“Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” – Psalm 127:1 NKJV
Family life is central to the missio Dei because worship, glory, and authority are preeminent to God’s sovereign plan of redemption. Missio Dei is a Latin term which means the mission of God and, according to Stetzer (2006), recognizes that God is a sending God who has sent His Church on mission into the culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ (p. 28). The missio Dei is not the ultimate purpose of the Church though. Worship is (Piper, 2003, p. 17). Ascribing to God the worship, praise, and adoration due His name is what Piper (2003) emphasizes as the fuel and goal of missions thrusting the Church forward in its doxological purpose (p. 17). In light of this, it is a biblical reality that God designed families to be missional and developing this globally minded perspective is a goal that every church and Christian home should share (Stinson, 2011, p. 252). As the primary training grounds for the next generation of Christian worshippers, our homes are in the middle of a cosmic war zone that is devastating many families who are unprepared for the conflict. An increasingly secularized culture is wreaking havoc upon God’s biblical design of the nuclear family and is in competition with the spiritual priorities of cultivating family relationships and intentionally living a missional lifestyle in the public arena. Attrition of young people from the faith is an alarming trend that churches are finally waking up to as family ministry is a burgeoning movement. This initiative is defined by Dr. Timothy Paul Jones of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as the process of intentionally and persistently coordinating a congregation’s proclamation and practices so that parents are acknowledged, trained, and held accountable as primary disciple-makers in their children’s lives (Stinson, 2011, p. 15). Having said that, an innovative model of family ministry is not the answer to transforming homes, churches, and culture as only the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to change the world one heart at a time beginning right where we live (Stinson, 2011, p. 28).
“American religion has never existed in practice the way it is supposed to exist in theory” (Wolfe, 2003, p. 2). Dr. Alan Wolfe of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College issued this indictment in his comprehensive analysis of religious practice called The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith. Wolfe’s poignant observation culled from extensive research was a stunning wake-up call for Robert Wolgemuth because despite his dismay, he affirmed the accurate probability of this statement (Wolgemuth, 2016, p. xx). Explaining Wolfe’s contention, Wolgemuth (2016) says that religious belief and right theology often has little or no impact on personal behavior including God’s intent for family life (p. xx). In response to this sad state of affairs, Wolgemuth (2016) felt compelled to write his own book on biblical family life with the hope that Dr. Wolfe would be forced to reconsider his premise as a result of a movement of God’s Spirit demonstrated in the revitalization of Christian homes far and wide (p. xx).
The Christian home is indeed the most important place on earth. Defining what it is and deliberately building one is the highest of callings and an act of worship to the praise of God’s glory. Biblical family life is therefore central to the missio Dei and the doxological passion of God to magnify His sovereign majesty by the redemption of depraved sinners through the Person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Deut 6:4-9; Ps 78:1-8; Eph 6:4). At the heart of family is the nucleus of the marriage covenant between a man and a woman whose fruitful union multiplies the home into a missional training center designed to impact the world for Christ (Ps 127:1-5; Mal 2:14-15; Mat 19:4-5). As component parts of another divinely ordained institution, Christian families are central to the health and vitality of the local church which is the pillar and ground of doctrinal truth in the community (Rom 12:4-5; Eph 3:10; 1 Tim 3:15). Being established as such in this dispensation of grace, the church is central to human flourishing as it is the moral back pressure of salt and light in every township, municipality, and urban population center (Rom 13:11-14; Eph 5:15-17; Col 4:2-6). The local church is therefore central to the missional engagement of culture with the exclusive truth claims of Christ, the gospel of God’s grace, and the comprehensive nature of a Christian worldview rooted in Holy Scripture (2 Cor 5:18-6:2; Eph 4:11-16; 2 Tim 3:16-4:5). The biblical basis of the centrality of the family to the missio Dei is rooted in the undeniable nature of marriage to the nuclear family, the essential position of family to the local church, the necessity of the church to a stable society, and the strategic role of the church to missionally engage culture with the gospel for the glory of Almighty God.
References
Piper, J. (2003) Let the nations be glad! the supremacy of God in missions. Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic.
Stetzer, E. (2006) Planting missional churches. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Stinson, R. & Jones, T. P., eds. (2016) Trained in the fear of God: family ministry in theological,
historical, and practical perspective. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.
Wolfe, A. (2003) The transformation of American religion: how we actually live our faith. New
York, NY: Free Press.
Wolgemuth, R. (2016) The most important place on earth: what a Christian home looks like and
how to build one. Nashville, TN: Word Publishing Group.
