Once upon a time, there was a family—a mom, dad and three precious children, who lived in a beautiful house in the suburbs of North Dallas. Life was fairly normal for this family of five. Each day, the family would wake up, make lunches, prepare for work, school, calendar upcoming events for the day, and weekly repeated this cycle of life. It was a picture of living the “American Dream”, some would say. Many times, family members would thank God for all the many blessings the Lord had given them, like the opportunity to live together, share life with one another, and have so many privileges given to them from God.
One day during dinner, the father shared a passage from the Bible in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 with his family.
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
The family had read this passage many times, yet for some reason, God impressed upon their hearts and appealed to each one of them this idea of being brought back to Christ as a representative for Him in this world. How were they to respond? What was the Lord asking them to do?
With excitement and anticipation, the family began to pray and ask the Lord to show them what it meant to be a representative for Christ, which led the family on a journey to Kenya, Africa together. The experience of showing and sharing the Gospel in this area of the world challenged each one of them to step out of their comfort zone and invited both parents and each child into a new understanding of how to represent Jesus. This experience truly transformed their lives.
You see, family missions is legit! This family’s everyday life was turned upside down as Christ called them out of their comfort zone into a life of caring for others in a brand new, exciting way. The typical day of this family was now met with a new purpose, understanding, and calling from the Lord—a calling to be reconciled to Christ.
Your family’s calling does not have to be around the world to Kenya. Your calling could be to serve the family in need in your community, or the single mom wanting support. Opportunities abound to share Christ’s love. Allow this testimony to challenge you as a family to represent Christ—where you live, how you act, and how you respond to life. Who knows? God could be extending the same invitation from the Lord to YOU to be a representative to the nations for Christ.
Your family is the training ground. Not many families naturally lean into the idea of living missionally, but we have a new resource to help. The same people who created our What’s for Dinner Challenge in the fall have helped us create a Missional Living adventure calendar for families. Throughout April and May, your family can go on an adventure close to home, training yourselves to look outside for opportunities you might not have seen before.
How to get involved:
- Download the Calendar
- Register your family to participate at: https://scc.onl/e42028
- Follow along daily and keep track of your points (some changes may be required for current quarantine requirements).
- At the end of May, respond to the survey (which will be sent via e-mail to every family who registered) with your final point total. The families with the top five highest point totals will receive an Adventure Awaits Summer Goodies prize pack!
We are so excited to share this adventure with you!
