Reply to Discussion Board Forum 3 Thread LEAD520 Turabian Format

  In Modules/Weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8, you are required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be at least 200 words. Reply to  Laurie 
William Carey is revered as the father of Missions and has set the standard for missionaries worldwide.  What these men have showed us is that there is a cost of discipleship and these men paid a price for their leadership.    True leadership is a sacrifice and it is not for the self-gratifying person it is for those who prefer no recognition    I do believe that there has to be a balance between what we do in public and also make sure that our private lives our protected.  I know from my own Pastor that he is so busy and although he has help there is always more work to do, and he often feels torn by the Church and his family.   Ministering to those in need is the Pastors role but striking a balance with your family also has to be a priority.    This is so much more difficult with young pastors with a young families.  It may be difficult for these younger pastors to separate themselves from the church which is why our family has to be part of our leadership roles.
Carey did not demonstrate good leadership skill in the marriage department and he did not set a good example as one who would admire his marriage.   A Pastor should be a role model for their congregation as this shows good leadership skills. Pastors have a responsibility to equip the saints and the saints are to do the work for the ministry.  This is why the church exists so we can share the good news of the Gospel
Jim Carey was consumed with planting churches and bringing salvation to those who did not know Christ and he excelled in his efforts.  But there was a cost, he too neglected his wife and his children.  He did not find the healthy balance that would provide for both his home and his mission.  However Carey knew that God would provide for him and his faith was so great that this is where he placed his reliance on God.  Not too many today can make that claim and this young man did just that, but neglected his home life.  However, this is also greatly attributed to the era of his time and I am sure that many found him to be quite insensitive to his wife for not waiting until she was ready to travel.   However, just like all of us in this class we feel called to God
On the other side of the coin we have Adoniram Judson and his wife Ann Judson who by all appearances were a team and had a partnership and both knew that they were called to the mission field. [1] This scenario is better than Carey’s because as a couple they shared a dream and vision.  They clearly had a heart and mind for God and as they served the Lord they too experienced unfortunate events in their life, but this never stopped them from their mission to Christ. [2]
Mission work is difficult especially in other countries and when a pastor takes his young family they have to have complete confidence in one and other because crossing cultures can bring one to many hostile places.  Finding balance is not easy to accomplish “out in the field”.  We are all called to go out through the world and make Disciples, (Matt 28:19 NIV) there is a great deal of pressure that comes with being a Pastor whether missioning here in the US or abroad.  Balancing our families takes time and energy but mostly the family unit has to have the same goal and commitment.  Of course there will be trials as well as triumphs.  Most importantly is that we are all meant to be a Christian missionary, just as we all have a call to be bear witness to the gospel, Like Isaiah a missionary gladly responds, “Here I am Send Me” (Isa 6:8b NIV), God does not want us to sacrifice our family yet He wants this to be a family undertaking.  There are many disciplines that must be applied to yourself and I believe we must start with time, and what vision do we have for our desired outcome. 
            It is easy to see from these case studies how without time management, mutual understanding as well as dialogue concepts that we want to implement can easily become jeopardized.  Neglecting one’s family never sees good end results, as we have witnessed in the lives of Billy and Nell Sunday, they loved each other very much and their mutual response together seemed perfect, but they neglected their children, “1 Timothy 3:5 writes, “(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)   Where ever we are called by God we have to have the insight and training that comes with this spiritual gift.  We have to maximize the gift that God gave us and learn from those before us who excelled in some areas and were defeated in others.
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[1]Peterson, W.J. 25 Surprising Marriages: How Great Christians Struggled to Make their Marriage work. (2006) pg. 447Reply to  Lauren 
To simply answer the question posed in this discussion board: yes, there does absolutely need to be a balance between ministry and family.
The other class that I am in this quarter is a counseling class and a lot of what we talk and learn about is working with and treating the whole person. Meaning when someone comes to you for services, you have to treat them holistically– their emotional life, their psychological health, their community, their work, their faith, and their family.  No real healing can happen if we neglect areas of our lives, while working on the others. I think that this idea of balance between family and ministry Biblical. As much as the Bible commands us to follow the great commission, it also commands us to love and honor our family. We cannot follow one command, while ignoring the others. Before the field of psychology was even dreamed of, the Bible provided us with the truth that if our family life is out of whack, our profession or ministry will feel out of whack. We are holistic beings and need to be treated as such. God gives us a template and an expectation that our different areas of our lives will be in balance. We see that when they are not in balance, we cannot be successful in ministry. 
When we think about William Carey, we think of his contributions to the fields of missions and linguistics. But his legacy of greatness is tarnished by his inability or refusal to care for his wife and her mental illness (Petersen, 1997). 
Similarly, Sunday’s greatness has to be partially credited to the work of his wife and business partner (Petersen, 1997). However, using his wife and family to further his endeavors resulted in him being a great evangelist, but a poor family member. 
So to sum up, if we are sacrificing the well-being of the people we love the most and are supposed to care about the most in order to have a successful ministry, we will only tarnish our legacy of ministry. A balanced life ensures that we are healthy and our family is cared for and that our legacy is not tarnished. I think that a righteous ministry cannot be justified at the cost of our family, because even if we do accomplish our mission, we will have failed our other calling of living and serving our families. 
Reference
Petersen, W. (1997). 25 surprising marriages: How great christians struggled to make their marriages work. Morgantown, PA: Masthoff Press
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