Our Construct: Like an Extended Family Part 1

At end of last year, I said I’d like to spend some time trying to better communicate the structure of our scattered network, the Union. One way to look at the Union is as something akin to an association, like the NRA (National Rifle Association). Instead of gun enthusiasts, we are like an association discipleship enthusiasts. Another existing structure that might help explain what we're shooting for in construct is family, more specifically extended family. Over the years, one of the more difficult concepts to communicate has been what we are not. We are not working to be your primary community. We want to encourage you to find, join, build (likely some combination of the three) your “local” community. As I’ve said before, for the majority of you, a local church will likely be an important piece of your local community. This is where the family analogy might help. My wife Tara mostly lives in our immediate family of five. In the day to day, she is mostly a wife and a mom. Our immediate family is where Tara’s primary commitments lie. It is where she grows and serves. While Tara is mostly committed to us, it is equally true that she is part of an extended family. She is a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a niece, a cousin. Just not on a dailly… or even monthly basis. Her extended family, much of which resides in the Southeast, is in her blood. It connect her to her roots, her culture of origin. She mostly does not see her family in Kentucky, but one afternoon at her cousins’ place in Louisville, Tara feels the warmth of familiarity. The Union is not your immediate family. We would like to be like that extended family. The common root being “Making disciples of the people in our lives.”