A Mom on Mission

| 2016-06-16 00:00:00 -0400

Thoughts from a young mom on preparing for a church plant.

My husband and I felt called to plant a church four years ago when we were newly pregnant with our first. We are now (finally) going on a church plant next spring to The University of Texas at San Antonio, and we will have a four year old, a two year old, and a six month old.

My role in vocational ministry has changed significantly since receiving the original calling to church plant. Visions of being on campus for hours every week and theological discussions over coffee have vanished amid diaper runs, midnight fevers, and potty training.

Motherhood, and particularly choosing to stay home rather than continue as a full-time missionary, challenged almost every aspect of my life, and one area that it challenged especially was my method of ministry. The role of stay-at-home mom is not obviously conducive to reaching out to college students. Their world of late nights and academic rigor, at first glance, seems completely foreign to my 9:30pm bedtime and the Daniel Tiger theme song that runs through my head.

Motherhood, and particularly choosing to stay home rather than continue as a full-time missionary, challenged almost every aspect of my life, and one area that it challenged especially was my method of ministry.

However, over the past four years, it was made clear that God did very much desire me to remain active, in some measure, in student ministry. That being said, major changes were required;not-so-coincidentally, the changes I’ve made in my method of ministry happen to be exactly what I needed to prepare for a church plant. (Thanks, Holy Spirit.) Here are a few of the more major ones:

Creativity & Vulnerability. I was forced to get creative with where and when I do ministry. I traded coffee shops for Chick-fil-A and campus for local parks — preferably ones with great playgrounds and quiet trails that can fit me, a double stroller, a preschooler on his bike, one college student, and a good conversation. I have invited young women into my home when it is at its messiest. They sit at our kitchen table while my children eat lunch; they sit on my couch while I fold laundry; they hop in the car and join me for a trip to the grocery store. I’ve tried a lot of things that failed, miserably, but I’ve tried a lot of things that have succeeded too. It’s surprising how the Holy Spirit can move in the everyday corners of life. The students I reach out to see much more of my reality with Jesus than they did pre-kids. There’s nothing quite like your three year old losing all self-control in front of a bemused 19 year old. This has humbled me but allowed me to see the incredible fruit that can come from inviting a college student to bear witness to a normal human being who more often than not has food and snot on her shirt sleeves and is clumsily loving Jesus, her husband, her children, and her community.

Teamwork. I have to ask for help. A lot. I was forced to own my call to campus ministry to the point where I now know it is completely okay to advocate for help when I need it. A community of people who believe in what I’m doing and are willing to help me do it has been imperative. First and foremost, my husband: Without his belief that God has called me to minister, it would be incredibly hard to do so. He watches the kids when a ministry need pops up where, bless their tiny hearts, I just can’t tow a demanding preschooler and crazy toddler along. He takes the kids with him to do ministry himself when he can, and we do ministry together as a family when we can. He has invited young men over to our house to watch him be a father and husband, and this frees me up to minister more effectively as well. I also have an amazing community of like-minded women who are in a similar season. They provide ideas, encouragement, shepherding, babysitting, and the occasional dinner when they know my husband and I are neck deep in crazy.

He has wrapped me in the truth that I am not enough, but His grace is.

Trust. At the foundation of all of this is a ruthless trust in my Savior being forged in me. True to form, the Lord is embarrassingly generous with grace and often provides it exactly when and where we need it, but I have to trust that He will do so. He has given me the grace to make changes where needed, and He has increased my capacity when needed. But most importantly — through motherhood — He has wrapped me in the truth that I am not enough, but His grace is. That is the heartbeat of the Gospel, and that is the very thing I want the students to whom I minister to understand.

Creativity & vulnerability, teamwork, and trust. By the Lord teaching me the necessity of these things in navigating vocational ministry as a stay-at-home mom, he has prepared me in a unique way for church planting. It is a testament to His kindness, and it has brought me to a place where I (on most days) see motherhood as a blessing and gift towards my ministry to college students, rather than something that takes from it.