NO PERFECT FAMILIES EXSIST / night one from ORANGE 09

Night one from the Orange conference was incredible for our entire team. On facebook some folks are asking me what this orange thing is, for that go to http://www.theorangeconference.org and check out where I am at. Thursday and Friday are going to be 2 incredible days BUT wanted to recap a few things said by Reggie Joiner tonight. This is random but here were some thoughts about how we can REACTIVATE the FAMILY in our ministries...

• Many of our churches lead people to CONFORM to a picture of what we think the family should look like instead of HELPING each unique family step into the story God wants to paint in and through their family.
• Most of the ideas we have about what the family should be are just impossible to achieve. Our goals for the family are not God's goals for the family. We are just spending our parenting lives comparing our family to other families and never measuring up.
• There is NO IDEAL FAMILY (the family you think is ideal is just as broken as your family!)
• Very hard to find the model family in the Bible. (Abraham, Noah, Jacob, David...all had families who had real problems) God knows when we invite Him to join us in our parenting effort He is stepping into a broken mess. He is more OK with that than we are.
• At church many of the PICTURES we present of what family should be just make REAL FAMILIES run from God and the church.
• God is not interested making our families PERFECT he is all about bringing RESTORATION and revealing His plan through our imperfect families.
• At church we have to help families drop their IDEAL FAMILY ideas and embrace the unique story God is writing with their family. Messy is OK. We have to help families find the next step.
• Parents cannot wait to be the PERFECT mom or dad to be a faith mentor to their kids. If parents wait for that moment it will never come.
• When parents are honest about who they are with their kids and they pursue God in their imperfection kids will find a God worth following.
• Family ministry happens when the church and parents combine influence and work together to help kids embrace and follow Christ with their life!

More from ORANGE on Thursday...