"Jesus followers actually decide to follow him. And regard

-ing Metroville, to be good kingdomlings we can’t be faith

-ful to this mission unless we get serious about our mate

-rialism, our consumer-oriented tendencies and our bent

toward individualism. We’ll go after these later, but suffice

it to say, it’s worth weighing the cost. Most Christian fami

-lies chose Metroville. For the sake of God’s mission, I hope

you don’t.

So the gospel is transformative, but not without a real

fight, real casualties, and real faith.

So herein lies the gut check that every parent must

settle before the mission begins. Do we want Metroville

Christianity or real kingdom Christianity to be the story

we put before and call our children into?

 

The pull of Metroville

 

Metroville represents the kingdom of this world. Although

it doesn’t look dangerous, we all know it is. Jesus made

some pretty harsh comments about the stark difference

between his world and our world: “You cannot love both

God and Money,” “If you want to please people, you can’t

be a servant of God,” “He who is not for me is against

me,” “Do not love the world or anything in the world for

the love of the world.”

His own words and the words of his followers make it

pretty clear that God’s ways are not our ways, and in fact

the ways of the world are under the swirling control of Sa

-tan and his minions or spirits that spin the globe clock

-wise, sucking people into business, financial debt, relation

-al strife, vice, depression, and a cornucopia of life habit

you’d face down a charging lion to keep your kids away

from. Bummer is, it doesn’t look like a predator trying to

rip life from you and your children. It looks like the Amer

-ican dream and is guised in empty promises that seem to

trip and snag most of us.

The second reason you might not take your family

where Jesus wants you to is because of GRACE. Grace is

getting stuff you don’t deserve and not getting what you do

deserve. The grace of God like a wild animal trainer who

opens the door of a caged up gazelle, allowing it to run

free. It’s crazy, but God won’t ever force His ways on us

or our kids and He’ll ask you to operate this way with your

own kids. So for you and your children, apprenticing your

family after the way of Jesus must be a choice. You can

love Jesus, be thankful for his gift of grace, and your salva

-tion and never leave Metroville. This book will be honest

and we won’t pull any punches. If you give Jesus your life,

or even harder, the lives of your kids, it will be scary and

you’ll have to give them back to him . . . completely.

If it were up to me, I’d probably not call you to this lev

-el of life. I’m a people pleaser so I prefer you just be happy.

But now that I’m about twenty-five years into our story, I

also, yes, even more, want to call you away from risk man

-agement, safe environments, and small vision for your kids.

The gospel of Jesus is the most wild, life-reorienting vor

-tex you can ever be drawn into and I think your greatest

joy will be to show them the real story and help them live

the real story.

And someday, it will feel pretty cool to stand with your

kids before Jesus and see him give everyone a wink, a big

thumbs up, and to hear him say, ‘Thanks, your family was

a blast to watch live such a large life!’"

-The Righteous Brood: Making Your Family the Front Line of Mission, Hugh Halter (p. 26-27)