New Father. New Family. New Life

The Lord has John explain that the followers of Christ were not just called children of God; He actually became their Father because of His love and the salvation He provides, not their wisdom or righteous living. We are not just “brothers and sisters in Christ;” but we are permanently bound together as brothers and sisters, united by Christ with new responsibilities, mutual accountability, and obligations. The Church of Jesus Christ is a collective society that shares in the life and last days because we have the benefit of being united to Jesus through His death, burial, and resurrection.

 While everyone is a child of God in the sense that we owe our lives to Him, we can only become His children in the intimate and loving sense of reentering His collective society of shalom only by an act of God's initiating grace and the response of faith in our hearts. This is not something any one of us can do alone; we are meant to and can only share His peace together. This is the new family we invite all who are unchurched into.