I recall hearing author of The Shack, William p. Young ,talk about how he grew up in a family AND mission family – his parents were full-time missionaries in Africa I believe.
As a result, he spent a lot of time in the care of strangers, which resulted in sexual abuse and infidelity in his adult life that nearly ended his marriage.
That was a powerful reminder to me and my wife to be very careful as we start having children — to not let our zeal for serving God lead to the neglect of our future kids.
1. "Is there a problem that really uniquely bothers you?"
I love that this line of questioning is in the workshop, Jeremy. When I think of mission, and particularly the two-fold Gen 1 and Matt 28 mission, I naturally find myself assuming that the mission is only offensive, about gaining ground etc. But my multigenerational family recently completed a mission that was about resisting darkness, holding ground, and standing for an infant's worth and dignity in the imago Dei. Now that was one particular assignment season.
But in reflecting on it, I've seen the power of God actually forming a team from a family simply because we lived in the same household. And particularly how striking it was that we all had different roles and "positions" to play to accomplish the mission most effectively. It turned out that the mothers were on the front lines at one stage of the mission given the needs of children while the fathers offered grounding in truth. And then the fathers had more of a front line role at a later stage of the mission when needs changed. So it was fascinating even to see how we all needed to rotate at various times to address the team's needs and the matters under our care.
I recall hearing author of The Shack, William p. Young ,talk about how he grew up in a family AND mission family – his parents were full-time missionaries in Africa I believe.
As a result, he spent a lot of time in the care of strangers, which resulted in sexual abuse and infidelity in his adult life that nearly ended his marriage.
That was a powerful reminder to me and my wife to be very careful as we start having children — to not let our zeal for serving God lead to the neglect of our future kids.
1. "Is there a problem that really uniquely bothers you?"
I love that this line of questioning is in the workshop, Jeremy. When I think of mission, and particularly the two-fold Gen 1 and Matt 28 mission, I naturally find myself assuming that the mission is only offensive, about gaining ground etc. But my multigenerational family recently completed a mission that was about resisting darkness, holding ground, and standing for an infant's worth and dignity in the imago Dei. Now that was one particular assignment season.
But in reflecting on it, I've seen the power of God actually forming a team from a family simply because we lived in the same household. And particularly how striking it was that we all had different roles and "positions" to play to accomplish the mission most effectively. It turned out that the mothers were on the front lines at one stage of the mission given the needs of children while the fathers offered grounding in truth. And then the fathers had more of a front line role at a later stage of the mission when needs changed. So it was fascinating even to see how we all needed to rotate at various times to address the team's needs and the matters under our care.