DOING MINISTRY AS A FAMILY
Sunday morning i spoke at cciph and talked about using family as a model for effective ministry. here are a few of the quotes:

I believe that using family as our model will be the most effective means of doing the work of the church. Being family is the best way of taking care of the needy. Being family is the best way to make disciples. Being family is the best way to build community. And being family is the best way to build permanently.


How often do we share meals together? How often did they share meals together in Jerusalem? What can we learn from this?

I believe that family is the standard by which we measure our generosity. When we are family, we don’t give for the tax deduction, we don’t stop to measure and count, we simply give.

If we commit to being family, we will need to know fewer people far deeper, and spend much more time living with them. Elevate a few people—maybe up to 12—to family level, and pour yourself into them. You will be more effective as a disciple maker, and you will avoid your own burnout, when you take a few people deep.

I’m talking about something far more radical that small group ministry here. If we see people only in a group study meeting, we will cover a studied topic for that hour that we log together every week. Sometimes that study hits a home run. But even if it does, we only have one at bat per week. Know what I’m saying?

In contrast, Jesus was with his disciples all day, every day, for three years. They watched what made Jesus angry, when He got up to pray, what He did for entertainment, how He treated irritating people and answered difficult questions, how He took time for children, what He ate and when He chose not to eat. They saw his work ethic, his compassion, how he responded when he was exhausted, how he treated those caught and trapped in sin, and how he talked to the religiously empowered. They saw him on the mountaintop and they saw him in the garden. They also heard the Sermon on the Mount, probably many times in various forms. They knew what was important to Jesus, and they absorbed his character.

Think of the implication of this truth: the Gospels are mostly filled with the actions of Jesus, not with his sermons. What does that say to us about the best way to make disciples of the nations?

It might not feel like as much ministry is taking place, because you are pouring yourself out for only twelve people or fewer. Compared to that ministry that reaches hundreds of people who are touched for an hour once a week, a family-kind of ministry seems small and ineffective, doesn’t it? But I guess Jesus was more than a little effective when he concentrated on a few men, rather than the masses, don’t you think?

Think in your own life about who has been the biggest influence on you. We often say that more is caught than taught in life. The same is true in the faith. We catch the most important lessons in those teachable moments, which are seldom the ones in which someone has a prepared lesson. In my mentor's life, I can't remember one lesson that he taught, but I could tell you everything he did.

No gift was more honored in the early church than that of hospitality. Our culture has created nursing homes, hospitals, orphanages, hotels and restaurants, which make hospitality an industry. Strangers make a living doing things that used to be done voluntarily for free.

Is hospitality difficult? Yes. A hospital (which is related to the word “hospitality”) has sick people who are in a “taking” mode, and those who help them must sacrifice on behalf of the needy. Is it dangerous? Yes, there is risk. Is it tempting to quit? Yes, otherwise Peter would not have had to remind us to “practice hospitality without grumbling.” But is hospitality worth the difficulty, the risk and the temptations? Definitely.

Almost every program that has been devised could be done better in the home. If one home out of every ten would adopt a fatherless child, there would be no more orphans. If every Christian family would minister radically to just one other family each year, then in a decade the entire world would be turned upside down!


If our relationships are built on commitments like, “I am committed as long as their doctrine is correct on every point,” or “I submit as long as I am comfortable with the direction of the church,” then I would say that we are not truly submitting, and we are not really committed. Family is family, and we stay and we work it out.

May the church today remember and return to a radical commitment to being family. Through being a family, we will experience the benefits of generosity, the effectiveness of discipleship, the belonging of community and the safety of permanency. Family. I like that word, don’t you?