Parents, children, and letting them go

With the scriptures. So in short we raise our children to have a deep concern for missions. In the same We raise them to have a deep concern for the lack of missions. For those places where the gospel has not yet been heard. We can do this of course by explaining them. Teaching them the value of the great commission.

Raise children with a deep concern for the lack of missions.

We love you so much. And you have such a place here in our church and in our lives that we just can't bear to lose you. So, it's not that they're saying you can't go because you're disqualified. They're saying you shouldn't go because we'll miss you so much, or because you have a place here. And so, this person is, I'd say, naturally wondering, is the Lord really calling me, or could this be the kind of negative feedback that's telling me maybe this is the Lord's way of communicating that I shouldn't go. And so it struck me through this individual that we all believe in sending people to the mission field until it comes to the people that we love the most.

The quiet discouragement of qualified goers: “we'll miss you.”

My principle is not that our children would necessarily become part of the church's missionary heritage, but that they would be willing to, and before the Lord, willing to. Willingness counts for an awful lot. God calls all of us to some sort of mission, of course, but he doesn't call all of us to full-time missions or to overseas missions. He needs people to serve him here as well as there. He needs people to earn so they can be funding. He needs people to send so others can be sent.

The goal: children willing to go, should God call.

What of the 95% of us in this room? I used to be a goer. I'm a sender now. I'm a faithful member at my church in Clairemont Emmanuel, San Diego. faithful member at that church, elder. What of those who stay behind? Well, there are scars for those as well, and I so appreciated Tim Challies when he was talking this morning or at the breakout session about parents. There's this passage in Matthew 4.21. It says this, and going on from there, Jesus saw two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.

Brooks Buser on Zebedee's scars.

Your number one and number two issues within missions that are taking missionaries off the field are usually teams, teammates and teammate relations, and children. How to raise your children overseas so when they hit their teenage years, then your ministry doesn't face some huge hiccup and you have to come home. How to raise your kids in a particular way so that they want to be on board with this task, they're not adding luggage to the task, so to speak.

Teams and children: the top reasons missionaries leave the field.

Sadly, parents are often the greatest deterrent to their children leaving and making risks in missions. We sing the hymn, give of thy sons to bear the message glorious. Give of thy to speed them on their way, as long as it's not my own child.

Parents are often the greatest deterrent.

And they said, "Your father always wanted to be a missionary, but it never worked out." Do you know that Paton Senior was a sock manufacturer for his whole life? And yet, they said, "We determined that we would lay our first child on the altar, our first son on the altar, and dedicate him to missions, And now this is coming to fruition.

Paton's parents laid their firstborn on the altar.