Think Community, not Family: Nov 11

Count up the people at the biggest family gathering you can remember:  a birthday, graduation, Thanksgiving.  How many in your count?  Typically we come up with numbers like 5, 10, 13, 22, perhaps as many as 50 at a big event.  Sometimes church members think of congregations as their "church family."  WRONG.  A congregation is a community, made up of many families, many groups.  Most of us identify with one or more ministry groups, circles of friends, but at our best we are a community of many diverse families and groups, each one with a different recipe for birthday cake or turkey dinner.  This is why it is so important for everyone to add ideas to the focus groups and profile we are building to search for a new pastor.  The next time someone says "church family" whisper in their ear "COMMUNITY."