Family Christmas? Shmishmass

It has been an often used comment - that 'family church' is a little like Christmas, its great when it happens, but you wouldnt want to do christmas every week.
A fair comment, but it eludes to the notion that we are only family when we are in the same space and time, or crammed into the same front room around the door you were going to throw away last year but means the 2 new grand kinds manage not to evict grandma to the sofa with a dinner tray and bib.
In congregational circles, i often hear people saying how inportant the sunday meeting is, to ensure that we are all 'together' as family. This in turn leads me to an article in the Evangelical Alliance mag that i read today in the loo. It was about how we can give space to generationally specific church gatherings - for example - youth church, but it is not an end in itself, because we still need to be together, to fulfill a biblical picture of the Christian family.....Durrr!

But that implies some HUUUUUUGE pressupostions (had to try and spell that and not say suppository), that our congregation centre mindset, is correct and the 'Higher Ground' of being together.
In all honesty, you can be 10 or 300 together in a room across the generational span, and NOT be together at all, other than in this visual, polite and probably genuinely aspired way (((( In Fact!!!! just today - a lady who has done some research in what one would deem to be 'healthy' congregation - told me that a repeating theme is Loneliness. Also - that a church in another town has a very good model of a 'buddy system' to address some of this. Great - i like that, but doesnt it say - even a little - that the family meeting - produces a 'feeling of well being' that doesnt last the week for some/ many - where does little jimmy visit old granny in her nursing home confines))))
I know many churches where this is held aloft, but outside of that hours meeting once a week, there may be very little generational cross over, or LIFEBLOOD that jesus would recognise as embodying......................well......................The Body i guess. You know, that connection to life laying down loving. At best (and thank god they do this) its the pastors wife and five of the least physically impaired of the oldies, who facilitate a get together or luncheon mid week. Im not nocking that at all - long may it continue. But what the heck is this CHRISTIAN FAMILY THING that we are meant to embody, cause it sure as heck isnt about an hour in the same time and space each week, any more than its embodied as bioligical family in my front room once a year. If we hold this up as a moral virtue - How is it really meant to be expressed? I think we settle for something very very low grade indeed if we can smile at the new baby and grandma weatherwax on sunday and feel we are doing something rich and profound.