His name means “crowned.” Amongst the first converts in Achia, he and his family were among the few who had been baptized by the apostle Paul himself. They were long standing members of the church of Corinth. And what grabs me each time I come across them when reading Paul’s concluding comments in 1Corinthians, is that they were a family in the Family business.

Now I urge you, brothers–you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints–be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.    (1Corinthians 16:15-16 ESV)

Stephanas and his household devoted themselves to the service of the saints.

The saints . . . set apart ones . . . those redeemed through faith by the blood of Christ . . . given the Spirit of adoption . . . sons & daughters of the Father . . . joint heirs with Christ . . . the Family of God. And Stephanas, and his house, had set their hearts and energies, as a family, to serve the Family . . . the old King James says that they had “addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.”

And I can think of families that I have run across over the course of my life who served the Family. Most often, in my case, it was through hospitality . . . an open home . . . hanging out with parents and their kids . . . enjoying a meal . . . and, just as much if not more so, enjoying the atmosphere of a household united in Christ. Actually, it was such a house . . . over such a meal . . . that the Lord used to initiate a hunger and thirst within me for the kingdom. I wouldn’t have said it that way at the time . . . or even understood it if someone else had said it. But the Lord used the time spent in the home of that family to produce in me the feeble prayer, “Lord, what they have, I want.”

I have been in homes that were a refuge. A place where a weary saint could lay their head as they were passing through . . . a safe place where, in addition to meals being served up, healthy amounts of encouragement were also on the menu . . . homes that were homes to strangers as well as to the saints. Such homes come to mind when I think of a household that is “spending their lives in service to God’s people” (NLT).

And while we may not all be called to be like “Crowned” and his family and their specific appointment to serving the church, I do think there’s something modeled here for all those who have been crowned with grace . . . something that the church is desperately in need of . . . families focused on Family business. Households that recognize their call to “do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). Dads and moms, brothers and sisters, with an eye towards refreshing their brothers and sisters in the faith.

That’s when the church is really being the church.

O that we’d be about Family business . . . by His grace . . . for His glory.