What is integrated family life evangelism? It is an approach to evangelistic outreach and ministry that combines the presentation of family life issues with conceptually compatible Bible doctrines in unified Christ-centered outreach programs. Here are five rea sons why family-life evangelism is beneficial to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
God's methodology
First, family-life evangelism uses one of God's great methods of communicating truth. Consider Abraham facing his life's severest test. Isaac is willingly bound and lies upon the altar on Mount Moriah. The parting words are spoken between father and child! The anguish of Abraham's heart rises as he raises the knife to kill his only son. And then there is the voice from heaven; and the ram. What a parable of redemption. "When the father's hand was stayed . . . even the angels under stood more clearly the wonderful provision that God had made for man's salvation."1
What was God doing on Mount Moriah? He was using the parent-child relationship to teach the mystery of the Gospel. And that is the essence of family-life evangelism. It is using the literal family as a parable of the spiritual family.
Not only did God use the parent-child relationship to teach truth, He also employed the husband-wife relationship. Through the prophets Isaiah (54:5-8), Jeremiah (6:3), and Ezekiel (16; 23), to name a few examples, He repeatedly likened Himself to a loving husband craving the love of Israel, His wife. The story of Ruth employs the same concept, and the whole book of Hosea is one great powerful parable of the family.
New Testament strategy
When Christ came He was known as "Rabbi," Teacher, And one of His best teaching strategies was the use of parables. "Without a parable spake He not unto them" (Matt. 13:34). Some of His most compelling stories were centered on the family. They were about bridegrooms and weddings and bridesmaids. And who can forget the immortal parable of the prodigal son? What was Jesus doing? He was using the literal family to teach lessons about the spiritual family. And that is the essence of integrated family-life evangelism.
As with Jesus, Paul used this methodology in a masterful way. In Ephesians 5, for example, he gives family-life counsel to the wife. "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife" (verses 22, 23). Then he moved to the spiritual family declaring, "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and he is the saviour of the body" (verse 23). Turning to the husband he advised, "Husbands, love your wives" (verse 25). Then he switched and said, "as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." Exhorting the couple he said, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery" (verses 31, 32). Then He declared, "but I speak concerning Christ and the church" (verse 32). So what was the apostle's focus, the human or the divine family? Both. He was giving counsel about the literal family and about the spiritual family simultaneously; he used one to illustrate the other. Therefore, this method of communicating truth is no human gimmick; it is of divine origin.
So the first benefit of family-life evangelism is the consciousness that we are employing a divine strategy.
Dual restorers
Two institutions were created by God and given to the first human beings in the Garden of Eden: the Sabbath and the family. From Genesis to Revelation these two institutions were elevated. Then, the "sin" arose. The Sabbath was ultimately desecrated and a substitute put in its place. But not only was the Sabbath corrupted, so was the high estate of the family.
And now God has raised up a remnant to proclaim the "everlasting gospel" (Rev. 14:6). Seventh-day Adventists are to be "the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the paths to dwell in" (Isa. 58:12).
What does the prophet say should be restored? It is not only Eden's Sabbath that is to be restored by the remnant. It is also the Edenic family.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is famous for restoring the Sabbath. Are we as famous for the restoration of the family? If not, why not? Yes, Adventists are famous for modeling Sabbath observance. Are we as famous for modeling family life? In our own family life, are we repairers or destroyers? Thus, the second benefit of family-life evangelism is that we become active restorers.
Character of God
Third, family-life evangelism presents the great truths of God's Word in an attractive manner. Occasionally, we hear doctrinal presentations that are abrasive and repulsive. But the marriage of Bible doctrine, even the most difficult, challenging ones, with conceptually compatible family-life concepts makes a package that is not only attractive but almost irresistible.
From the very beginning, at the heart of the great controversy has been a question about the character of God. Whenever an evangelistic presentation makes God look bad it plays into the hands of the opposition. My presentations should reveal that "God is love." Family-life evangelism puts each Bible doctrine within the frame work of a love relationship, human and divine. Thus every truth, even the doctrine of hell fire, is presented under the overarching rainbow of God's love.
Felt need
There is another consideration. While we rejoice over the miraculous growth of our church's membership, we are hardly reaching certain groups of people. Many of these consist of materialistic persons who cannot be attracted by a "naked," purely doctrinal presentation of the gospel. They are looking for something else— gospel plus the meeting of a felt need. Wasn't that the way Jesus approached alienated people? "Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, 'Follow Me.'"2
The unfelt need for salvation
The fourth blessing of family-life evangelism is that it ministers to one of the universal felt needs while attending to the most important, though sometimes unfelt need of salvation. For example, while exploring the dynamics of family communications we may show how to communicate with God. While identifying the marks of true love, we portray Calvary, God's supreme act of love. While examining the mysteries of conception and childbirth, we lead to conversion and the new birth. While emphasizing the permanence of marriage, the union of husband and wife, we highlight the indestructible union of law and grace. While showing parents how to help children to obey, we teach the compulsion of obedience to God. We minister to felt and unfelt needs simultaneously.
Revival
Finally, family-life evangelism has the potential for initiating a spiritual revival. It challenges the presenter to effect change in his or her own family. Then there is the experience of change in the members of the church. As night by night and week by week our own members are exposed to practical life-changing concepts, the honest in heart will experience revitalization in their own homes and families.
So while we are evangelizing the world we are reviving the church. And isn't that the Elijah message that we are called to proclaim, fulfilling the family-life revival foretold by the prophet Malachi? The revival of the church and the evangelization of the world—that's our mission.
1 Ellen G. White, Palriaichs and Prophets (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press® Pub. Assn., 1958), 155.
2 ———, Ministry of Healing (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press® Pub. Assn., 1905), 143.
