Building on the theme of the 2007 Caring Ministries Assembly, “Being Family: Reality and Renewal,” the theme for ABC’s 2008 Health Promotion Sunday is “Being Family: Growing in God’s Love.”

Exploration of the Theme
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We love because God first loved us. — 1 John 4:19 NRSV

I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. — Psalm 52:8 NRSV

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. — Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. — Colossians 3:12 The Message

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. — Colossians 3:14 NRSV

Being Family: Growing in God’s Love — calls us as individuals, as families, and as faith communities to do two things that can sometimes be difficult — to grow and to love. Both involve risk and require us to step outside our comfort zone. But the knowledge that we are chosen by God for a life of love strengthens and empowers us. We are not alone — we have God’s love and we are called to share that love with others.

Being family — whether it be our family of origin, the families we have created, or our family of faith — isn’t always easy, either. As family, bound together in love, we are called to seek ways to accompany each other as we face the realities of what it means to live as family in today’s world. Love is the foundation upon which to grow a healthy family that can meet life’s challenges with resiliency and hope. We are family, God’s family, growing together in God’s love.

As we observe this year’s Health Promotion Sunday, we invite individuals, families and congregations to explore how families and our faith communities can grow — clothed in God’s love — in harmony, compassion, kindness, humility, and quiet strength.

Let us love one another — extravagantly — because love is from God. 1 John 4: 7a NRSV, adapted

Health Promotion Sunday flyer/poster

Color (PDF)

Greyscale (PDF)

Resources for Individuals, Families, and Groups

Activities: Family Themed Films, Family Traditions and Activities, Rituals for Families

Meditations: Blessings and adoptions, Seeds, God's Love, Traditions, How Does Your Garden Grow?

Resources for Congregations

Bulletin Inserts: Being Family (color), Being Family (black and white), Call to Worship, Call to Worship and Responsive Reading, God's Love Adopts Us (Call to worship), Unison Benediction

Calls to worship: by Annalisa Gross, by Jan Glass King, by Todd Reish

Children's Stories: A Big Family, How Does Your Garden Grow?, A Member of Many Families, Seeds, Being Family

Skit: Put on a New Self

Litany: Litany of Generations

Worship Services: by Frank Ramirez, by Terrilynn Griffith

Congregational Activity: Banner Making