During my first week here at Emmanuel as I slowly unpacked the boxes in my office, I was handed a stack of directories; lists of names, telephone numbers, addresses, birthdays, and emails. Some were older, with bits of information scribbled in the margins. Some were a good deal older, perhaps ten or fifteen years old with their outfits and hair styles still held firmly by hair spray in the mid-nineties.
But as I started on the job, it quickly became apparent that these directories were not going to be enough. I decided that what I needed if I were to truly understand this congregation was a genealogy. A double sided directory on eight by eleven was nice, but what I needed was a giant family tree printed out on one of those big architectural plotters. If I had this family tree with its branches sprawled out across my office walls, I would be able to begin to see and understand how everyone is connected and how this place works.
