Embracing A New Role

Dear HSCC,

As I mentioned a few weeks ago during a sermon, I taught a seminar up at Mount Hermon’s Family Camp with my daughter Sierra.  The seminar is titled, “Parenting Adult Children” and really surprised me how much I learned through teaching, from the attendees and from Sierra. 

The tag line from a key book by Jim Burns on the topic we use is “keep your mouth shut and the welcome mat out.” Such a coarse encouragement!  The idea is that we are learning to be friends with our adult children, and that usually means less verbal parenting and more relational connection and acceptance.  We even “fire” the parents in the room to emphasize the shift in role once their kids move into adulthood. 

I think this posture is a good one for us as a church as we look to grow through inviting new people into HSCC.  The temptation is to “keep things the same” or even key leaders the same for too long.  Our next challenge is to seek to give away our church to the next generation.  This needs to be done carefully, responsibly as the Holy Spirit leads and provides.  And we will all be involved until we are called home to heaven…..there is no retirement from serving the Lord :)

As we continue in this next chapter of HSCC let me challenge you to embrace a parenting role—especially those of us who have been here for some time.  I wonder if parenting is more for the parent than for the child.  We focus on our kids growing up successfully (very important!) but I’ve noticed that God is and has done so much work on me as a parent!!  I believe the best way for us to grow deeper in our relationship and life with the Lord is by serving, mentoring and leading others as they find and embrace Jesus. 

Let’s do our best to keep our mouths shut and the welcome mat out!  :P

Pastor Danny