Monday, September 8, 2008

online meanderings: missional motherhood

If you've ever wondered how motherhood and ministry fit together, have a look at this wonderful series by Nicole about missional motherhood. It's an oldy (last year is old in the bloggy world!), but a goody.

Should we focus on ministry inside or outside the home? Nicole asks the question:

When it comes to the question of how to be a disciple of Jesus and a mother of young children, something I've been noticing lately is the tendency to go in one of two directions with this.

1. The first is to (rightly) say that our families are our closest human relationships and our highest ministry responsibilities, and therefore to focus completely on that task, and in the process shelter our children away from the world and not think too much about sharing the gospel and our lives with others, or teaching our children to do the same.

2. The second is to (rightly) say that Jesus left his disciples with a commission to make disciples of all nations, and that the gospel has a momentum toward the end of the earth, and therefore to place a low value on anything (like raising children) that isn't "out there" in the world, doing mission among the unchurched (or - failing that - pursuing a ministry career among the churched!).

In the limited time that I have been a mum, I would say that I have been at both extremes at various points in time!

What I'm trying to think through is how I, as a mother, can have the right priorities of putting my husband and children as number one on my list of ministry responsibilities, while at the same time, making the most of the mission opportunities open to us as mothers.
She goes on to show how the 2 fit together, with lots of stories of real mothers and their ministry. Here they are:

missional motherhood month
the story of Agnes
ideas for missional motherhood
scripture teaching

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