Family as Ministry

I introduced the Biblical concept of marriage as ministry a couple of weeks ago, so it makes sense to lift up family as ministry as well. In Genesis 12, God speaks to Abram about a blessing that is the foundation for the birth of the nation of Israel. This blessing is also connected to the family tree of Jesus mentioned in the first chapter of Matthew.

This is the context in which I want to deal with family as ministry. Could it be that if all God had to work with was the family that the Kingdom of God could be expanded? I believe so. Family is a blessing from God and can be a vehicle of the extension and expression of God’s love. If marriage is a ministry, the family is a ministry as well that builds upon the gift of a God-centered Covenant. 

The problem is that many people use family as a place to primarily get their individual needs met. This can cause family to be a place of envy, competitiveness, and abuse. Family is first and foremost about God. Family ought to be a picture on the earth of the community and culture of God’s Kingdom. This possibility is about experiencing family God’s way verses our way. Our families regardless of what they look like right now could be transformed into vehicles of love, forgiveness, grace, mercy, truth, and compassion. 

Think deeply this week about how God wants to use you in your family to express who God is. God may want to be a reconciler through you in your family today. Will you let God be this through you? God may want to express compassion in your family today through you. Will you allow God to be God in and through you?

Marriage as Ministry (Part Two)

Before there was a church, a choir, a pastor, or a prophet, there was the ministry of marriage. Even though marriage is a blessing and a gift from God, ultimately marriage is not primarily about us. Marriage is about God and the advancement of His Kingdom. Marriage is given as a Kingdom resource and blessing to be stewarded by us that God’s love might be made manifest. In this context marriage is an extension and expression of God’s love for us.

The problem is, many people go into marriage to get their individual needs met. Many feel that through marriage they will be loved and rescued from loneliness or a pain injected into them during childhood. We may not have realized it at the time, but we may have gone into marriage a broken person hoping marriage would mend all that. Before we go into God’s “beloved” vision of marriage, we need to become God’s beloved child first. Let me say that this is a word initially to those that are still single. If you are already married, it’s about trusting God to do both at the same time. That is, God can transform an individual into the beloved and a marriage into a beloved Covenant relationship at the same time.

Many times in the Bible, marriage is used as a metaphor to describe the relationship between between Jesus and the church. Jesus in every case is described as the groom and the church as the bride. If you’re looking for Biblical principles for your marriage consider Scriptures that deal with Jesus and the church and reflect on what that might mean for your marriage. Consider reading Ephesians chapter 5 and Philippians chapter 2 .

Marriage as Ministry (Part One)

Last weekend we had our first marriage retreat at the Sanctuary Covenant Church. Over 50 couples attended and we had a great time. As I prepared my talks for this weekend, I had some new thoughts from Scripture on marriage. As I read Scriptures on marriage and prayed for wisdom for the talks I was to give at the retreat, I couldn’t help but wonder why so many Christian marriages end in divorce. I’ve read a number of articles on Christians and marriage that state that over half of Christian marriages don’t last. What’s up with that? Maybe it’s because Christians and non-Christians alike share something in common when it comes to marriage; both groups think marriage is primarily about them. Herein lies the problem.

As I revisited Genesis chapters 2 and 3, I saw something within these Scriptures that led me to see marriage differently. Marriage is primarily about God and then it’s about us. To experience marriage God’s way, we must see marriage as an extension of God’s love and a expression in the earthly realm of what the kingdom of God is about. Marriage is a Covenant between one man and one woman that is to provide a picture to the world of the Covenant God desires with humankind. This Covenant between God and man was broken because of sin, but reestablished through Christ. Marriage is used as a metaphor throughout the New Testament in describing the relationship between Christ and the Church. This Covenant marriage is about the advancement of God’s Kingdom on earth. What if before the development of the church, Marriage was the first ministry God created, that thru it, the kingdom of God might be advanced? Puts a whole new take on, “be fruitful and multiply.” Read Genesis 1 thru 3 and see if God leads you to rethink marriage.

The Post-Black, Post-White Church

We are in an ever-increasing multi-ethnic and multicultural world. This is the reality around us, it’s the soil we are growing up in. Day by day, week by week, month by month, we are becoming more and more diverse. We are not only in an ever-increasing multicultural world, we are also in a more urban world. The world around us is more multi-ethnic, multicultural, urban, and technological.

In the midst of this reality, according to author and church planting leader Dave Olson, the American church is in crisis. According to his book, the American Church in Crisis, less than 20% of Americans are in church on any given Sunday. Could it be that there is a connection between the United States of America becoming more and more diverse and the church declining? I believe there is because in the midst of  growing diversity in the nation, the church for the most part remains segregated by race.

Christian sociologist Michael Emerson states that only 7% of the church in the United States is multiracial. This is based on the multiracial church being defined as one where the predominant group is no larger than 80%. In a diverse nation, the church remains a church in black and white. There is a need for more beloved children of God to join the reconciling movement of building, Post-Black, Post-White churches.

Igniting a Movement

I’m excited to have this opportunity to share my thoughts and theology on issues ranging from reconciliation and justice to spiritual growth and hip hop. I hope you keep coming back and I invite you to wrestle with me in how to ignite a Kingdom advancing movement in an ever-increasing multi-ethnic and multicultural world!