Okay, we’ve all heard about being missional, and we all know at least something about motherhood. But have you thought about missional motherhood? That’s our topic of conversation today.
Greetings! I’m Fred Zaspel, executive editor here at Books At a Glance, and we’re talking to Gloria Furman, author of the new book, Missional Motherhood: The Everyday Ministry of Motherhood in the Grand Plan of God.
Gloria is talking to us all the way from Dubai where her husband is a church pastor, where she and her husband and her family live. Gloria, great to have you with us today!
Furman:
Thanks so much for having me!
Zaspel:
Okay, tell us what your new book is all about. What is your thesis?
Furman:
The thesis is in the subtitle and then I tease it out a bit more in the book. I believe the everyday Ministry of motherhood is part of God’s mission.
Zaspel:
The book is already out, I think. It was launched May 17, right?
Furman:
That’s right, it’s available.
Click here to listen to the audio of this interview.
Zaspel:
What audience to you have in mind? You’re not writing just for new mothers, are you?
Furman:
Right, thank you for asking that. It’s not just for women who are biological mothers at all. It’s for every woman who is in Christ. So when I say the word ‘mother,’ I mean it as a synonym for nurture, using ‘mother’ as an action verb. I’m thinking of women who have biological children, adopted children and spiritual children as well. I’m thinking of women who are called to Christ and then called to go make disciples of Christ and nurture them in the gospel.
Zaspel:
Can you give us a bird’s eye glance at the book and how you approach your subject?
Furman:
Yes. A bird’s eye view – It is divided into two parts. The first part is an overarching, big picture, huge vision of God’s mission as we see in the Old Testament. I fly really fast and high over that big, big story and pick up at different places parts where we see God’s mission and how he’s called us to his pattern and to trust his promises. Specifically angling my application for women in those sections. Then the second section is more of a systematic look. The first was more of a biblical theology of nurturing and motherhood and discipleship. The second half is a more systematic approach at the person of Christ and who he is for us. Some of the chapter titles in the second half are: Christ, the Creator of Motherhood; Christ, the Redeemer of Motherhood; Christ our Prophet; Christ, Every Mother’s Priest and so on. So, two different sections, the bookends being the big picture, and then landing on that runway of application in the realm of mothering disciples of Jesus.
Zaspel:
Tell us how you see missional motherhood as simply a subset of the Big Story of God’s purpose.I thought that was interesting.
Furman:
Thanks. I think I was first struck by this when I realized that in God’s pronouncement of the curse and his announcement of the gospel in Genesis 3 that we get to live outside the garden. That hit me. We get to live outside the garden. And then seeing Adam’s faith in calling his wife the mother of all living. That he could see that God would be faithful to that promise. That somebody would come. And that shakes me still that we get to live outside the garden and nurture life in the face of death. Ultimately then we see Jesus doing that, nurturing our spiritual lives, our eternal lives and even in person in his ministry he is nurturing physical lives as well in the face of death, in his impending death. That was what did it for me and everything just kind of unfolded from there.
Zaspel:
In the face of death, but it’s also in the face of hope.
Furman:
Exactly.
Zaspel:
You summarize your book in a single sentence – can you tease that out for us a bit?
Furman:
Sure, the summary sentence is this – Jesus invites women to missional motherhood; to follow his patterns; to trust his promises and to nurture others by the power he provides. Teasing that out. Following his pattern – his pattern is a cruciform. He takes up his cross and he gives his life, lays it down, in the ultimate sacrifice. We have to follow his pattern every day. If I don’t have that pattern in my own mind, then my mothering takes on a different form. It takes on a me-centered form. I forget who I am newly created in Christ to be.
To trust his promises – if I’m not trusting in Christ’s promises, specifically in those promises where he says he is going to be with us always even to the end of the age, we are making disciples and if the impetus for motherhood is to make disciples of Jesus, then I want to hang on to that great commission promise every day, that he is with me to the end of… naptime, to the end of the carpool line, to the end of stretching a budget month, to the end of toilet training. To the end of all those things. If I’m not trusting his promises, then I’m trusting a promise that is not really going to pan out in the end. I’ve tasted enough hope to know that that’s not what I want for myself. And it’s not something I want to model for my kids or my disciples.
Nurturing others by the power he provides – that’s from that I Peter passage, with the strength that he provides so that God gets the glory in Jesus Christ. We wouldn’t want to point others to us as being the source of our hope and peace and power but to him alone.
Zaspel:
This is not your first book – would you care to tell us about your others for us quickly before we wrap up?
Furman:
Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home – Taking everyday scenes from home life and applying the gospel in those and showing how our home life is a lens through which we can see the grace of God.
Treasuring Christ when Your Hands are Full: Gospel Meditations for a Busy Moms – my hope in titling that one was that if you don’t have time to read it, if you’re too busy of a momthen at least you can be encouraged and have your faith strengthened by the title.
The Pastor’s Wife: Strengthened by Grace for a Life of Love – not just for pastor’s wives but for all wives as well.
Word-Filled Women’s Ministry: Loving and Serving the Church (with Kathleen Nielson)
Zaspel:
We’re talking to Gloria Furman, author of the new book, Missional Motherhood: The Everyday Ministry of Motherhood in the Grand Plan of God, a very helpful reminder and challenge for the ladies who check in here at Books At a Glance – we encourage you to get a copy!
Gloria, thanks so much for being with us today.
Furman:
Thank you very much.
