Reggie Joiner of The reThink Group discussed the importance of family at Catalyst’s second pre-lab. Here is what he said:

Most of us (attending Catalyst) have been influenced by the church. Yet although some of us have been influenced by the church, we have all been influenced by our family.

God uses 2 entities – church and family – to teach the gospel to a child. If you can influence a family, you can influence in an exponential way.

1. We are influenced by family.
2. Somewhere along the way we develop a picture of what we think family looks like.
   A church may use a stock photo of a family, but it likely is an unrealistic representation of a family.
3. If we hold to tightly to an ideal picture of family, we set families up to be disillusioned.
   Things don’t work out the way we thought they would.
4. God never gives s a picture of an ideal family in the Bible.
   God isn’t trying to give you an ideal picture. He is trying to tell a story through your family and my family. God is trying to unpack something that is much more bigger than family, bugger than church, and much, much bigger than a nation. Your calling as a leader should not e to get families to conform to a common picture. Your calling is not to build better families. Your calling is not to build a bigger church. Your calling is to lead people into a relationship with Christ. Our purpose is not to build better families but to use that family to influence the world.

Two ways to influence families:

1. Present an ideal, “better” picture of how families should be.
2. Encourage families to cooperate with the story God wants to tell in their lives regardless of their mistakes.

Parents don’t need a better picture; they need a bigger story. Never forget that the approach and mindset we have in ministry towards the family can disillusion them or give them hope. An ideal picture can make you feel like a failure. But reality is God has chosen to use us.

God is at work telling a story of redemption in your family. Never buy into the myth that your family has to be picture perfect. God doesn’t use perfect pictures. He uses broken people. Give us a generation of leaders who are authentic and broken.

Moses had a bigger story approach in Deuteronomy 6. When you have a bigger story approach, you:

1. Imagine the end.
2. Fight for the heart.
3. Make it personal.
4. Create a rhythm.
5. Widen the circle.

Somewhere along the way, the church has to switch from a Sunday mindset to a daily mindset. A church has 40 hours a year to reach a kid, but the parents have 3,000 hours.