Being a Missional Young Family

Working at DSC that is full of young familes and having 2 (soon to be 3) kids under the age of 4 of my own, made this post good and convicting to read.

Being a young family with jobs, and kids to juggle does not mean we can hold off spreading the gospel until the kids are out of the house. The truth is if we do that, other things will become priority and we will never come back to that missional lifestyle.

Redeemer Lubbock is a great Acts 29 church in Lubbock and is wrestling with some of the same issues, here is an excerpt:
However, I must admit that there seems something that is a bit off with our cadence. That is whether or not we are really caring about the lost that are around us here in Lubbock. Without a question, we are witnessing pockets of people who are determined to be the salt and light that Jesus asks of us to be. This is most evident in some of the care being given to various international students. As well as ministry that is happening by people engaging their neighbors. Yet nearly across the board when I look at these bright spots of people living missonaly it is being done disproportionately by college students and singles. Our families, which are one of the fastest growing segments of our church, are really struggling when it comes to missional living.

I have recently read some discouraging things about young families. In “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, he lists professionals with kids under the age of ten at home as the segment that are under the highest levels of stress and the group that struggles most to get things done. Second in Patrick Lai’s book “Tentmaking” he states that families with young children make some of the least effective missionaries. These two books are saying that a huge segment of our church is likely to be more stressed and less effective than any other demographic. This is where the lazy complacent side of me says lets just hold on and be happy with our success’. I refuse to accept this. I refuse to accept that when Christ commanded us to make disciples Matthew 28:17 and to be his witness in Acts 1:8 that it was actually a qualified statement depending on stage of life. Is it harder for the young families? No question, for a ton of different reasons, it is really difficult. However, young families are quickly becoming the core of this church and patterns we set now will shape who Redeemer is 20 years from now.

Now, a person without kids, or even someone who has grown kids and doesn’t remember the craziness of having little ones around might read this article with a resounding “Amen!” and think it’s about time, but a mom or dad that just put the kids to bed and is just sitting down for a minute of quite, will read this and their heart will sink. When, in the day is there time to add more stuff? My plea is not that you add more, but that you be more intentional with your time. I ask that you don’t give up sharing the gospel. Our culture will say that our kids are our ministry. Consider ministering to your kids by showing them your love for Christ by sharing Him with those that do not know him. Some simple ways to do this would be to talk to other parents at the park, invite a non-believing neighbor to a playgroup, make a playdate with some neighbors, eat dinner with a colleague and their family. Use the things you do everyday as tools to share and include people into your families life and share Christ’s love with them. Let’s not just tell our kids to share the gospel, but by God’s grace, let us live it out before them.

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