Outsourcing "The Church"

DateLine (5/17/07 – Nanuet, NY)

Drop off the laundry as you rush to work. Pick up take-out as you dash home stopping only to pick up your preschooler from day care. Pick up the pet from the grooming service. Remember to tape the garbage service payment to the trash can lid as you push them to the curb for the weekly pickup. Schedule car service at the dealer. Remember to leave a key hidden under the pot on the back porch for the cleaning service. Call the lawn service that does the neighbor’s yard to see if they’ll do your lawn. We live in a service economy. Outsourcing is the name of the game. After all, we’ve got to shed as much responsibility as possible from our busy lives in order to have some down time to ourselves. We live in a service economy.

It’s Sunday morning and the kids pile into one or two cars to rush to church. Mom and Dad drop the little ones off in the Children’s Ministry area on their way to Adult Bible study. As they exit the Children’s area Mom stops to look at the coming weeks schedule for the kids: Mission Groups on Wednesday and VBS Festival in the park on Saturday. Anything wrong with this picture? I have a strong suspicion that Christian families did just find before the modern era of fully packed church calendars. As a matter of fact the anecdotal evidence is that for all of our efforts in the church we are having minimal impact on the culture.

Statistics tell us that the difference between church members and the culture is insignificant in those areas that we as Christians define as being key indicators of a Christian lifestyle. Why does it seem that church is ineffective in affecting the culture or even its own members? This is not an indictment of the institutional church. There has been a shift in behaviors but the responsibility cannot be placed with the church. The responsibility lies in the home. A significant danger to the American family is that our penchant for outsourcing has translated to the accountability of spiritual formation, especially of the children. The real question is; is there any church going on at home? The proper relationship between the institution church and families is one of partnership. A weakness in either side of the partnership compromises the mission.

Now I’m fully aware that the majority of the readership of this material has yet to have the opportunity to assume the role in the family that I’m describing but chances are your have observed the same dynamics that I’m observing. I’m amazed as I look back to the time when I was your age at how fast the full responsibilities of adulthood crashed into my life. Within three years of my graduation from high school I was married. Within seven years I had two children. Your opportunity to assume the role as high priest of the cathedral of the home will be in your lap before you can say “what do I do now.” It is not too early to begin to form a strategy for how you will handle your parental responsibility.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Prov. 2:6

Pray that you will not outsource one of the most important roles that you will ever have the privilege of assuming.