Consider the following questions:
1. Our family has personal friends who are missionaries...
2. Our family prays for one or more missionary families regularly...
3. Our family has missionaries stay in our home at least once a year...
4. Our family discusses world development with reference to missionaries...
5. Our family participates in our church's missionary conferences...
6. Our family gets at least one missionary publication a month...
7. Our family uses missionary prayer cards from time to time in some way in the family...
8. Our family makes a sacrificial gift at least once a year for a missionary cause...
9. Our family discussed Bible passages with mission implications from time to time...
10. Our children could express the idea that the mission of the missionary is the same as the milkman, business executive or schoolteacher...
11. As parents we discuss missions with each other...
12. Our family talks about and accepts missionaries as real people...
13. We read and encourage our children to read at least one missionary biography a year...
14. We have spent a family vacation assisting missionaries in another culture...
15. We have nationals of other cultures (Christian and/or non-Christian) in our home from time to time...
These questions are from a magazine - questions formed by Dr. Howard Eyrich.
Some commentary on the questions and their application:
1. Our family has personal friends who are missionaries...
This would indicate that you are interested enough in missions to take time to talk to a missionary long enough to desire to get involved with their lives. This will take more time than just over a cup of coffee after his meeting in your church.
It will take some time to talk, to share and to develop a friendship. That will cost in time and spiritual sharing which many are not willing to do.
I would encourage to take time to get to know a missionary on a one on one basis and have them in your home long enough to develop a friendship of some sort even if minor.
2. Our family prays for one or more missionary families regularly...
This will require that you have met the missionaries and have a name and face to associate with it. It may come from a meeting in your church or from a meeting at some other place.
Try to talk to the missionaries that come through and get to know them and something about their ministry. You might even ask to be placed on their prayer letter list so you can get to know them better even after they go back to the field. This also requires that your family is a praying family.
This doesn't need to be together necessarily but all family members should be having their own quiet times and they should each have a missionary to uplift in prayer. Someone that they are interested in praying for.
3. Our family has missionaries stay in our home at least once a year...
This will take some commitment
on your part. It is easy to allow everyone else to have the missionaries
in, but if you will do it you will be the one that is blessed. If everyone
in the church attempts to do this you had better ask your speakers to stay
a day or so so that everyone can work in a missionary now and then! Don't
just settle for a meal. Have them in for an overnight stay. This will give
you a lot of time with them to get to know them.
4. Our family discusses world development with reference to missionaries...
This is easy enough if you will only think to do it. Many are studying world events in school. You all watch the news now and then. These relate easily to the missionaries. The dollar slipping should move everyone to pray for the missionaries and their financial needs. The unrest the world over endangers missionaries almost daily. Relate it to the family so they can be praying for the workers.
5. Our family participates in our church's missionary conferences...
That is assuming that your church has a missions conference. Most churches try to have a conference once per year. It is a time when you have a real missions emphasis and have several missionaries in for a week of meetings and studies. There is often a dinner or banquet at the end to give an informal setting to reflect on the weeks happenings.
6. Our family gets at least one missionary publication a month...
Almost all of the major missions have magazines that they send out. Most of them are free for the asking. There are also some mission magazines that you can subscribe to put out by independent mission organizations that are designed to give information to the Christian public.
7. Our family uses missionary prayer cards from time to time in some way in the family...
There are a number of ways of doing this. Some use them on a bulletin board or on the refrigerator door so they are reminded of the workers as they pass by.
Others keep them in a pile and pray for the one on top during that particular day and change cards the next day. Some pin them up at the office to remind them to pray from time to time.
8. Our family makes a sacrificial gift at least once a year for a missionary cause...
I have toyed with the idea of challenging a church to set Christmas aside for a year. They would go shopping for all the family members but instead of buying the gift they would write the gift on a card and give the card to the person to show their thoughtfulness and then give the money saved to some missionary work that they were interested in. Heresy plus isn't it. That would ruin the American economy!
9. Our family discusses Bible passages with mission implications from time to time...
During family meal times it is good to do this at times. Try to get the family thinking about what their responsibilites are toward missions.
10. Our children could express the idea that the mission of the missionary is the same as the milkman, business executive or schoolteacher...
In my way of thinking this should subtract from your score!
I think that we all agree that we are all witnesses and evangelism is the work of all believers. However I believe there is strong evidence in the Scripture that the missionary is to be called. They are different than the average Christian in several ways. They are called to the service of the Lord to GO and quite often a geographical location is involved.
There is the aspect that it is their full time ministry. It is shown in Acts 13 that they were set aside from the church for this ministry and that they were sent by the local church. Missionaries ought to be different than everyone else. This does not let the average Christian off the hook either - they are still to be evangelizing.
11. As parents we discuss missions with each other...
If you as a couple are not committed to missions, then you are probably not going to be sharing missions with your family.
You will not likely open your homes to workers, nor your lives to their friendship. You will likely not be supporting missionaries either independently or through your local church.
12. Our family talks about and accepts missionaries as real people...
Missionaries are real people and they have real needs, and they have real problems, and they have real feelings, and they have real tempers, and they have real anxieties, and they have real families, and all that stuff!
Since you find all this to be true then you know how to pray for them and you know how you can help them if they have needs!
13. We read and encourage our children to read at least one missionary biography a year...
I'll be quite honest this is one that I've never heard anyone be involved in. I wish someone had recommended it to us years ago! The few biographies I've read have really challenged and undoubtedly molded my life.
14. We have spent a family vacation assisting missionaries in another culture...
In our life we haven't even had the opportunity to take a vacation much less go far enough to assist a missionary. This is a great idea, however if you can get the money together. You might consider making this a special project for the family to get involved with. Start saving money while the kids are young and take several years to gather the funds, talk to missionaries about possibilities - as a family of course - and plan it. Then when the kids are old enough to really appreciate the trip - DO IT!
Would that be special or would that be special?
15. We have nationals of other cultures (Christian and/or non-Christian) in our home from time to time...
This also would be a ruff one
however there are many international students at many of our colleges and
universities so you could work it out if you wanted to work at it. There
is an international students evangelism mission that would be more than
glad to assist you in finding foreign students to invite into your home.