I am reading through Timothy Paul Jones’ book Family Ministry: a field guide and this quote really jumped out at me.
The king of family ministry I’m envisioning is a movement towards equipping Christian households to function as outposts of God’s mission in the world.
See, you like it too don’t you. The idea that the church should be equipping saints to go out into the world is one that many people have been espousing for many years (probably right after they formed the first protestant church a pastor said, “my job isn’t to do the ministry, but to equip you to do ministry”). But to turn that concept into a strategy for ministering to children and youth and helping them grow in the context of a family sounds amazing. In fact it sounds like something we should have been doing all along.
Think about it. It our churches can embrace this idea instead of having one place where ministry happens (or originates from) you would have dozens, hundreds even. Families are where people are. Families are already in their communities. Families are already relevant. Families are already connected. If we as the church can equip those family units to be outposts of God’s mission just think about the impact God could make through us.
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