Family in Mission: Theology and Praxis

Dr Reimer is asking an overarching question: when it comes to the current scholarly discussion regarding mission and evangelism, why is it that our families are not included whatsoever? Considering my experience as a pastor and theologian in Latin America and all the biblical and theological insights Dr Reimer presents here, it is puzzling and somewhat shameful that we haven’t given the attention this crucial issue deserves. The Christian family is God’s trinitarian gift, his intelligent design for the salvation of the world, and the most natural place for mission. Thus, Dr Reimer is right – family and mission belong together. What does a missional family look like in theory and practice? I highly encourage you to read and savour this book to find out the answers.

Rubens Muzio, PhD

Missionary, SEPAL, One Challenge International

Professor, Faculdade Teológica Sul Americana (FTSA), Londrina, Brasil

Professor Reimer is to be congratulated for offering a superb account of the holistic calling of the family to be the most important channel of experiencing the reality of God’s kingdom within and outside the church; to share the good news with those closest to the faithful by being the light to all in the house (Matt 5:15). Thoughtful, scriptural, and thought provoking, this accessible book is brimming with theological and practical insights. It is a breath of fresh air in mission literature by looking at the family as the indispensable missional unit of the church and advocating for its place of primacy in the evangelistic outreach activities of the whole people of God.

Parush R. Parushev, PhD

Rector, St Trivelius Theological Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria

Associate Director for Academic Development, Langham Partnership Scholars’ Programme

Dr Johannes Reimer’s book Family in Mission: Theology and Praxis is a long overdue work on the important subject of family. It is a must-read for every Christian and especially those in leadership of churches and mission organizations who have shifted the emphasis of faith and praxis to the individual. Dr Reimer has provided both a strong biblical foundation and an impressive narrative of possible missional applications of the theme. I deeply appreciate the inclusion of study and reflection questions at the end of the chapters. My hope and prayer is that this book would cause a radical shift to consider family as the basic and essential unit of faith and practice.

CB Samuel

Theological Advisor,

Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Commission of Relief (EFICOR)

Johannes Reimer’s book Family in Mission: Theology and Praxis is an incredibly important piece containing the author’s thoughts and deep insights about relations between God’s mission, church and family. Dr Reimer has a gift of incorporating contemporary issues and problems of the global church with relevant answers in the Holy Scriptures, understanding missio Dei and emphasizing the role of local churches. The author lands high notions of missional church to missional families and their daily praxis. I recommend this book for every Christian to understand the depth of God’s mission, and also for every preacher and church teacher.

Vladimir Ubeivolc, PhD

President, Beginning of Life NGO

Senior Pastor, Life to the World Church, Chisinau, Moldova

Family in Mission

Theology and Praxis

Johannes Reimer

© 2020 Johannes Reimer

Published 2020 by Langham Global Library

An imprint of Langham Publishing

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Langham Publishing and its imprints are a ministry of Langham Partnership

Langham Partnership

PO Box 296, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA3 9WZ, UK

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Published in partnership with Micah Global

Micah Global

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Contents

Cover

Preface

Abbreviations

1 A Surprising Discovery

In What Context Do People Come to Faith?

In What Context Do People Lose Their Faith?

Responsible Evangelism

Missing the Family in Mission Theory

What We Learn from Church History

Rediscovering Family for Mission

Family – the Future of the Church?

Questions for Reflection

2 Family and Mission: Laying a Biblical Foundation

God, Family and Mission

The Family Created by God – the Mission of the Father

The Family Renewed by Christ the Saviour

The Holy Spirit and His Worldwide Mission

The Trinity Is the Author of the Family’s Mission

Questions for Reflection

3 Families in Mission

The Family and Mission: How Do They Relate to Each Other?

The Family as a Living Testimony

Mission Lives by Trust

Mission Takes Place within Relationships

The Family Is the Foundation of Christian Mission

Missional Families – Theory and Practice

Questions for Reflection

4 Family and Church

A Missional Church Is Focused on the Family

Focusing on People’s Salvation

Missional Churches and Their Evangelistic Approach

The Family on the Mission of Christ’s Church

A Church of Families

Questions for Reflection

5 Growing Family-Centred Churches

Church, Evangelism and Family

The Culture of Relationships

Structures Are Important

The Family Is Mission’s Core Concern

The Family – Mission Agent Number One

Growing Faith

How Your Church Can Become a Family-Centred Evangelistic Church

Family Academies Would Make a Real Change

Questions for Reflection

6 Becoming a Missional Family

Beginning a Process

Never Losing Sight of the Ultimate Goal

Family in a Growing Progression

Markers along the Journey

Theology: The Biblical Criteria of a Missional Character

Creating a General Framework

It Is All about Our Hearts

The Immune System of a Missional Family

The Character and Culture of a Missional Family

Questions for Reflection

7 Family Mission in Practice (1)

As God, Even So Family

Mission Needs Our Testimony

Mission Needs Our Servanthood

The Family Proclaiming the Gospel

The Family and Discipleship

The Family and Church Growth

Questions for Reflection

8 Family Mission in Practice (2)

Missional Character Put into Action

Missional Programmes Respond to Needs

The Needs of Families Today

From Analyzing to Strategic Concepts

Connecting with Our Neighbours: Missional Families Are Active in Their Communities

Connecting Them with People from Our Church

Connecting Them with Our Church Ministries

From Sharing Our Lives to Having Profound Conversations

From Good Conversations to a Decision for Christ

From Conversion to Becoming a Missional Family

Questions for Reflection

9 Families in World Mission: A Unique Challenge

Being Called into Mission Abroad

Being Well Prepared Is the Key

We Need to Discover Our New Home

The Family as an Outreach Base

Epilogue The Family Is the Path of the Church

Bibliography

About Micah Global

About Langham Partnership

Endnotes

Index

Preface

I owe this book to my Indian friend and teacher CB Samuel, who spoke on Family and Mission at the International Christian Community Development Conference (ICDC) that took place in May 2014 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. His lecture on the intrinsic meaning of family in mission, his passion and his biblical insight touched me deeply. Yet nothing he said was really new to me: for years I had observed people finding faith mostly in, through and by their families. However, I was moved by Samuel’s words and started to search my memory for books I knew on family and mission. I couldn’t think of a single one. When I asked the speaker, after his lecture, which titles he could recommend, he told me the same – there are none. My subsequent research brought nothing helpful to light. It seems that hardly anyone takes notice of this topic and correlation. However, if we are to take seriously the statistics and figures which show how people get to know Christ, we need to put the main focus in mission on families.

George W. Peters, a missiologist in the USA, is one of the very few experts on mission who refers to this topic. Having observed and studied the correlation of mission and family he concluded that the evangelization of whole families is the primary biblical and cultural approach to mission.[1] Peters made this statement in 1970, more than four decades ago. What has happened since? Mission in families has not really been invigorated. On the contrary, collectivist societies today demand that mission’s focus be on evangelizing all sorts of other groups – social clusters and ethnic groups.[2] Although you can find a wide range of literature on church planting and strategic mission, and even though the individualistic Western world has claimed back the private home as a target group, as yet, little has happened. Not even the Lausanne Consultation of Pattaya, Thailand, which demanded that evangelism focus more on non-traditional families, has brought real change.[3]

When I found this out, I was drawn to do more research on this correlation. I hope that my conclusions will help our churches to open their eyes to see families as agents and instruments of effective mission and to start family ministry wherever possible. In order to prioritize family ministry, the church has to stop thinking in traditional ghetto paradigms to take the social reality seriously.

I dedicate this book to all families who pursue their relatives, intercede for them and do everything they can to reach them for the gospel. May the Lord our God bless them richly. I also pray for families who dare to leave their comfort zones and reach out to other, less-privileged families. I seek to encourage you and I offer practical ideas on how to do that.

This book would not have been written without the support of precious people by my side. First, my good friend Wilhelm Faix carefully read the draft and made helpful comments to refine its content. Nina Krämer translated the book from German into English. My beloved wife, Cornelia, listened carefully as I discussed the book’s progress with her, making objective comments while we went on countless walks in the splendid Lee Valley Park near London. The Ewersbach University of Applied Arts, Germany, facilitated our research project by scheduling a whole research semester. All Nations Christian College, UK, was of great support, enabling us to stay at their wonderful college site in Easneye, Ware, and giving us access to its great library. Again and again they ordered books I needed. And lastly, I must highlight all the colleagues, missionaries and evangelists I contacted who gave me precious counsel, including information I was able to find out only through them. Thank you so much!

Johannes Reimer

Bergneustadt, Germany

Spring 2020

Abbreviations

1

A Surprising Discovery

In What Context Do People Come to Faith?

The gospel is good news for all the world. Unlike any other philosophy, ideology and religion, the gospel meets all the needs of all people in all cultures and all contexts. Therefore Christians, the church of Christ, are called to take the entire Gospel to all the world.[1] Yet how do they do that effectively? Where, how and by whom do people come to believe in Jesus Christ? Which methods of evangelism and mission are best to achieve this goal?

Most would say it is done above all by great ministries and famous evangelists. And yes, we should be very thankful for every person who was led to Christ by those anointed servants of God. Far be it from me to minimize the significance of national and international evangelism ministries in any way. Thank God we have them! But even though our libraries are full of the biographies of these great men and women, we need to recognize that it is not through them that most people come to know Jesus Christ.

Perhaps it is through pastors and their local churches, at least those with special gifting in evangelism, those who have a certain evangelistic DNA? Surely they are supposed to lead most people to Jesus? There are masses of books, manuals and seminars on church and evangelism. Yet, while such gifted churches are really important, it is not through them that most people come to faith either.

Worldwide, we see that it is rather through relatives and family members that most people come to believe in and follow Christ. However, hardly any research has been done on this. The few examples that exist only underline the conclusion just stated.

According to the research of C. B. Samuel, a church founder and mission leader in India, nine out of ten Indian converts come to follow Jesus through their families or their friends’ families.[2] Such figures are confirmed by Jakob Zweininger, who studied Muslim converts in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia,[3] as well as by Heinrich Klassen, who researched conversions in the former Soviet Union.[4] The Anglican Archbishop of Kenya, David Gitari, described a great spiritual awakening among the people of Gabra in Northern Kenya due to mission focused on local communities and families.[5] The same was said by Arnell Motz and Donald Posterski to be true for Canada. They evaluated empiric surveys demonstrating that only 8 percent of people came to believe in Christ through church events, while 67 percent of the people interviewed stated that their faith stemmed from personal relationships with family and friends.[6] The situation is similar in Germany: it is predominantly family members and close relatives who tell seekers first about the saving gospel. Elmer L. Towns, a missiologist and leading specialist on church growth in the USA, claims that all the statistics on evangelism leave no doubt that most new converts find Jesus through the testimony of family members or close friends.[7]

To the surprise of some, Catholic Church dignitaries and theologians express an opinion on this too. Pope John Paul II, who was a passionate advocate of a new evangelization of Europe, stated that family is the first target of evangelism.[8] Other dignitaries speak of the family being the nucleus of faith and the home of gnosis – the very place to get to know God.[9] Curial Cardinal Emeritus Walter Kasper of Germany even declared the family to be inherent to faith.[10] That’s very explicit: family and evangelism appear largely to depend on each other. This correlation can thus be found in all kinds of testimonies by people with very different cultural, national and spiritual backgrounds.

The question that arises then is how exactly do people get to know God within their families? Let’s take Sebastian as a typical example. He was the first in his family to get to know Jesus. In an interview he told me, "From day one I kept praying for my family. Whenever possible I shared my faith with them. But it wasn’t easy. My parents had been raised as communists. There was no place for God in their Weltanschauung. Yet they must have observed my life, and being touched they stopped resisting. So one day, they went to church with me. Right after the service both decided to come back again. Today my parents are true and loyal followers of Jesus." Sebastian’s parents then began to pray for their close relatives. More of their family members were converted. These converts in turn started to pray for their families and shared their faith. Now, several years later, Sebastian’s church is full of his family. His witnessing has borne fruit. That’s how the gospel spreads.

We find many such stories in churches that are active in outreach to non-believers. It is even more apparent in countries and societies with strong family bonds. Bryan Green is right in saying that evangelism finds its best agent in a Christian home.[11] And John E. Apeh, a specialist on mission among the Igala tribes in central Nigeria, says it is the family structure which sets the context for evangelism. To reach the tribe with the gospel means to understand the social dynamics within the target families.[12]

Thus, examples everywhere show that families are important agents – if not the most important – for evangelism and mission in our world. Those searching for right strategies and better methods of evangelizing should engage with the institution of the family.

In What Context Do People Lose Their Faith?

We have pondered how faith grows in society, but let’s ask the same question the other way round: In what context are people most likely to lose their faith? The fact is that hundreds of thousands of Christians in the so-called Christian (Western) world have left their churches over the past decades. Many among them have turned their backs on the Christian faith altogether. Why is faith disappearing in the West?

Eddie Gibbs, British missiologist who has studied nominal Christianity in the Western world, says that the lack of efficient small groups in churches is the main factor in nominal Christianity. He states that it is within a cell group, within a family, that Christians find positive and stable spiritual role models. Wherever there is no such stable structure, church mechanisms for preserving faith will fail.[13] According to Gibbs, we find nominal belief already among the Jews in the Old Testament whenever the people of Israel failed to pass on their faith to the next generation.[14] The same trend can also be found in the New Testament.

Unfortunately, Eddie Gibbs doesn’t refer explicitly to the topic of family in his book, yet in Scripture, as we will see, it is first and foremost the family that is responsible for the religious instruction of the next generation. We could therefore complete Gibbs’s argument by stating that when families are incapable of living out their faith in God positively at home, the result will be a lack of faith in the next generation.

Alarming proof of this argument is found in the USA where many young people are leaving their churches. The spiritual example set by their parents seems to be too poor for them to follow. Reggie McNeal, expert on mission and leadership, says that studies in 2003 already showed that 90 percent of church youth were leaving the church after finishing school.[15] I suppose figures in Germany would not be very different.

It therefore seems obvious that family plays a key role in mission, having a special responsibility for preserving and passing on faith. We will probe into this in the following chapters.

Responsible Evangelism

Simply put, evangelism means to pass on the good news of Jesus Christ, who brought us life eternal – and even life in abundance (John 1:12). Christians are people who have heard the good news and experienced this life. That’s why they go to church: they go to worship God together and celebrate this life and his presence in their midst. They share experiences and prayer, which enable and lead them to carry the good news into all the world, to all people and all nations, in word and deed. That is God’s will – it is what Jesus, our risen Lord, commanded us to do (Matt 28:19–20). We are salt and light for the world (Matt 5:13–15). When people see our works they will praise God in heaven. Hence, evangelism is a universal, holistic process.[16]

Such a process can hardly be tackled responsibly when done only casually. It is of little value to start random outreaches simply motivated by realizing, It’s been a long time since we did any evangelism. Why don’t we . . . ? If we are to deal with the most important concern of our God (his core request), the church has to come back to responsible evangelism, as Christopher Walker rightfully demands[17] – that is, evangelism carried out with a responsible attitude and in sensitive action. According to Walker, such evangelism requires (1) a biblical approach; (2) adequate teaching of God’s character, intention and manifestation in Jesus Christ, the world’s redeemer; (3) interdependence of the individual person and the collective, as intended in God’s divine salvation plan; and (4) proclaiming a life abundant in faith, hope and love.[18]

These parameters set by Walker help us find the place and role family should have in the church’s evangelism, which we will explore in this book. We will seek to understand God’s intention for families and how he planned them to be life-giving, both literally and when it comes to his Great Commission. We will find answers to questions like: How does Jesus view family? What role did he intend the family to play when sending us out to make disciples? We will focus on the correlation between individuals as children of God and their collectives, especially whole families or the kinships these individuals belong to, and are affected by, in every aspect of their lives. All this will bring us to the ultimate question: Is it only by chance that we hear that families are effective in evangelism, or is this a mandate that has been given by God? And if the latter, how should the church be structured to fulfil God’s intentions? How does a church that focuses on families accomplish outreach? These are some of the questions we will probe in the following chapters.

Missing the Family in Mission Theory

Although, as we have seen, most people come to know Christ through the testimony of close relatives, and findings around the world show that the family is essential in mission and evangelism, the startling reality is that teaching on mission and evangelistic communication hardly ever refers to the institution of the family.

In specialized literature and academic discussion, the silence regarding the role of family in mission is deafening. Even South African missiologist and brilliant theologian David J. Bosch remains silent on the significance of the family in mission, though offering sophisticated definitions of mission and appropriate communication of Christ’s gospel.[19] The family does occur as a topic in publications on the mission of early Christianity,[20] but academic discussion on the role of the family in proclaiming the gospel is missing in modern missiology.[21] It is only on rare occasions that we find someone like Anneke Stasson talking about the missiology of the Christian home.[22] While Stasson claims this is an important category in Protestant mission theory,[23] there are hardly any Protestant publications about it. The fact that such reflection on family in mission is missing among Christians who think that their understanding of mission is closest to God’s intentions for his creation order, and in denominations that see mission as notae ecclesiae (marks of a true church) – like the Baptist church with its battle cry, Every Baptist is a missionary[24] – is even more bewildering.[25]

We come across a similar lack of reflection when it comes to scholarly publishing on evangelism.[26] The family seems to be a dispensable factor in evangelistic strategies and masterplans on how to reach people for Christ.[27] It is simply missing in theological literature on evangelism[28] as well as in practical handbooks.[29] Dozens of evangelistic methods are described, but not one mentions family in mission.[30] If mentioned at all, the family is defined as a target group for evangelism and mission.[31]

In the festschrift in honour of the acknowledged German evangelist Gerhard Bergmann, the authors creatively pondered the best possible methods of evangelism. They covered everything, such as media, arts, science, even PR – but they didn’t mention the family once.[32] More recent publishing on evangelism has also kept silent on the topic. German theologian Martin Werth laments that the family has failed to pass on the faith even though it played such an important role in the past,[33] yet he offers neither theory on, nor possible solutions for, this problem. The role of family in mission is not even an issue for experts who – like the evangelist John Finney[34] – have understood that in the twenty-first century evangelism needs to happen in communities and include people groups.[35] The same holds true for John Wimber’s well-received book on power evangelism.[36] And to complete this picture, the family is not featured in publications on church growth or church development either. Hence, there’s an urgent need to rediscover the family as God’s prime agent of mission.

But why do experts on mission and evangelism avoid this issue? Why is there so little reflection and academic discussion about it? Why can’t we acknowledge the role God has given to family in his divine plan? Is it because we take family in mission for granted? But if so, why is there very little practical instruction material? Why would we invest enormous amounts of money in different sectors of evangelism ministries, yet overlook the obvious? Let’s find answers to these questions.

What We Learn from Church History

Dana Robert, a historian on mission, claims that the Christian family was the linchpin – the cornerstone of mission work – in the history of Anglo-American theory and practice of mission.[37] According to Robert, Protestant ministries put the emphasis on the moral example missionary families would set for the people around them, who could observe Christian values and would thus be drawn towards Christianity. In 1836, the General Secretary of the American Board of Mission (ABM), Rufus Anderson, told his missionaries that non-Christians ought to have the opportunity to witness the life of a Christian family.[38] Having discovered the potential of the family as mission agents, Protestant missions preferred to send out couples into the mission fields. Yet how were these couples prepared for their role as whole-family missionaries? Usually they weren’t, which often led to frustration, especially among women missionaries.[39]

Yet positive examples can be found. Anneke Stasson has written about the missionary couple Walter and Ingrid Trobisch in Africa.[40] This couple believed there was a God-given power within and through marriage. Ingrid Trobisch referred to God creating us as men and women to reflect his image in the world together.[41] The couple were convinced that God intended marriage not only to create families but also to promote spirituality, thus with a higher purpose than simply pursuing biological fruitfulness. They saw their marriage as a blessing for others,[42] the best way to proclaim the gospel.[43]

It was this example of a successful missionary couple which led Stasson to conclude that Protestant mission that focused on Christian homes had enormous potential in mission.[44] According to Stasson, the Trobisches were a typical example in Protestant history. She even sees the Christian home as inherent in Protestant missiology. Wives and marriage itself used to be essential to mission. Evangelism was perceived as a holistic process that used family life to exemplify values and good lifestyles, which became central aspects of preaching the gospel.[45] Other church historians share this interpretation. Dana Robert observes that it was the typical strategy of the wives of missionaries to turn their everyday lives into teaching lessons.[46]

How difficult it was to live out this ideal in practice can be seen in Mary C. Cloutier’s reports on the strains a missionary’s family were exposed to in childbirth and raising children.[47] Childbirth in primitive conditions like those in Equatorial Africa often proved fatal for both mother and child and the mortality rate was high among the indigenous people. Missionary families were therefore tempted to send pregnant women back home to deliver their children, which would simply confirm their privileged position and consequently harm their testimony.

In this context, William Carey (1761–1834), founder of family mission, shaped a great vision and lived out his ideas in practice.[48] Carey and his family experienced the difficulties typical to adapting to a foreign culture and these drove them to the brink of despair, ruining the mental health of his wife Dorothy. Carey found no way to support his family financially, nor were they able to proclaim the gospel together as a family. To solve this, he founded a collective community where missionaries could share their lives, running everything together. Within this missionary family Carey hoped to secure spiritual, social and financial support for both the missionaries and their families. He felt that this provided an alternative kind of community life and had enormous potential in sharing the gospel.[49] And he could rightly claim that his idea worked. Both the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) to which he belonged and his own heavily afflicted family received real benefit from the collective community.[50] Carey’s family mission would later inspire Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889–1929), a well-known evangelist in India, in his attempts to build community-relevant churches,[51] the so-called Ashrams.[52]

Rediscovering Family for Mission

As we have seen, people often come to faith in Jesus Christ through their family members. They know their testimonies and their stories; they are even part of those stories, part of their shared family history. They need not change their culture or adopt a new language. They see and observe Christian lives right in front of their eyes as they share life together. In this way, the family is a strong testimony.

This was also true for past generations. The importance of the family for evangelism is a