Here is another set of quotes from The Church-Friendly Family. These are all from the second half of the book where Pastor Rich Lusk discusses, Missional Parenting, What Is Marriage For?, and The Blessed Family. Pastor Lusk uses the word missional, which he knows is a buzz word. By using that word he just means that our kids to be raised to be sent out into the world. He says you can substitute the word "apostolic" from the phrase "one holy, catholic, and apostolic church," if you wish.
“The word for training [in Ephesians 6:4] in
Greek is paideia. It is an
all-encompassing term which essentially means our children are to be socialized
into the life and culture of the kingdom of God.” (p. 62)
“If God has blessed our families with
salvation, he wants us to be instruments of blessing others with salvation as
well.” (p. 63)
“We raise moral children as an end in itself,
but we do not reach the ultimate missional goal of raising children who can
reach the world with the blessing of the gospel. Parents and pastors alike
simply must get this: We should not aim
at familiocentric churches, but at ecclesiocentric families. Raising
children rightly is simply a stepping stone, it’s penultimate. The real goal is
to plug our children into the mission of the Church.” (p. 64)
“It is crucial to understand that in the Old
Testament righteousness and justice are not concepts or doctrines we are to
think about, but rather are things we do and practice in the world.” (p. 69-70. He is commenting on Genesis 18:19)
“There is a vital link between raising children
and the mission of the Church, and this means parenting must have a missional
flavor…You don’t raise godly children so you’ll have godly children. You raise
godly children so they can carry forth the mission that God entrusted to
Abraham in the beginning…Parental nurture feeds and supports kingdom mission.”
(p. 73)
“If all you do is seek to protect your
children, your parental endeavors are terribly incomplete. Parents are not
engaged in a rear guard, defensive action. Genesis 18:19 calls us to offensive,
missionally aggressive parenting.” (p. 74)
“Raising kingdom kids means a lot more than
just raising kids who are ‘good Christians’ and stay out of trouble. It means
more than teaching kids to pray and stay chaste. It means we as parents cannot
allow our kids to settle for a privatized righteousness. We cannot settle for
moral kids; we must raise missional kids, kids who learn to live with a sense
of being ‘sent’ into the world with a divine mandate. That means raising
children is a form of missionary training.” (p. 77)
“The issue [defense of marriage] will not be
won on the political battlefield, but in the bedrooms, kitchens, dining rooms,
and family rooms of our homes. The best defense of marriage we can offer is…well
our own marriages. But for our marriages
to defend marriage properly, they must be strong, healthy, beautiful and biblically
formed.” (p. 82)
“The happiest marriages are not those that aim
at marital happiness but that aim at the kingdom of God.” (p. 87)
“Marriage also teaches us humility by exposing
our own sin. Marriage does not simply change who we are; it reveals who we are.
Marriage is like a full length mirror for the heart.” (p. 92)
“This psalm [Psalm 128] shows us that the most
important ingredient in a blessed family life is the faithfulness and godliness
of the husband and father. If a man is not experiencing the blessing of God in
his family life, it is not his wife’s fault, nor is it the children’s fault. It
is the man’s fault.” (p. 101)
“What the world calls indoctrination and
brainwashing, Paul calls raising our children in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord.” (p. 109)
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