Families on Mission with Alan Charter

What does it look like to be a family on mission? In this inspiring conversation, Jo Hobbis gets to chat with Alan Charter from the Global Children's Forum. They unpack the idea of every family being "salt and light" in their community, the significant role children play in that, and the practicalities of working it out in real, messy, everyday life. If you're a parent who's wondering if you've missed your chance for mission, or a minister who wants to empower families to do more for the Kingdom, this conversation is for you.

https://gcf.community/
https://familiesonmission.org/

Transcript

Introduction to the Global Children's Forum

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, my guest today is Alan Charter from the Global Children's Forum. Alan, welcome to Hope Kate.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hello.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

I am really excited to chat to Alan because he is a man with a big vision. Alan's heart is to see children thrive in families and as part of the family of God and to see the church worldwide flourish in helping them do that. So, just a small mission then, Alan. But you're not alone. Tell us who is the Global Children's Forum? How would you describe what they do and why does it matter?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Well, um, short questions, Joe, but there's quite a lot beneath all of that. I'll do my best. I think the simplest way to describe the Global Children's Forum is it's a bit like a global family. Um, it's a it's a big community, and if I'm honest, it's the closest thing I've discovered to the body of Christ around the world. And and they're kind of my tribe. So these are people that are passionate about children, about children walking with Jesus, and about finding their place as part of God's kingdom, and then looking to see how do we help families do the same. So it's it's a community, it brings lots of different organizations and even denominations and individuals that are working in different parts of the world. And we have a couple of questions that have been itching away at us since we first met. And the first of those is with so much still to do, so many children that we would long to introduce to Jesus, how can we do more to reach more children and to serve more families and to be more fruitful for the kingdom? And then the big question that we've carried all the time we've connected has been as we connect, what becomes possible together that we couldn't do in isolation? So that's for me the glimpse of the body of Christ, because it opens up possibilities that wouldn't be there if we just carried on plowing our own furrow. So it's about relationships, it's about serving the kingdom, it's about the priority of children and families, and it's about the discovery of what we can do together.

The Vision For Children and Families

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Brilliant. I love that. So give us a flavor of what which countries are involved. Who have you got representatives from?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Well, we have a little core team that meets, and so every month we'll connect with folks from uh we've got Sam in Nairobi, we've got Joshua in northeast rural Uganda, we have got Val, who grew up in Brazil, but actually has just moved from living in Brazil uh to the US to help look after her mum. So she's just just moved into Phoenix in Arizona. Then we've got Matt on the um France-German border, although he's from the UK and I've known him a long, long time. And then we've got James, who's local here in the UK, he does all our digital stuff. We have Pearl over in um the east of India, and we have Michelle who's based in Manila in the Philippines. So we've got this gorgeous little multicontinental global hub that come together to pray and to plan and to help shape the kind of priorities that we invest in together.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah, I love that. That's that, yeah, truly global. I love that. So there is a brilliant video that you shared with me where the message is aim lower, think smaller, give up, and go have a cup of coffee. All of that sounds like music to my ears, but tell me about it. What on earth do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Yeah, it kind of catches you a little, doesn't it? It's meant to be a little light-hearted uh and and uh maybe a bit provocative as well. But actually, those four concepts have got something quite deep that has been part of our vision and challenge to the church, I guess. So aim lower is all about how do we help those around us to bring their sites down a little and to recognize the place, the priority, and the value of children. So, how do we bring children into our uh strategies, into our conversations, into our budgets, into our planning across the church? And just recognizing that children hold such a precious place. Jesus placed a child in the midst and challenged us. You know, unless you become like a child, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven. I'm still wrestling with that one in terms of the fullness of that challenge to us. But I think at its heart is an invitation for us to discover God in this intimate, um, deep relationship where we're reliant on Him. And so that invitation to become like a child is something for all of us, I think, to lean into and to discover the playfulness and the richness of the relationship that God longs to have with us. And so aiming lower and having children in our sights helps us in our walk of faith, but it also lays the foundations. And we know that the majority of decisions to follow Jesus are are made in an early age, that most people's worldview is formed in those formative years. There was a key headline that jumped out for me from some research that Barner in the US did a few years ago now, and they captured it very clearly, stating that the majority of people die believing what they believe by age 13. So I wonder how much terrifying, actually. Well, yeah, it's not so much about dying, it's just about how formative the pre-teen years are. So our worldview, our value set, those things that shape the whole of our lives are largely in place, as we know, by that stage and age. So, how do we help each other across the church to put a good, solid foundation in that can have a lifelong impact? So that's the whole aim, Lowerpiece, is how do we help a vision for children to percolate through all of our thinking and practice? The think smaller is a

Aiming Lower and Thinking Smaller

SPEAKER_01 6:09

little bit more of a provocative challenge because this is about acknowledging that children are not just um the future of the church. They they hold a role that we can begin to nurture and release today. So, how do we embrace children as fellow participants, not just a target audience, if you like, but how do we release them to serve alongside us as the body of Christ in the way that they can in appropriate ages and stages for their development? So it's I think a really um compelling invitation to the church, but also to families as well, to see how do we recognize the role that our children can play, the um the value that they bring. And in fact, we've seen that across the Global Children's Forum in some some amazing stories where uh children have seen the needs in their friends. So I I've got a dear friend in South Africa who's helped to develop an initiative around generosity with children. And they've had some amazing stories where children have have just shared their lunch or made extra food and brought it along for friends in their class that they know haven't had as much to eat and and you know, things that we might take for granted, children often do see, and their hearts are often turned towards those needs. So, what can we do to nurture that? How can we value that? Even just talking about it, Joe, is is a start and to recognize that children are.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

I was talking with another friend about how um kids get put in the back room, and why do we get put in the back room kind of thing, you know? And I think that's metaphorical as well as physical.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

It is, and and we know that there's a whole spectrum of approaches across the church, and there's some brilliant work that's being done, and there's some challenges that are needing to be addressed in many parts of the church, and we know in the UK there's there's a lot of what's called the graying of the congregation where we're seeing an increasing age profile. But there's some amazing and exciting things that are happening with children too. So I think part of the key for this is um is not thinking and not expecting us to do all of our ministry to children, but to think about the opportunities that ministry with children opens up as well, uh, and valuing them and nurturing that. So we might come back to that. But yeah, that's the think smaller piece. The give up is is a little challenge to us again around whose kingdom are we building? What are we investing in? So, how do we step back a little and see where God is at work and then join him in that? So, how do we give up our own agendas and how do we seek God's pathway for each of us that aligns us into his one body, uh serving one kingdom as part of one church? So that that give up is is a little bit of a uh a nudge for us to remember that there's more than we see and more than we're part of, and to discover that. And then finally, the go have a cup of coffee is one of my favorite pieces, it functions.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Yeah, yeah, that's the bit I really liked.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

That's the bit I resonate with. And it's kind of like this, you know, it's sitting down with somebody, catching up and exploring through relationship, where might God open the door to possibilities together. So I guess for anybody watching this, that would be my invitation. How do we look at children and recognize their potential? How do we serve them as a priority in what we're doing and recognize the the potential for lifelong impact that we have in that? How do we walk alongside them and see them as co-workers and then join with others and uh maybe start that with a couple with somebody that we could explore possible next steps with? So that's the heart of the Global Children's Forum.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

So let's talk about the Families on Mission initiative then, because this is a really, really cool idea. What's the concept behind it?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Well,

Families on Mission Initiative

SPEAKER_01 10:04

um the Global Children's Forum, or GCF as we often shorten it to, has been in a journey for getting on for 20 years now. But for a good half of that, we've been wrestling with as we invest in children and as we um nurture them, we have to bring families in at the early stage as a as a priority within that. So we've we've had a team that's been exploring the whole family ministry focus and looking to strengthen that and serve that. But increasingly, that's led us to explore well, how do we actually empower families to find their role as part of this great body of Christ around the world? What might we be able to do that helps families to recognize that church is who we are and it's where God opens the door for us to serve? It's not just a place that we go. So families on mission is all about helping families to think and act missionally and to recognize that it's not necessarily just for people that go overseas and do mission in another country. God's invitation for us is to seek Him, to seek His kingdom in the everyday, where we are. So, how might we open up our everyday lives with the opportunities that serving God's kingdom brings? So I guess for me it's it's kind of that invitation to think about being salt and light. What does that mean where we are? And what does that mean for our families and households, whatever shape and size they are? How can we shine for Jesus in our homes, in our streets, in our communities?

SPEAKER_00 11:48

I happen to know that you are a father of four, that your youngest child is adopted, that you've fostered many more kids. I know you also serve for Home for Good. I feel like you know better than most people that families can be complicated. So when you say whatever that looks like, yeah, it can look like anything. Um so I I guess my question is: what do we do if um we love the idea of being a family on mission, like here we are all together being salt and light in our community, but then not everyone in our household is on the same page.

Navigating Family Dynamics

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yeah, I mean it's messy, isn't it? Um I think I think that's pretty standard, Joe, if I'm honest. So there's certainly not uh a kind of a level that you attain to before you're a family on mission. I think it's an attitude of the heart as much as anything else. You know, as we um we we we talk in the Global Children's Forum of a vision to see children everywhere walking with Jesus. And so that we're all children, really. We're we're all walking with Jesus. So, how does that look for each of us where we are? How do we look to walk with Jesus in a way that um draws us closer to him? How in our mess do we help each other to bring all of that and let him work through that? Uh, I I love that verse that Paul wrote about how um God's grace is sufficient for us and his power is made perfect in our weakness. And I think that offers us, that glimpse of grace offers us uh an amazing way for whatever complications life brings, whatever mess we might uh encounter in family life, to not not be a difficulty or the problem for us. But in the midst of that, we discover that God's strength is there, that his grace is sufficient, his power is made perfect in our weakness. And actually, I do wonder sometimes how even our weakness provides more opportunity for God to be at work. So it doesn't need to be complicated, it doesn't need to be something that we impose on people, far from it. I think it is about how does our relationship with Jesus offer ways for us to hear his voice a little more, to look for him to be expecting God to be leading us, speaking to us. And so it's as much about opening up space for conversation for whoever wants to join that conversation, sitting down and asking questions about what's God saying to us? Where do we see him at work? What are the needs around us? And then bringing those things in prayer. It could be very short. It could just be, you know, over the breakfast table or over the dinner table. Um, but Deuteronomy reminds us that in the midst of the fullness of life, as we get up, as we walk along the road, we talk about these things. And so, what might be the teachable moments that we we discover where we can be uh giving glimpses for our children of where we think God might be at work, but also receiving them from our children and from each other. That it's an attitude and a posture, expecting God to be at work and being open to how he might use us if we're willing and we offer ourselves for him to do that.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Yeah, I love that idea of receiving from our children as well, because sometimes I think as parents we put too much pressure on ourselves to think we've got to be the ones doing all the teaching all the time. And I guess the families on mission idea is more about everybody noticing where God's at work, isn't it? Even the smallest people in the house.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Yeah, definitely. One of my favourite writers, a guy called Mike Iacanelli, um, who sadly is no longer with us, but he wrote this beautiful book called Dangerous Wonder, and the the subtitle was The Adventure of Childlike Faith. Um, I would highly recommend it. He he quotes a little story in there about two uh siblings. So it was an older sister who was overheard whispering in the ear of her newborn baby brother, and she said along the lines of, um tell me, baby brother, remind me what God sounds like. I'm starting to forget. And it's just that wonderful little glimpse of that innate spirituality that's there, that we're made for relationship with God, and so often the noise of the world kind of um stops us hearing God. So, how might we give space for that? How might we have expectant hearts that um that yeah, our our children can challenge us and can help us in our walk of faith as well as us helping them? And so the Families on Mission idea is just an invitation to be open to that, to be um expectant that God might take us and use us in all of our mess and in whatever shape or form, because he knows us, he knows all the things that we think and feel and all that's going on. So there's never any surprise, but actually, he might sanctify that, he might do something amazing in the midst of all of that. And you know, you mentioned earlier um a bit of our story. So having been through a lot of the mess that working with looked-after children brings, it it actually offered some precious moments to us as well with our own children. Um, my wife Claire and I have met with various other prospective foster carers to to just just share our story and experience with them, really, as they were thinking about it for themselves. But on more than one occasion, if our children were there and we talked about being foster parents, they would quite often jump in and say, You're not foster parents, we're a foster family. And and for me, that sense of them owning it and being part of it with us was was certainly a very precious thing, and yeah, part of our family on mission story in a way as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

So let's talk about how families on mission plays out in different cultures then. Because while you're saying all this, and I'm thinking this is great, yeah, I'm I'm with you. Um, I'm also thinking in the Western world, we're quite busy, like people pack a lot into their schedules, especially for their kids. And I guess that depending on where you live,

Cultural Differences in Family Mission

SPEAKER_00 18:16

some ideas of how to be salt and light in your community can feel a bit countercultural. Um, I'm thinking of my friend particularly who moved a couple of years ago from Devon to the centre of Birmingham with her two small children, and found that it was really hard to strike up a conversation in the playground because suddenly she'd moved from a really friendly rural setting to a less sort of, I don't know, people are a bit more suspicious in the middle of big cities, aren't they? Um and I think even having a conversation with your neighbour can feel a bit awkward in some settings. So um, have you observed any cultural differences in the way families on mission plays out across the world, or have you got any advice, you know?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

I mean, I guess going from rural Devon to inner city Birmingham is is a pretty huge cultural leap anyway. It was just about understanding the difference in language there as well. So my Well, there was a bit of that.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

There was a bit of that.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Yeah, I was based in the black country for a while, so I can relate to that from experience. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, there are, of course, there are cultural differences. I'm no expert on this, but I do have a number of friends in different parts of the world, and so it's always fun hearing their stories. And one of the things that we have have done in this Families on Mission initiative is just invite people to share their stories and to um, you know, just just little snippets. And if you go to familiesonmission.org, you can listen to some of those and see some little fun cartoons that we've put together just to keep uh some anonymity. But I think at the end of the day, Joe, families are families, wherever you go. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and they're all messy. You know, when we read about families in the Bible, they're pretty messy as well. And so we we often uh don't help ourselves by having unrealistic aspirations and expectations on ourselves. But I think with with your example that you gave of a friend moving from a more known rural setting to a lesser known urban setting, I guess in any new context, there's always that feeling of being a bit of an outsider and not quite feeling at home yet. That's a journey and it takes time. But I think the same principles apply. So when we when we um talk to people about the whole families on mission initiative, at the heart of it is it's about our relationship with God, and it's about a journey of prayer, and it's about having hearts and eyes that are open to where we think God might be at work. So just talking about these things is a great start point, and then beginning to pray together and asking God to help us to see things through his eyes and maybe to give us opportunities. So, you know, how could we invite our children to join us in praying for that? That we can be praying for them to have opportunities to connect, to make friends, to have deeper conversations, and they can be praying for us to do the same, to meet someone and to um to get to know people a little bit. One of the other fun things that we do is uh invite people to do a little map of their neighborhood. It could just be their street or it might be a little wider than that. Um, but actually, this helps us just to think through where has God placed us? So, where where is my home? What is my context? And who do I know? So you draw just the little boxes for each of the houses, and then you can you can fill in the names of those that you know. But maybe part of your early steps can be filling in the blanks, getting to know people, finding out who our neighbors are. And then that gives us more things to pray for. Um, we invite families to go and prayer walk their street and their neighborhood as well. And again, that could just be for 10 minutes where you go for a walk together and you're walking and talking and praying as you do it and having a bit of fun. But I think as we do this, it's just about us being alert to God being at work, that we join him in what he's doing. It doesn't need to be complicated. Um, it is it's yeah, it's it's an embrace of the fact that God's kingdom is present. It's not just a future uh thing that we encounter in heaven. It's about how together we walk with Jesus and embrace the potential of a transformed life right here, right now, in whatever shape or form that takes and the journey of discovery that comes with it.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Do you think that's a bit of a mind shift for people to think about the kingdom of God being present now and us having a part in that?

The Kingdom of God in Everyday Life

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Maybe. I think I think some people get it. I love that there's a uh a challenging but beautiful beautiful verse at the end of 2 Corinthians 4. So you'll know the passage, it's the the picture where Paul talks about us being like a jar of clay, and so we have this incredible treasure within. And it reminds me of what we were talking about earlier in our our weaknesses that often when I see uh uh image of a clay jar, it's often a bit shoddy and certainly quite different to the treasure within. But often you might see cracks, and and I imagine the light of the treasure within shining out through the cracks. So that's an image for me of how in our brokenness God is at work. But the end of that chapter, um, Paul says, so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, knowing that what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal. So for me, that's part of this in the Families on Mission Initiative is how do we help each other look for what is unseen? How do we seek the kingdom in that way and not just be shaped by the things that are seen? Because that's only temporary. You know, we're we're we're called to be um part of of the body of Christ, part of Jesus' family, and we're an eternal family. And so how do we discover where God is at work in eternal ways right now in our streets and in the lives of those around us? Because he is at work in in each of them, and so we join him in what he's doing. So I think part of the challenge perhaps is a little bit more of a shift in how we think about church and for leaders to recognize the potential that that as we serve families and households, that that opens up. Much of my lived experience being part of churches has centered largely around on our lives when we come together. So we focus on the gathered church as congregations. For me, this is an invitation to see the church in its scattered life as families and households, which let's face it, that's the majority of the time that we spend. So, how might we shift the things a little and serve the church in that scattered form and equip families and households to walk with Jesus every day in the the mess of the everyday, but also redeeming that and seeing what God might do with that. And it will be a journey for a lifetime, I'm sure, in in all kinds of ways and forms. But I think it just opens the door to adventure on a scale that we we can't contain because you know God is is doing immeasurably more than we often ask or imagine. So to embrace something of that, to allow that to shape our mess and maybe even see that transformed as we discover and invite God into that. It's an adventure to embrace, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Yeah, yeah. And I think that's really important, that kind of what goes on between Sundays, if you like, because for a long time I think people just thought, you go to church on Sundays. I grew up hearing people say, don't just be a Sunday Christian, but that didn't really didn't really resonate. Like they didn't give me anything practical to do in between. Um, so I like the idea of families being intentional in what they're doing, and um, there's certainly a a lot of talk around um sort of family discipleship amongst um children's ministers. Um, there's also a lot of people talking these days about the need for a more intergenerational style of church. So, do you think the traditional model of church still serves families?

Intergenerational Church Dynamics

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Sometimes there are some good things. Um we you know it it can can default sometimes to uh all age worship or or something like that. And the the challenge of that is that it compartmentalizes and it suggests that that we come and we do that in a certain setting. But actually, the church is family. When we read about family in the Bible, um there are two words that when we see our English word for family, there are two Hebrew words that sit underneath that. One is the maybe more familiar one of household, and the other is perhaps closer to that of clan. Um, and again, in different times and and contexts, that will play out in different ways, and often in our current culture and Western church, we're we're quite um tied to a blood relative, a kind of a an immediate household focus of family. But the the focus of what's called Mishpakor, the the clan, uh is is more common in the Bible. So actually, we often mistake just households and family and the immediate family as as what the Bible interprets. But actually, there's an invitation to recognize that we belong to each other. And so how do we serve and support within that intergenerational community? So I think I think there's more to be done to discover that because we can often be quite compartmentalized. We can go into age um segmented programs and we need that. We need age-appropriate teaching and space for that, but we also need to invest in being family together and you know doing the things the family do, coming together to to eat and to um to explore, to, to, to go away. It's it's it's strange, isn't it, how maybe if you've had a church weekend away or something like that, that point at the end of the weekend, there's almost something special where you've had that shared experience together, where you've just been present and shared meals and played together, that it creates a deeper connection. So, how do we find ways for doing that? We've been on a little bit of a journey with our church family, and we've now got three that we began as pilot groups, but what we describe as missional communities. And these are really little intergenerational um micro churches. So we've got five or six households that come together and we'll meet and we'll eat and we'll um dig into the Bible, we'll pray together. Uh, we've got various WhatsApp channels, so we've got one for sharing our kind of um Bible readings that we're exploring and what God's saying to us through that. We've got another focused on prayer and what do we need to be praying for, and then we've got one that's just our general chat about what's coming up and what's needed organizing, and another that's focused on mission, what's God doing and how are we stepping out and how can we help each other be more intentional in that. So that's that's been a different dynamic of church for me in in the last few years, kind of post-COVID. But it's been it's been really important being an intergenerational community and having the children as part of that. We've had to wrestle with well, how do we do the age-appropriate teaching? So we're still part of the bigger church and we reconnect at least once a month where we'll come back together on a Sunday and share testimonies and encourage each other. Um, but it's been amazing as well, just seeing how um the children and young people growing up, just a handful of them within that, have started kind of taking some of that on board. I mean, just one story. Joshy, who I've known since he was born, um, his family had been part of our little missional community. And last summer, he was on a beach mission team actually up in North Wales and um doing other things as well. But he felt God nudging him to step out a little bit more, much as we've been exploring as a whole, little intergenerational community. And so he's passionate about football. So he chatted with some of his football mates at school, um, got some donuts and invited them to come and look at a bit of the Bible and and to explore faith together. And so back in September, six or seven of them were connecting around that, and they're still meeting each week, and they're up to about 30 now. So this is just how he's kind of taken that up. That's really cool. And so we don't know where that's gonna go, but it has been hugely encouraging for all of us as as he's stepped out and just sensed, well, how do I how do I serve God where I am, where you know, where I'm going and the things that I'm passionate about.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Gosh, and I think that takes some courage as well, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 31:16

To you know, it really does. He's he's a football maker. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Yeah, that's really great. But also I think that ties in again to my point about um we're quite busy as families, but that's something that he does as uh, you know, football training could be one of those things as oh, well, I do football training, so I'm too busy. But actually, he's he's taken the gospel to his football training, so that's incredible. Well done, Joshi. So there's loads of resources, aren't there, available for people who might want to get involved with families on mission. If people are listening to this and thinking, hey, yeah, that sounds good, I could do that. Um, where do people go for those things?

Resources for Families on Mission

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Well, you know, I'm just really encouraged by how we're seeing a growing recognition of the need to serve families. So here in the UK, that's been so exciting to see um developments with BRF and the Parenting for Faith initiative with Care for the Family and the Kitchen Table project. So we celebrate all of those things, and there's some great resources in there. Um, where we've connected across the globe with others, the the whole Families on Mission focus has really helped us to strengthen that focus with lots of different organizations. So we've set up a website called familiesonmission.org, and you can grab um some great resources and and tools there, like this little one here. So um, this will be in digital form, but the the think big. So we talked about this being a big vision, but the invitation just to start small gives you 10 very simple steps around the things that we've talked about about praying, um, maybe having a bit of fun. Could you create a family motto? You know, talking about what's important to you as a family uh and what might this look like for us. But praying with our family is a very important thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

I feel like that's that's the kind of conversation around my kitchen table that would just go pear-shaped instantly with the boys just thinking of hilarious mottos.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Exactly. But you know, actually having that hilarious conversation is part of it, isn't it? And you don't know what might spark from that. Um, and then as we we kind of go about the ordinary everyday stuff, it we can come back to that and say, okay, well, what have we discovered and and what is God saying to us? So yeah, they're just simple steps. And and actually within that, um, let's not underestimate the the value and the impact that hospitality can have. I think that's one of those things that we underplay. But just opening up our homes in whatever way, shape, or form, um, it could just be going and having a cup of coffee with someone, or it could be that you recognise there are vulnerable kids in our community, we're gonna we're gonna give a home to some of those as they're working out where their future lies. So there's all kinds of ways that hospitality can work out. So yeah, if you if you go to founderson.org, that'll link you to a number of stories and some resources, but it's still shaping up. Um, one of the the early um pieces that that shaped this initiative actually came out of COVID. And so we we look back on that as being quite a formative time. Um, a number of us were running a training event, and um just three or four of us connected actually around this family's question. And it was just as we were going into lockdown, so we were praying through the question of how might we serve families that are potentially going into an unknown extended period of lockdown. Is there something we can do to help promote spiritual well-being, but physical and mental well-being as well? And so out of that was birthed something called Family Fit. So there's a bunch of resources at family.fit, but it was all about how do we play and bring faith and fun and fitness together. And so that actually put in a lot of the foundations for what became Families on Mission, but there's some great resources in that as well. And that was fun seeing how families across the world picked that up and were playing together and sharing some little videos and um just telling their stories. But yeah, that that helped us to recognise that there's a lot more for us to discover here. So it'd be great to hear your stories from from those watching this as to what faith looks like in your family and what adventures might you discover as you step out a little more and expect God to maybe use you in ways that you've not seen before.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yeah, yeah. That's it's really interesting all the things that have come out of um lockdown and all of that weird season that we lived through. And I guess I'm I'm well, I mean, it was weird. It wasn't that long ago, but also it's just such a watershed, isn't it? It's just such it's just such a marker. Um and I guess the kids that we're serving now have really been formed by it because you know, five years is a long time when you're a child. So you might have only been three years old when all of that was going on, now you're eight.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Um it was a big proportion of their life, really, much more than you or I.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Yeah. I wonder how that affects families

Community and Belonging in The Church

SPEAKER_00 36:18

and and their attitude to church and all of the things like that. Any of you?

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Well, I think it also helped us to recognise that church isn't just about getting together because we couldn't get together in the same way during that season. So I think that also helped to push us out of our past um limitations a little bit and to actually embrace that that church can can function quite quite differently. We still need to meet together and it still needs to come to kind of have that support and those relationships at the heart. Um, but actually, the church is lived out in families and households through the week. So, how do we nurture and support them as the core building blocks that make up the church?

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Yeah, yeah. So it's great to have you know little pointers, little leaflets and encouragements and ideas, isn't it, to get people going. Does this kind of thing also work in the persecuted church? How how involved with the persecuted church is GCF?

SPEAKER_01 37:23

Varying degrees. So we work really closely with another global movement called the sports movement. And um, these guys are doing some amazing, amazing things. So we're working particularly around the Families on Mission initiative together. And um, obviously, particularly in that space, so Josh's story would be a fun one for them, and we're seeing how to support um families through sports as well. The the Persecuted Church is is that it's limited in what can be shared sometimes online, but there's some amazing work being done, particularly through sports, because you can convene around a game of football or pickleball or whatever it might be, and and that can often be a connecting point where you're building relationships, and then through those relationships, discipleship flows. So, yeah, the the sports movement are um are good friends and doing some some phenomenal work in in closed countries, um, and and sports just opens the door in ways that that the church wouldn't otherwise be able to meet and connect.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

I think what I love about families on mission is the is the community aspect actually, and I think um in a world where we spend a lot of time online and our kids spend a lot of time online, people are actually looking for real community, aren't they? And I think we've seen families come into our church, you know, you know, our 300-year-old church building. Um and they're really looking for community, that's what they come for first, and then they meet Jesus, and then it gets better from there. Um, but yeah, you know, that's what I like about this.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

I think even what you you talked about with your friend Joe moving from Devon to Birmingham, there's at the heart of that a seeking to belong, isn't there? To connect and that that community that we belong in. And I think the church has a huge role to play in that, in creating spaces where people can connect and where people can feel a sense of of belonging. Um, and I think again, for our our families and households to recognize that we may not feel that we've got much to offer, but actually we can create some of those connections and a small sense of community and create some um some opportunities to feel a sense of belonging where they may not easily find that elsewhere. You know, there are lots of people that are hungry for that, right even in our streets around us. So, how do we be alert to what God might open our eyes and our hearts to as we pray and as we maybe just step out a little bit and start a conversation and and then see where God takes us.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Yeah, brilliant. And it all starts with prayer, of course.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Prayer and an open heart.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

Yeah, nice. Thank you so much for joining me today, Alan. It's been really great to chat. Um I hope you'll come back again soon. We'll find something else to talk about.