From the desk of Pastor Craig:

Heritage or History?

My mother would have been eighty-eight years old this year.  My father used to say, “She was born on Independence Day and, boy, is she independent.”

She was.  And, she wasn’t.  She was the daughter of a Danish immigrant father and a first-generation, Danish-American mother.  Almost by definition as a young immigrant at the turn of the 20^th century, her father was a risk-taker who left home, family, and friends to try life in the United States of America.  Her mother, raising a family during the Great Depression, was anything but a risk-taker.  She taught her children to save everything and waste nothing.

And, as every mother’s child, I carry her traits.  As a regular attendee of family reunions and a student of family systems theory [Google it - you’ll be fascinated], I know the history of my family on both sides. 

I know my history – the facts about what and where and when things happened.  But heritage is different from history.  History is what happened in the past; heritage is what is passed on into the present and future… something transmitted from the past into the next generation.

History, unless you’re willing to play fast and loose with writing it, isn’t open to choice.  What happened, happened.  Heritage, on the other hand, is full of decisions.  We get to decide how we are going to live out the traits, traditions, and talents handed on to us.  My mother was a risk-taker… who was very careful and conservative.  As my mother’s child, I see myself as intellectually curious, willing to explore non-traditional ways of thinking and believing… but cautious about wholesale experimentation or deserting traditions.

I am my mother’s child – a cautious risk-taker.  Yes, it’s a contradiction.  It’s also true of many, many of us.  It is our history.  But, it is time to choose our heritage – what part of our history will we live out in our lives.  And, it’s time to create our legacy – that part of our own history we will bequeath to those who come after us. 

I am not a brave man.  Nor do I embrace risk for the excitement of experimenting or simply experiencing something new.  But, as a student of history, I am aware of the choices that even cautious and careful people make when the time comes to decide.

And, I think it’s time.  Now, in our 30^th year as Peace Lutheran Church, it’s time to decide our legacy.  It’s time to risk, to grow, to start a family, to have children.  For several years as Charles County has grown, the ELCA (at my request) has been looking at the need and feasibility of starting a new mission – either a new congregation or a second campus of Peace – near La Plata.  It feels risky both financially and programmatically.  It also feels right.  For us who have experienced the grace of God and love of friends at Peace, we know what a gift a healthy and vibrant congregation can be both to those who are part of it and those who benefit from its presence and programs in the community.  That is both our history (the facts) and our heritage (our choice to live out).  Now, I think it’s time to give what we have been living.

In concrete terms, I believe it is time for us to grow as a congregation: to double in size over the next five years.  There are certainly people living in and moving into our neighborhood who need to hear and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  In some ways, I’m reluctant.  I’m afraid of losing what we have, of the risks we’ll take.  But I know in whose hands our history, our heritage, and our future lie – Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Love,