When the Biennial Convention planning committee decided on the theme, "Telling His Story: The Good News for All Generations," the idea of depicting Genesis-through-Revelation in the image for this year's Convention was important. God's Story does not begin and end with the cross. It continues today and we, as his Church, are part of his story. We do not live our lives as individuals alone. We live as part of a much larger body, God's family. In it, we live purposeful lives because God wants to use us, individually and as a family of churches.

How can an image communicate the broad span of God's Story? It includes teaching the good news to our children, sharing it with our neighbors and reaching the community through our churches and organizations. God uses all of us in so many different ways, so "Telling His Story" is a much larger concept than witnessing to our neighbors. The idea of a storybook was talked about by our planning committee - kind of like the one in the beginning of Disney films. This, however, would only relate to the practical story-telling aspect of the theme and would not communicate the deeper purpose.

The real inspiration for telling God's Story to those around us is that it is our privilege to be part of God's overall mission that began in the Old Testament and continues today. What an honor! God not only desires a personal relationship with each one of us but he also wants to use us to accomplish his mission! That is when the idea of a timeline with several images highlighting events along the way came to me.

Starting on the left we see "the tree" (the Fall). The timeline continues through the Ten Commandments (the law) and the cross (the gospel). Following the cross, we see a flame (the Holy Spirit) and then a man and a woman, who represent all of us today as God's Church. The timeline, as we all know, starts with creation and ends with the end times, which will be fleshed out later as we develop the image further.

We hope that this image will provide a simple visual image of how we all fit into God's Story. We ask you to think about how you and your congregation, along with the Church of the Lutheran Brethren, fit into his Story. Just think about that. God actually has a plan for us, and wants to use us in accomplishing his mission!

Tim Mathiesen serves as the Director of Communications and Prayer for the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.

By Tim Mathiesen

Tim Mathiesen serves as Director of Communications and Prayer for the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.