Connecting Church and Home

It has taken me a few days to post after returning from the Connecting Church and Home Conference because being away for a couple of days typically means everything is crazy when you return. This time has been no different. I think we are getting back ahead now and I wanted to reflect (publicly) on the event.
I found among the people involved in this event the heart of real ministry. Among all of the streams of thought, even within the family ministry movement, I am convinced that these are the most sincere, passionate, evangelistic people I have ever had the blessing of being around. Some of them are regular suspects and old friends, but being around them again only confirmed what God is doing. On top of that, I met a lot of new people who have a similar heart for families, discipleship, and the gospel. Though I thought the best session of the weekend was presented by my good friend Dr. Randy Stinson, one guy I was most impressed with was Dr. Brain Haynes from Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, TX. His humble heart and passionate conviction for the faithful ministry of the church was overwhelming. Brain spoke in a very pastoral manner about what we are getting ourselves into when we commit ourselves to transition to a family equipping ministry model. I got 5 main things that we are getting ourselves into from what he said:
1. Getting into God's story
2. Getting into picking fruit from the vine of His planting
3. Getting into the possibility of an extremely biblical church
4. Getting into partnership as the biblical church community
5. Getting into generational impact - this one was great! He talked about producing a generation in the church that is thinking through the Bible (biblical worldview) and about cultural redesign in terms of the church leading our culture back from the brink by running back to God as Israel did. The main idea is that generational faithfulness is a precious gift that we both give and receive.
Brain's ministry model is built on the idea of a path of Legacy Milestones. These are 7 milestones in the life of young believers that parents and the church can use to mark and promote their spiritual journey toward maturity. He sees this as the church building a bridge from the Shema in Deuteronomy 6 to the Great Commandment in Matthew 22 to the Great Commission in Matthew 28. You can find out more by going to www.legacymilestones.com.
Another great aspect of the weekend was that I was able to have a young guy travel with me who is studying to be a youth minister. He has served in an interim capacity in a couple of churches, but had never really been exposed to anything like this before. It was good for me because he helped me see everything with fresh eyes. A lot of it was review for me, but I knew that God was working in people to help them see His heart for the family and the church when my friend's response to the first day of the conference was, "this is life changing!"
He was blown away by the biblical insight, by the humble ministry, and by the passionate conviction of the people he met and the presentations that were made. We were able to have dozens of extended conversations with conference participants as they stopped by the Legacy table to talk about transitioning to a family ministry model and I was encouraged by what God is doing in the lives of so many leaders, families and churches. We can only hope that God would use this movement to bring about that cultural redesign.