Is living “on mission” compatible with motherhood?
I spoke on the subject of “Missional Motherhood” in a workshop at the TGC women’s conference in Orlando. I made the case that our mission to obey Jesus’ “Great Commission” to make disciples everywhere (Matt. 28:18-20) doesn’t merely rise to the top of the list of our priorities, but it informs the way we think of everything, including motherhood.
As a mom I have a lot of responsibilities, priorities, and messages. One time at a church potluck my preschool-aged son was standing by the dessert table that was piled high with donuts. (Ok, this scene probably happens at all of our church potlucks.) A woman saw him eye-ing the donuts like he was a three-year-old standing next to a table of donuts. (You get the picture.) She asked him, “I don’t know if you can have that, little guy. What does your Mommy say?” With great flourish and conviction my son answered, “What my Mommy says? My Mommy… she says to me, ‘Judson! Flush. The. Toilet.’”
We have a lot of different things we tell our kids, don’t we? The things we communicate ebb and flow in urgency, frequency, and tone. But there is one message that we hold out to everyone around us as the most urgent, most relevant, and most important message.
Being a disciple-maker means that the gospel is that one main message. It’s what we are to be most zealous for. It’s what we labor to communicate clearly. It’s what compels us to dream big, creative dreams about how we might invite the world to worship together with us at the feet of Jesus for all eternity.
Making disciples according to Jesus’ Great Commission is the priority of missional motherhood and the gospel is the message.
The gospel is not nice advice from the Bible, is it life-giving news. It is something we herald. It’s an announcement.
The good news isn’t just for our kids, as though we were morally superior to them and have matured past having a need for the good news. Moms need to hear, believe, remember, and live in light of the good news, too. As we go about our days and nights as those who have been saved by the shed blood of Jesus we remind ourselves:
God is utterly holy and he cannot abide the presence of evil. This is bad news for sinners like us: “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap” (Mal. 3:2).
God is holy. Our only hope is that he would show us mercy. And this very thing he planned to do since before time began. Before we ever sinned, the Triune Godhead devised the plan of redemption: “Even as he chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1:4).
Malachi asked, “Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand in his presence when he appears?”
God’s gospel supplies the answer. The answer is Jesus Christ: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 1:24-25).
God is extending his mercy to us through the death and resurrection of his Son. Jesus died for sinners, and through faith in him we can stand in God’s presence justified. When we repent of our sin believing this gospel we have Christ to gain.
Since Christ is the end of righteousness for everyone who believes (Rom. 10:4), his person and work is the message we communicate to our kids and neighbors. How does that old hymn go?
“For my child’s pardon, this I see,
Nothing but the fact that my kid earned the Respectfulness Award in her class?
For my child’s cleansing, this my plea,
Nothing filthy like Cheetos has touched my son’s lips?”
Of course not! We hold out the gospel- which is the same good news that we believe for ourselves and live in the light of every day,
"For my pardon, this I see,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus."
Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! (Rev. 7:10)
Missional motherhood's one message
