Monday, April 18, 2011

Fearless Families

I'm not sure what I enjoy more - worshipping with my family or being in worship that is led by my daughter. Cornerstone is blessed to have friends like H2O @ OSU (and H2O @ U.C.) who help enlarge our perspective on faith and what God is doing in our world outside of our busy lives. I received multiple notes in hours after worship thanking me for having H2O come lead us and even more thanks for demonstrating there are places for our children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, to pursue faith in a college setting, even as large as Ohio State.

We closed out our FEARLESS study yesterday looking at Fearless Families. I hope I spoke clearly that while my oldest daughter is actively pursuing her faith and making some wise choices that our family is not without it's challenges and fears. With caution I use my own life and my family as illustrations because I don't want anyone to think we've got it all together. We don't. The dilemma is, I know my life and my family better than yours! The things I shared on Sunday about leaving a Godly legacy are dear to my heart and life.

When I met with a team of people here at Cornerstone 8 years ago, both of us seeing if me coming as the Lead Pastor was a good idea, one of the questions we got around to was schedule and expectations. I said something like this: "If my own children don't become Christ followers and Cornerstone leads thousands to Christ, I've fought the wrong battle." There's a balance between ministry and family - family and ministry - that everyone has to wrestle with. My children have seen me needing to leave family for a ministry need as well as say no, not right now, in order to prioritize family needs.

One of the most painful things I watch is families who choose sports over Jesus. I'm thinking of dozens of families whom I see regularly out in the community who have become sporadic participants in a community of faith because they have chosen sports as a priority over faith and ministry. There are many other things knocking on the door of our lives, trying to frighten us about missing or missing out on something. But as I said on Sunday: "It doesn't matter what degree my children receive, what accolades are theirs, what career they have or office they hold if they don't have a personal relationship with Jesus."

Fearless families are focused on the long-term rather than the short-term. I hope you're deciding to live fearlessly for God.

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