Missional Motherhood (eBook)

Introduction

What Is This Book About?

You are not “just” a mom.

My mission in writing this book is to show how motherhood is part of the mission of God, thereby banishing, once and for all, the insipid notion that mothering is insignificant. There’s no such thing as “just a mom,” because there is no mere “just” in the calling of motherhood. That is a wicked lie that is set on fire by hell. You have never met “just” a mother—or “just” a woman, for that matter. I also want to make the case for “every woman mothering” ministry. Every woman is created to nurture (mother) the life that God himself creates. And that is why Satan hates women who mother others.

I realize that talk of banishing things and hell and Satan sounds melodramatic in a preface, but I hope you’ll see before the end of chapter 1 all the evidence against the modern scorn and trivialization of motherhood. If you think it sounds like I’m picking a side in a Mommy War, you are right. Ever since the Serpent hissed the first flaming lie into the first woman’s ears, we’ve been at war, struggling against the evil powers and principalities that once held us in sin. There are forces at work in this world that are hell-bent on banishing life, especially life that is created in the image of God. But now the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people (Titus 2:11). Satan tries to banish life, but God calls us to nurture life. This book shows that motherhood is mission, in light of Jesus’s work in creation, redemption, and his triumph over his enemies.

I want you to know that I’m not against the whimsical aspect of motherhood—not in the least. I’ve stared at my babies’ eyelashes in wonder and wished I could bottle up the sounds, smells, and feelings of certain mommy moments in my memory forever. I know the thrill of hope when a lightbulb turns on in a child or a woman I’m discipling. I lie awake in bed at night, giddy as I dream up things to talk about with my neighbor who is interested in Christianity. The other day my youngest son told his first “knock knock” joke, and you would think that the Red Sox had won the World Series by the volume of cheering in our car. My daughter designed and built a habitat for a caterpillar and a bunch of ladybugs that she caught on vacation, and I took pictures of every angle. A friend wrote to testify of God’s faithfulness through her first week of being a mom. I thoroughly enjoy all the heart-pounding thrills of being a mother and a disciple maker. I also appreciate the maternal gravity that helps to ground a family in stability in this sin-sick, crazy world. I’m convinced that the seriously precious moments and exhilarating love of a mother for her children and a woman for her disciples reach new heights when the theological ground underneath is rock solid.

A mother’s love is a powerful gift. Hallmark cards agree with me on that one, but where does this gift come from? What kind of gift is it? Why do we experience it? Where is it going? I want to show you in this book that the everyday ministry of motherhood is part of God’s mission. The nature of our nurture is mission. Motherhood is a gift, because it is a reminder that life is a gift.

God did not create motherhood as “just” a list of to-dos. God did not create motherhood as “just” a sentimental greeting card. God did not create motherhood as a trifling, negligible “just.” “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.”1 Nothing he does or wills could possibly be inconsequential or petty. No woman made in God’s image, made for God’s mission, could be “just” a mom. Missional motherhood is a strategic ministry designed by God to call people to worship the One who is seated on the throne in heaven.

I’m excited to explain that idea more, because it thrills my heart when I remember it. To think that God has called me to meaningful mission in my motherhood—and that it is all of grace—blows me away. This book has one main point in a two-part outline that is held together by an introduction and a conclusion, which are like two bookends. Here’s the book’s summary in one sentence:

Jesus invites women to missional motherhood: to follow his pattern, to trust his promises, and to nurture others by the power he provides.

When you unpack a suitcase after a trip, you tend to go straight for what you need right away. Perhaps you go straight for your toothbrush or your medication and leave the dirty laundry for later. You bring out what you need first. So, first, we look at an explanation of why missional motherhood is for every woman (not just biological or adoptive mothers), because mother is a verb too. We see in the rest of part 1 the foundation for missional motherhood, which is really just a fly-over retelling of the Big Story with an eye for how God has revealed his missional pattern for motherhood and gives promises regarding his plan.

After that, in part 2, we study the implications of the Big Story for our missional motherhood. In those chapters we look at some of the many ways Christian moms all over the world display God’s pattern and claim God’s promises as they make Christ’s disciples. Lastly, of course, I have a conclusion, which is the second bookend. In “The End of Motherhood” we’ll see that “Missional Motherhood Is about a Man.”

We’re going on a high-flying adventure as we scan the Bible to see God’s handiwork in creating and sustaining motherhood for his mission of glorifying himself in all the earth. Recently, I saw a video on YouTube of an eagle being released from the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, with a GoPro camera strapped to its body. The footage they caught from the camera is overwhelming. Soaring on the winds and lifted high over the horizon where the sea meets the sky, angling wings to steer into a new panoramic view of the Arabian Desert, dipping dramatically over the metropolis below—it’s all there. I hope that reading this book is kind of like watching that perspective-shaping video.

God has placed each of us in different families, churches, denominations, cities, countries, cultures, and seasons. We’ve been given strengths and weaknesses, responsibilities and privileges. I’m a mom of four kids, and the good works that God has prepared for me to walk in are being played out in and around an eighth-floor flat in the “old town” neighborhood in Dubai, a diverse city in the Middle East. One of my friends and fellow church members is an older single woman who works in a corporate office, travels a lot, and engages her coworkers in Bible study. Our missional mothering looks different in our contexts, but the source and goal of our ministry is the same. The two of us may be aware of one or two things God is doing in our ministries at any given moment, but only he knows the breadth and depth of his activity in and through us.2

I’ll explain more in the introduction how this book is for every woman in her everyday ministry, and I do hope that groups of women will read it together. I’m praying that you will find an opportunity to sit down with a cinnamon scone and a dear sister in Christ. If you can only find one, go for the scone. (I’m kidding! Go for the sister.) I’m praying that friends will talk about it using hands-free ear buds during their commute or while sitting on the train on the way to Bible study. I’m praying for the moms sitting cross-legged on the carpet holding each others’ babies in order to read this book together in community. I’m praying for the empty nesters who seek a quiet place to read along with a friend. And I’m praying for new moms, who could do as I did when I couldn’t fall back to sleep after feeding my babies: read by the glowing light of the headlamp you’re wearing on your forehead (best baby shower gift ever), and send emails back and forth to your friends who are awake on the other side of the world.

So we’ve recognized that for every woman who reads this book, there are that many diverse contexts represented among us. As in every conversation, it is always tempting to bring everything back around to yourself. (Oh, how I loathe this bad habit of mine! See what I did there?) For every time that I talk about my own particular context in this book, I want to be stringently committed to making sure that any exhortation I give to you springs up out of the text of God’s word. Heaven knows that what you don’t need is a book full of my quirky, half-baked how-tos that only work a pathetic percentage of the time. This book is not a catalog of my creative ideas for living missionally—I believe those creative ideas are going to be generated in your own heart as the Spirit strengthens your faith and leads your family.

The aim in Missional Motherhood is to give you laser focus on what God’s word says about his mission, how motherhood fits in to that, and what Christ has done to...