Week 01 - A New Kind of Family
Coming to church on Sunday matters. But being in a room together is not the same as being known. We can be surrounded by people and still feel alone. The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on social connection describes the health stakes plainly: lacking social connection can raise the risk of premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. That’s a sobering fact, but it also reminds us that connection is not optional. We need one another.
And yet close friendship can be hard to find. In a comparison of surveys, the share of American men reporting that they had no close friends rose from 3% in 1990 to 15% in 2021. We don’t need to solve that in one afternoon, and a meal won’t instantly make us best friends. But it can be a beginning: a little more time, a real conversation, and room to be known.
That is part of the kind of family Jesus gathers around himself. Community grows as we keep showing up in smaller circles where we can share life, carry one another’s burdens, laugh, pray, and grow. But the table itself can feel like a lost art. A recent comparison of survey data found that the share of Americans who host friends or family at home at least monthly fell from 42% in 1975 to 12% in 2026. We don’t need a perfect home or an elaborate dinner to reverse that but we can start with what we have.
This month’s practice: Twice this month intentionally gather around a table for a meal with others. Our baseline is breaking bread together. Phones off, present to the people and to Jesus in the middle of an ordinary meal. The meal is not the warm-up to the practice. The meal is the practice. Being present is the formation.
Ask these questions:
What’s one good thing and one hard thing from this week?
Where in those have you sensed God?
LWRV Team
