Our kids put us into relationships with other adults. How can we use those relationships as an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus?

Full Episode Transcription:

Mark 1:16-19 recounts the story of Jesus’ calling a group of fishermen to be his apprentices:

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay, he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with hired men and followed him.

We have a particular way of reading this text as people in the West, and it’s shaped by how we think about fishing. When we tend to think of fishing, we think of a person out on a shore or on a boat, by themselves with a rod, silently poised and ready to hook a solitary fish with the right bait, and reel them in.

This has shaped how we think of evangelism. We can learn to prepare for evangelism by thinking of the right message or presentation, and we go out to try and win over another person and reel them into life with God. Our understanding of evangelism has been shaped our understanding of fishing.

This is not what Jesus’ disciples would have thought. Mark takes care to note that Jesus’ first disciples are involved in the primary tasks of fishing in that time, casting and preparing nets. It’s been said that the fishermen of that time wouldn’t have spent most of their time actively fishing, but instead spent most of their time working preparing and mending their nets. How does it look if fishing with nets is the biblical metaphor for understanding evangelism? Those fishermen cast nets, and those nets dredged up everything that fell within them. Well prepared nets were the key to success.

When we think about being fishers of people, we need to start realizing that one of the most effective ways we can do that is by building a strong network of relationships with followers of Jesus and with people who aren’t following Jesus yet, and our kids are excellent at putting us into contact with other families with whom we can build a network of relationships.

Whether you send your kids to public school, private school, daycare, homeschool them, or keep them home, your kids put you into contact with other families. We get invited to birthday parties, to PTA meetings, to homeschool co-ops, parenting groups, and athletics leagues. Have you ever considered those networks of relationships fertile ground for missional living?

Maybe you’ve already said yes to some of those commitments; maybe you haven’t. But say yes to some of those things, and as you’re going, consider the opportunity you have to build relationships with other families through the life and activity of your children! What if the people you meet at PTA are people you can get to know and share the story of Christ with? What if the other dads who are coaching Little League with you need someone who will answer their genuine questions about faith? What if you connected with other parents at birthday parties and became a part of each others’ lives, and in the process encountering your life, encountered the Living God?

I’m not asking you to have all the answers to everyone’s deep theological questions, but I do want you to consider how these events and groups become a pivotal part of building a net by which you can be fishers of people, just like Jesus called his first disciples to.

The McDaniels family tells us about the items in the Family Talk Box, and explain how you can use those items to have conversations about God with your family.

How do you help your kids develop an identity of being sent into the world by God? Luke Stehr provides ideas to help your kids recognize the role they can play as people sent by God.

Hi and welcome to the Family Talk Pod! My name is Luke Stehr, and I’m Community Engagement Coordinator at First Baptist Arlington, but I am also, and probably more importantly, a dad to two very fun little girls ages five and two. I am by no means an expert in parenting, but I love Jesus and I love my daughters, and my wife and are trying to raise them to follow the Jesus way, and chances are, if you’re listening to this, you’re also trying to raise kids in your family to follow the Jesus way too.

Have you ever thought of your family as a central piece of God’s activity in the world? Have you ever thought about your family as being ordained by God to be his ambassadors in the world, and then what does that mean for your kids?

We know that in the New Testament entire families and households came to faith in Jesus, and that would’ve included the children of families. They all became part of God’s family, and part of a greater story of blessing the world. When God called Abram, he promised Abram that he would be blessed, but that also through Abram (who became Abraham) and his family, all the families of the earth would be blessed. In Galatians 3:29, the Apostle Paul informs us that those who belong to Jesus are a part of Abraham’s family. Through this big family, all the families of the world will be blessed!

What does it look like for your family to be a part of this bigger family, taking a part in blessing all the families of the world?

Theologian Ruth Padilla DeBorst tells the story of a Baptist church in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It’s their commissioning day, and the young children were getting ready to start the new school year. The ministry leaders of the church laid their hands on them, and commissioned them “to learning, to growing, being good friends, and following Jesus at home, school, and neighborhood we commission you.”

As we’re raising kids, we need to turn our attention to raising them to be the kind of people who take a part in being a presence of Christ wherever they are. Our kids are perhaps more inclined to be missionally minded than even we are.

As families, let’s talk with our kids about the good gift of learning, and how it enables us to serve the Kingdom of God. How learning to read better enables us to read and know God’s word. How the skills we learn in science and math and social studies build into something bigger that will become skills we can use to help and serve people. How even when they’re hard or frustrating that God can use the things we learn to make life better for other people. How everything we do can be done for God’s glory.

Let’s talk with our kids about how we should be good friends who love our friends well because God loves us and calls us God’s friends. How being a good friend shows our friends how good God is.

Let’s talk about how we follow Jesus at school, in our homes, and our neighborhoods. Talk with your kids about how you’re trying to follow Jesus at work, at home, and among your friends.

Let’s commission our kids to do these things, especially as we’re at the start of another school year. And as we talk with our kids about these things, let’s strive to do them ourselves! Let’s model following the Jesus way for our children!

Remember to utilize the Family Talk Box! The cards inside provide excellent questions and resources to help you have conversations about following the Jesus way with your children.

The Kearns family has a conversation about growing together as an entire family, and their rhythms of conversation around Scripture.

The Leman family share with us how they incorporate worship and Scripture into their life as a a family.

Show Transcription:

Hi and welcome to the Family Talk Pod! My name is Luke Stehr, and I’m Community Engagement Coordinator at First Baptist Arlington, but I am also, and probably more importantly, a dad to two very fun little girls ages five and two. I am by no means an expert in parenting, but I love Jesus and I love my daughters, and my wife and are trying to raise them to follow the Jesus way, and chances are, if you’re listening to this, you’re also trying to raise kids in your family to follow the Jesus way too.

If your household is like mine, then you know that one of the things that is key to what feels like successful parenting is maintaining routine. We essentially teach all of what we’re trying to get through to our kids through routine. Whether you’re trying to teach your child how to sleep through the night, use a toilet, tie their shoes, or more complex behaviors, we do it through repetitive, habitual routines.

This is no less true when we think about raising our kids in the Jesus way (coincidentally, habits are also how adults deepen their discipleship to Jesus too).

Today, I’d like to talk with you about creating a habit of blessing in your house so that you can reinforce the message to your kids that God loves them and that you love them.

In my house, one of the ways we do that is through a bedtime blessing, and I’m going to be upfront and just acknowledge that I stole this from a guy named Justin Whitmerl Earley, who has written some amazing stuff on Habits of the Household.

Bedtime is a chaotic process in our house, despite our best efforts. We have two high-energy, creative, and very silly little girls. After we’ve done the bath, brushed teeth and hair, put on pajamas, gotten drinks of water, and read a book, we get our girls into their beds. Typically at this point, my wife and I are tired. We’re ready to move onto finishing up our evening chores, we’re worn out from work and taking care of our kids. It’s easy for frustration to run high.

Once we’ve managed to wrestle them into their beds, I take a minute with each one of my daughters, and we do our best to follow this format of a blessing.

“Can you see my eyes?”
“Yes”
“Can you see that I can see your eyes?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know that whatever good things you do, I’ll always love you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know that whatever bad things you do, I’ll always love you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know who else loves you like that?”
“God does.”
“Go to sleep thinking about that love.”

Sometimes this goes smoothly. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes my girls are into it. Sometimes they’re not. Sometimes they try to cut me off, and sometimes they try to cover their heads with their covers. Sometimes they hold my face and stare deeply into my eyes. Sometimes they don’t follow the script. Regardless, I do it anyway. I love them even when they’re not in the mood to play along, and I want them to know that God’s love for them is unconditional, and my love for them should be unconditional too. So we do it even when it’s not perfect or when we’re not in the mood.

And that’s all ok!

The point of this blessing isn’t to execute a perfect performance. It’s to speak about the unconditional love of God with our kids on a regular basis.

It’s my hope that this message will become a core piece of my daughters’ identity, and that they will know that they are people who are deeply seen, who are fully loved regardless of what they do, and that God loves them. By doing this every night, I hope it shapes their soul like waves on the beach smooth out rocks into polished stones. It’s a process that takes repetition and time.

It’s also a good reminder for me, when I am frustrated with two little bodies who are overtired and antsy, that I love them no matter what they do. This shapes my soul and relationship with them as much as it shapes theirs.

I’d like to invite you to think about creating a rhythm of blessing your kids in your home! Feel free to copy ours. I copied it from someone else.

I also want to encourage you to utilize your Family Talk Box. As you go about the week, look for opportunities to have conversations as a family and use the tools on the cards within your box. Let us know how it’s going in your family!