Families in Mission
How do parents spend time with their children? Riding in the car to school, soccer matches, or McDonald’s drive-through? Maybe they talk over their shoulders when dinner is cooking or “chat” online via Facebook. It seems most calendars are often filled with “to do’s” and “be there’s” and many families are failing to spend what most consider quality time with one another, especially time that is spiritually fulfilling.
At King Moravian Church, King, North Carolina, we try to provide opportunities for families to connect, to talk, to share. If you look around our church on any given Sunday, you may see families ushering together, serving in the nurseries together, or even singing in the choir together. But it has been the experience of serving together in mission that has not only strengthened our personal relationships, but also strengthened our faith.
This fall will mark King Moravian Church’s third annual Share the Blessing Mission Blitz. For one extended weekend each October our congregation has gone out into our local communities to paint houses, repair roofs, replace windows, upgrade bathrooms, and clean up yards for individuals and families with limited resources. From the beginning we have encouraged families to seek this service opportunity together, recognizing that we all have different gifts to share.
We usually begin weeks in advance by planning an intergenerational event. On one occasion we planned a special breakfast event and asked that children and youth partner with parents and other older adults to paint doormats for our Mission Blitz home sites. Some groups shared special Scripture verses then painted scenes depicting the verse on a doormat, while others painted handprints or Christian symbols. Families soon started the discussions of why we serve, who we serve, and how we serve. Even our youngest children were enthusiastic about their gifts of a simple painted doormat.
Our older youth are included on our work teams during the Share the Blessing weekend. Youth are able to serve side-by-side with parents, grandparents, siblings, and others in our church family hammering nails, pulling weeds, and swiping a paint brush. They observed, they asked questions, and they formed relationships with the people they were serving. And many times our youth were the first to step out of the “comfort zone” to get dirty, to sweat, to go the extra mile to better the living conditions for a stranger.
The youngest kids are involved in missions as well. On the workdays, they ate breakfast with the work teams; and while mom, dad, or older siblings went to the worksites, they were involved in special activities at the church. Last year the kids painted clay pots and planted donated flowers. The adult leaders and kids gathered on the church bus and visited each work site, hand-delivering a flower pot to the homeowners with a smile and friendly conversation. The children witnessed the work teams in action, met the families, and offered their gifts.
And I know the family conversations did not end on the last workday. Families continued to talk about their service together in the weeks and months that followed. By providing everyone an opportunity to serve together, we fostered deeper relationships between parent and child, between the familiar and the unknown, and between ourselves and God. Families in missions together can build so much more than houses.
