The adopted family, not the nuclear family, is the New Testament model, according to Diana Garland, who recently resigned from the Carver School of Social Work at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the job of the church to cut across boundaries of blood and marriage and define family the way the Bible defines it, not as culture does,\u201d she told the governing board of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.<\/p>\n
Garland led members of the Texas CLC in an examination of Jesus\u2019 teachings on family at their April 18-19 quarterly meeting near Dallas. At that meeting, the commission adopted a comprehensive proposal to enhance family life in Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of God\u2019s children need family. We are created not to be alone. Jesus linked the people he loved into family in a new way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Garland took Jesus\u2019 words from the cross commending his mother to the care of the apostle John and his special relationship with Mary, Martha and Lazarus as examples of family formation.<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus did not sit down on the hillside and talk to us about how to be family. Sometimes I wish he had. But what he did was model it for us. And that is more powerful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Shared faith creates stronger family ties than bloodlines, Garland said. Pointing to Jesus\u2019 words in Matthew 12 regarding his own mother and siblings and the wider family of God, she noted, \u201cJesus doesn\u2019t paint them<\/p>\n
out. He\u2019s widening the circle, breaking the bounds. He is saying that family is not limited to biological and legal kinfolk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe New Testament model is not the nuclear family. It is the adopted family. In God\u2019s kingdom, nobody has to be alone. Family transcends kinship for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garland drew a distinction between universal \u201cneighbor love\u201d and the special love that exists within families. While Christians are called to love their neighbors unconditionally, expecting nothing in return, family love makes demands and confronts conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamily is based on covenant, and that is mutual,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Strengthening families is central to the church\u2019s task in evangelism and ministry, Garland said. \u201cIt is the church\u2019s job to seek out lonely — to mend families that need mending,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Garland said churches should:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Foster \u201cfamily\u201d relationships among groups of 15 to 20 people within the larger family of faith. \u201cStrengthen families by building community around them,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to be about the task of making sure there is nobody alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Find ways to recognize and celebrate family ties as they are biblically defined.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Give families the tools for facing conflict and life\u2019s struggles together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The adopted family, not the nuclear family, is the New Testament model, according to Diana Garland, who recently resigned from the Carver School of Social Work at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. \u201cIt is the job of the church to cut across boundaries of blood and marriage and define family the way the Bible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1381,361,353,96,1628,55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}