of church as the parents and siblings you never had. A vision of church as Scripture teaches. A vision of church as family. Real family.
Cyprian, an early church father, famously said that “No one can have God for his Father, who does not have the Church as his mother.” In other words, the church is not optional. We are saved into a family. There are no loneranger, only-child Christians. We are adopted as sons and daughters of God Most High. Every Sunday is a family reunion. Every Lord’s Table, a Thanksgiving Day meal. And that means that for every passer-by, every misfit, every child of a broken home, there is a Father waiting with arms stretched wide and adoption papers in hand. And best yet—we get to tell them that good news.
