Are we a part of a Church or a Family?

Recent studies have shown that the church in America is not growing. Are these studies true? One thing that seems to challenge this data is that there are church's who are adding more people and some of them are even building new and bigger buildings to hold these new people. So what is going on? Well, researchers have found that there are very few new believers in the American church and that the new people that are coming to churches are not new Christians, but people who are leaving other churches. People leave church's for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes they may not like the way things are being done so they jump ship. This may be doctrinal issue, leadership philosophy, or even something as simple as the style of worship music or the color of the carpet. This information forces us to ask the question, Are we a part of a church or a family? In a church it is common place move from place to place but is it that way in a family? Unfortunately divorce rates are high and many times the church mentality seems to prevail in marriages as well. What if this approach was applied to our children or our parents? We can't just go find another set of parents or get rid of our children and find new ones can we? Sadly, there is probably some data to be found that shows that people are actually trying to do this, but things do not need to be this way. How can we overcome this? If we look to the bible and see how God loves we will see that His love is unconditional. He loves us regardless of our sins and struggles. If we can love our brothers and sisters in our churches like God loves us we will then be on our way to overcoming the problem of moving from church to church and maybe then new believers will be added to our churches. So are we a part of a church or a family? The answer to this question is the church should be a family and seek to stick together through the good and the bad.