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AUSTIN?After radically changing his church’s culture to reflect a family emphasis, Pastor Ryan Rush has seen homes healed and new growth at Bannockburn Baptist Church in Austin.
“Over the last 20 years, [family] has been my heart and passion,” said Rush, also a radio host and author of a life-management book based on Psalm 90 called “Home on Time.” After serving as family pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., for eight years, Rush returned to Texas and transitioned Bannockburn to a family-oriented culture, beginning with its mission statement?”to guide generations to become passionate follows of Jesus Christ one home at time.”
“The passion for Jesus Christ is commonplace for any church that is Great Commission-based,” said Rush, who has served at Bannockburn for six years. “But the unique element is the generational side. We really believe in the power of cross-generational ministry and the young honoring the old and the old pouring themselves into the lives of the young.”
Although the church still offers age-graded classes, there is one “cross-generational” worship service. “We place a high value on everybody stretching in our worship setting,” Rush said, adding that there are no contemporary or traditional controversies over music or preaching style. “We see more value in having all ages together in worship than in having our preferences met.”
Rush said their family philosophy also recognizes that ministry mandates are not completed within the walls of the church. “They have to be completed when they are exported to every home we serve. That is far more encompassing than family ministry,” he said, referring to marriage or parenting ministries. “But home ministries are exporting all ministries to homes whether [they are] single, isolated family members [where the rest of the family isn’t involved at church] a family by the strict definition, or a hurting family.”
Using the model from 1 Timothy 5, Rush said Paul’s instructions regarding the structure of the church demonstrates the home is the primary equipper of benevolence or help across the generations.
As such, Rush said the church logo serves as a visual reminder to church members of the significance God places on the home. Four-colored quadrants encircle a cross, conveying a single focus on Christ through the four-fold mandates of worshipping, giving, inviting, and discovering God’s truth.
“Embedded inside [the logo] is the icon of the home, and that puts before our people that no matter what they are involved in at the church it must be exported home,” he said.
“And the one activator of connecting home and church life is the promises of Scripture,” Rush said, referring to the commands of Deuteronomy 6, Psalm 78, and Ephesians 6 that all pertain to home life.
“That means if we can connect the promises at home so that people are internalizing them, then you’ve won the battle?living things out at home,” Rush said. “This is more than a program, seminar, or devotional, as good as all those things are. We call that process ‘faith breakthroughs.'”
Defined as “using the promises of God to break through the barriers in our homes/lives that keep us from living the life God intended,” Rush said faith breakthroughs involve reading, discussing, and memorizing Scripture.
“And all of that may sound general, but it extends across the church. Everyone is engaged in the process.”
Yet transitioning to a family philosophy does not require hiring a family pastor, Rush cautioned.
Rush said each of his pastoral staff believes himself to be a family pastor. “[I]n children’s ministry their job is primarily to equip the parents to equip the children. The student pastor would say the same?to equip the parents to equip the children and also to equip the teens to prepare for their own home lives, not just to have a good time. Our singles pastor embraces the idea of faith and home because their home lives largely determine success or failure later on?or define who they are today.”
