July 1973 · Vol. 2 No. 3 · p. 96
Book Review
The Spiritual Family and the Biological Family
Paul Lederach. Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1973. 32 pages.
“To strengthen each family and thus strengthen the church is to take the route of the world. . .If we are to work in a significant way with biological families, we must begin with the spiritual family. . . . (NT) teachings concerning family living always took the route through congregations to parents and children” (pp. 16-17). Lederach, director of Congregational Literature for the (Old) Mennonites, stresses the need for a realistic look at the nature of the spiritual family, and develops twelve guidelines which could then be translated for use by the biological family, so that “the very life of the congregation will have new and important impacts on the life of the biological families of “believers” (p. 28). As he points out, the basic question is not whether, when the Lord returns, he will find families, but whether he will find faith.