The Church Fathers

About a month ago I got an email from my sister.  She was doing some geneological research on my father's side of the family.  She had a name, but was looking for the connection in other ways, so it got me looking up some material on the web - doing my own detective work.  I'm a third generation German American.  My grandfather was born in America, but almost all of his family, especially his parents were all born in Germany.

It's fascinating to imagine my ancestors living in Germany in the 19th century, making a decision to pack up the family, boarding a vessel (in Hamburg, Germany) right after the Civil War in the states, and making the long journey across the Atlantic, only to arrive at Ellis Island and then trek across the land from New York to Wisconsin where they set up their family on abundant farming land.  The price they paid for this desire to have a better life here is something I'm grateful for, and have no idea of what it took to do.

Paul said to the Corinthians...
1 Corinthians 4:15 (ESV)
¹⁵  For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 

Fathers...my father was second generation, born on Feb. 28, 1913 - yes, had he been alive (he died in 1992) he would have turned 100 years old last week.
Fathers...we all have them, regardless of whether we liked them or not.
Father's are some of the most significant people in the course of our lives, and we need them.
Earthly fathers are automatically important, but so are Spiritual fathers.  Spiritual fathers are those men who come alongside of the younger generation to nurture, instruct, demonstrate and model the spiritual maturity of a follower of Jesus Christ.

The early church had Spiritual fathers...beginning with the Apostles whom Jesus left to begin the church.  As the Apostles died off, one by one, those who they had nurtured and discipled took over their leadership role.
Most of the Apostles were martyred - the Apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos, but we don't know if he was martyred or died a natural death.

As those who were second generation began to lead the church was in a fragile condition.  Rome had begun a series of persecutions - all meant to stop the growth of the church and force the believers in it to return to the Roman gods.  Not only that, but increasingly the Jews among the early church were also disappearing.  The second generation was more effective in the Gentile world, and more and more the Synagogues were closed off to the Christians.
Yet they thrived.
They wrote - The Didache, 1 Clement, The Martydom of Polycarp, the Shepherd of Hermas...and many more.  They demonstrate that the heart of their conviction was that Jesus Christ was alive in them, and the fact that martyrdom was still ongoing was a badge of honor, not a crisis to avoid.

I could go on and on...this is the Spiritual fathers of my own genealogy of Christ's family.
We need our fathers...those who have walked the walked  and show us that faithfulness to Christ over decades of time is possible...and rewarding!

Peace