Texas District

 

My family has expanded.

 

My children married. That brought some new members, a daughter and sons into my family. Their children have married and I now have a new granddaughter and new grandsons. This is what happens in a real family: People move out and yet expand the family.

 

What happens in the family of God? We stay in the house and the family grows; maybe or maybe not. Our natural children move out and sometimes return to the community, but often move out, but others are filling in spots around us who may not be in the family ever.

 

Oh, when the children marry and we get those new family members, we discover that they are raised differently, with different histories and sometimes different baggage than our nuclear family. There is often a bit of a struggle to see the family in the same way. The truth is that families change. Likewise, the family of God has always gone through change.

 

So the question for our congregations is: Do we want, desire, hope for our families to expand? We all love to see visitors, new members and such, but have the children reached out to bring in “joint heirs” or “brothers and sisters” into our families?

 

The call of Jesus is to go into our city (Jerusalem), our nation (Judea) and beyond (all the world). In Acts 1:8 Jesus commissions his followers: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We are given the treasure of life with our God to bring it out of our congregations to raise up faith in others. This is the call of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ… “Hi Kids!”

 

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