Last week I shared with you Challenges for Individual Christians from the Great Commissions Resurgence Report. In the conclusion of their report, the Task Force stated, “…we bring a series of challenges that will reach every Southern Baptist church and church member, along with every level of Southern Baptist work and every entity of the Convention. We recognize that the challenge of working toward a Great Commission resurgence will require the commitment of a generation, not merely of the messengers to an annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.” This conclusion ends with the greatest challenge of all. “A world of lostness awaits. What are we waiting for?”
This week, we continue our look at the GCR report with Challenges for Individual Families. Again, I would ask you to read these and prayerfully consider how they might apply as a challenge to your family.
Challenges for Individual Families
14. Emphasize biblical gender roles with believing fathers taking the lead in modeling Great Commission Christianity and taking the primary responsibility for the spiritual welfare of their families.
15. Recognize that parents have the primary responsibility of educating their children and helping them to cultivate a Christian worldview way of thinking and living.
16. Build gospel saturated homes that see children as a gift from God and our initial mission field. Consider, in this context, the vital ministries of adoption and orphan care.
17. Make prayer for and the evangelism and discipleship of children a family priority that begins with parents and is assisted by local churches.
18. Develop strategies as a family for praying for, serving, and sharing the gospel with neighbors, coworkers, and others with whom family members come into regular contact.
19. Adopt a different unreached people group each month and pray as a family 1) for IMB missionaries working with the people group, 2) for the conversion, baptism and discipling of countless individuals within the people group, and 3) for the establishment of biblical churches among the people group.
20. Adopt a different North American church plant each month and pray as a family 1) for the church’s leadership team, 2) for the conversion, baptism and discipling of countless individuals in the church’s region, and 3) for the birthing of future church plants from the church.
21. Spend a family vacation participating in a local church or association sponsored mission trip.
22. Consider setting up a mission’s savings account for each of your children that would enable them to spend six months to a year in a North America or International Missions context soon after graduating from high school.
