Leah F's Local Church Involvement

This week on Prayer of Hannah we are discussing our “outside of the home” ministries, specifically focusing on our involvement in our local church.

Let me first say that if you are a wife and mother, your primary ministry responsibility is in your home. God has created you to be a helpmate to your spouse, and mother to your children. It is a job that you alone can do, and God has developed special gifts and abilities in your life for you to serve in your home. As a mother of small children, God has given me this time to train them and teach them and point them to Christ. It is my biggest ministry! For further development of this idea, please see this article (I linked to it before, but it fits so perfectly with this discussion I had to link it again).

However, as believers in Christ, we are also called to be a part of a church body, and to exercise our part in that body to the best of our ability. With small children, it is hard to be greatly involved in the daily life of your church without your home life suffering. However, there are still many ministries that are perfectly suited to wives and mothers, and it is our hope that by sharing what we do, you will find inspiration for ministry opportunities in your life and your church body.

Nathan and I are members of First Baptist Church, Durham, NC. It is my personal opinion that my pastor is the best expositional preacher around, but of course if I didn’t think that, we probably wouldn’t be attending there! We have been members for over five years now, and have had many different areas of service. I currently have three main areas of ministry opportunities in my church.

1--substitute teacher for the one year old Bible For Life class (our Sunday School equivalent)--I am the permanent sub for the one year old BFL class. That means if any one of the teachers is out of town or sick, I am the person they call first. There are three teachers in this classroom, and I spend about one third of my time Sunday mornings in the one year old class, and two thirds of my time in my adult BFL class. This responsibility requires no preparation--this class does not have regular lessons, so I do not have to review anything before working in the class. It is just an hour and a half of playing with kids, one of whom is my son, so it is a great job!

2--coordinator of the new baby meals for the church body. Several weeks ago we discussed ministry to new moms, and I talked about MealBaby.com and how I use it at my church. I have a list of ladies who are willing and available to make meals for families in need, and I simply pull together a MealBaby calendar and send the link out to my email list. This is something I am easily able to do from home in less than an hour. The glories of the internet and MealBaby.com allow me to work on it even if I am away from home traveling. Secretly, I am actually looking forward to planning my own MealBaby calendar in a few short weeks--there is no reason I cannot set it up and email it out once I know my schedule after Finnling #3 arrives.

3--hosting a small group (called Home Fellowships at FBCD) in our home once a week. This task is both the easiest and hardest one that I do. It is easy because the small group meets in my home, on my turf, under my terms and conditions. I can put my kids in their pajamas before people come over if I want, or I slip away to put them to bed if needed. I love opening my home to others and sharing our family life with people. However, that means that I need to keep my house clean and ready for company. That is not always easy to do! Quite frankly, I just don’t enjoy cleaning (never have), but I don’t like for people to see my house dirty either. Usually what happens is that once a week my downstairs living area gets a good cleaning or at least a surface pick up, and my upstairs bedrooms/bathrooms are neglected for weeks on end. I am not recommending that route, just sharing what happens around here! This third ministry is the area in which my children are most involved. By opening our home to church members each week, we are modeling hospitality, grace and unconditional love to our children. We are inviting our brothers and sisters in Christ to walk with us, to see us at our best and worst, and to become real family members to my kids. We are attempting to teach our children to love others, to display good manners, and to be gracious hosts (they need a lot of work in these areas--but don’t we all?).

There are a few other things that I occasionally do to serve my church body (such as taking the roll in my husband’s Bible for Life class and serving in extended session nursery), but the above three things are what I consider my ministry at FBCD. Note that one thing I DO NOT do is teach any kind of class. I am not opposed to doing that at some point, but this season in my life is not the right time for that. I have served as a children’s teacher before, but with two small children and another on the way, preparing a weekly lesson is not the best commitment for me.

Please take the time to share with us how you are involved in your local church, and how you balance your ministry at home and at church. We would love to hear from you!