Practical Discipleship at Home: Easy Wins for Parents
Christina Embree is an incredible pastor, blogger, and speaker who specializes is in intergenerational and family-focused ministry. I attended her breakout today because I was hoping to gain some insight and new ideas for helping the families in my ministry bring discipleship into their homes. I definitely received way more than I thought I would, and had a lot of “why didn’t I think of that?” moments while listening to her speak. I’m so excited to share her teaching with you today. She started her session with talking about the home.
What is a home?
A home isn’t just a house; it’s the place we always go back to. As believers, our home is more than just 
a place. A home should be a little church. Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am.”
This is where she really got me. She said, “A transformational home doesn’t mean you have to add more to your already full life. It does mean you get to invite Christ into what you are already doing.” My ears perked up when she said we don’t have to do MORE. What a relief! Am I right?
She went on to take the familiar passage of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and dissected it into four moments. The four moments that God mentions in this passage are everyday, normal moments of daily routine that happen everywhere to everyone. These four moments make up the rhythms of the home.
Moment #1 – When you sit at home.
Moment #2 – When you walk along the road. (anywhere outside the home)
Moment #3 – When you rise.
Moment #4 – When you lie down.
Christina challenged us to write down all of the activities we do during each of these moments every day. Next, we had to brainstorm ways we could bring God into these daily routines. Christina told us that she uses this activity with the parents in her ministry, and has them find one way they can invite God into each of the four moments. How simple is that?
Takeaways:
- We need to stop allowing the church and the home to be two separate places. When are families go home they should be “continuing the conversation” that was started at church and vice versa.
- Discipleship in the home doesn’t have to be hard or require a lot of extra time. We need to find ways to weave God into our everyday lives and routines. When we make God a part of our normal daily activities, we are inviting Him to be a part of our entire lives, not just a couple hours on Sunday or a few minutes a day.
- God wants to be in all of our moments if we will just invite Him in.
- I can’t wait to share this teaching with the families in my ministry, and show them how easy it is to incorporate discipleship in their everyday lives.
If you loved this teaching as much I did, you are going to want to check out Christina Embree’s blog: Refocus Ministry. She has lots of creative ideas for helping ministries become more family-focused.
What are you doing in your ministry to equip parents and families?