God's best for your family?

Some people are just smarter than me...or they know how to say something that's been on my heart, but they're able to actually say it in a way that is beneficial to the listener. Rather than my stumbling and often confusing mess that seems to come from my mouth (at least that's how it seems sometimes).

Larry Shallenberger is one of those people when it comes to family/children's ministry. The question was posed to him recently about what he thought "were the biggest cultural forces that pull families away from God's best for them."

Here's his response:

"I’m going to define “God’s best” as “imperfect and messy families being caught up in God’s story.” That’s probably as good as things get in this life. Anybody making bigger claims is probably trying to sell us something.

The cultural forces that challenge families? I’d go with:

1) The crisis of fatherlessness in America: There’s an epidemic children being raise without dads. When this happens, moms tend to be overworked and chronically exhausted; boys tend to get caught up in violence and crime; and educational performance goes down in boys and girls. The family lowers it’s goals to survival and connection with God drops off the radar. Every children and youth pastor in America should read two books– Fatherless Generation by Dr. John Sowers and Father Fiction by Donald Miller.

2) Consumerism: My greatest fear about family ministry is we package them as commodities that will fix families and make them happier, more virtuous, and godlier. Those are all fantastic goals. However, I don’t see those families in scripture. What I see, particularly in the book of Genesis, is that God collects a large train-wreck of a family, and, by his mercy, enfolds them into his plan for redemption. God isn’t a product to fix families." – Larry Shallenberger

These two issues are just as prevalent in the suburbs as they are in low-income areas. In fact, the second one may be even more of a danger in the 'burbs.

Your thoughts when you read this?