Tomorrow Hannah and I will drive to Yakima to spend time with a very talented, creative and focused group of leaders who give themselves to mission shaped living and action among middle and high school students. While there we’ll teach a session on marriage and mission. As such here are a few questions that continually cause me to pause, reflect and act…
How do I foster a way of living where the following frame and guide me: God’s good creation at the beginning of the story; the personal, communal and systemic devastation caused by human rebellion and sin; and the reign and restorative mission of God that has come and is coming in Jesus?
How do these layers of the story inform and affect my life in community, including marriage?
How well do I pay attention, or not, to God’s continual use of the metaphor of marriage in Scripture, as an image of his relationship to a people (not just me) and his mission “on earth as it is in heaven?”
How am I cultivating the life and mission of the “little church” at home?
How am I responding to those ideologies that would make an idol of the home and family?
We’ll explore a bit of the essence of these questions, share practical expressions from our experience and do a bit of resourcing during our session. We’re also looking forward to hearing how others are approaching these issues, fleshing out a vibrant expression of mission at home and beyond, and experiencing, although brief, a collaborative moment with those we gather with.
(I’d love to hear any feedback to these questions, expression, etc. here as well.)
*And lastly, thank you to the wonderful musical act known as She & Him (Zooey Deschannel and Matt Ward) for the tunes and the title.
