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Family Matters
Listen to today’s devo!
If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church? (1 Tim. 3:5)
Expanded Passage: 1 Timothy 3:2-5
Mom’s Night Out (2014) is a hilarious Christian comedy film. It’s also a poignant portrait of the pressure to be perfect—or at least appear perfect—that a pastor’s family faces. As a PK (preacher’s kid) myself, I know that world firsthand. In one scene in the movie, the pastor’s wife shares how much she appreciates being invited to a night out with friends where she can let down her guard and relax. Later, her daughter has her own epiphany about being genuinely cared for, not just constrained by her family’s status (all this amid hijinks involving tasers, toddlers, taxi chases, and tattoo artists!).
It’s easy to make Paul our fall guy for pastoral family pressures. He set high standards for church leaders’ family life: leaders should be faithful to their spouses and keep their kids in line. But these were Paul’s norms for Christian households generally (Eph. 5:21—6:4). He didn’t expect leaders’ homes to be perfect, just par for the course. Before criticizing a pastoral family, then, we’d best make sure our own houses are in order. And whether ours are or aren’t, let’s take a lesson from the women in Mom’s Night Out by supporting rather than scolding or slandering our leaders’ family lives. That kind of caring goes a long way toward easing the pressures of leading at home and in the church.
Do something supportive for a family in church leadership.
Jerome Van Kuiken is professor of Christian thought at Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OK) and author of The Creed We Need (Amazon) and The Judas We Never Knew (Seedbed).
© 2026 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
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By The Wesleyan Church
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Listen to today’s devo!
If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church? (1 Tim. 3:5)
Expanded Passage: 1 Timothy 3:2-5
Mom’s Night Out (2014) is a hilarious Christian comedy film. It’s also a poignant portrait of the pressure to be perfect—or at least appear perfect—that a pastor’s family faces. As a PK (preacher’s kid) myself, I know that world firsthand. In one scene in the movie, the pastor’s wife shares how much she appreciates being invited to a night out with friends where she can let down her guard and relax. Later, her daughter has her own epiphany about being genuinely cared for, not just constrained by her family’s status (all this amid hijinks involving tasers, toddlers, taxi chases, and tattoo artists!).
It’s easy to make Paul our fall guy for pastoral family pressures. He set high standards for church leaders’ family life: leaders should be faithful to their spouses and keep their kids in line. But these were Paul’s norms for Christian households generally (Eph. 5:21—6:4). He didn’t expect leaders’ homes to be perfect, just par for the course. Before criticizing a pastoral family, then, we’d best make sure our own houses are in order. And whether ours are or aren’t, let’s take a lesson from the women in Mom’s Night Out by supporting rather than scolding or slandering our leaders’ family lives. That kind of caring goes a long way toward easing the pressures of leading at home and in the church.
Do something supportive for a family in church leadership.
Jerome Van Kuiken is professor of Christian thought at Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OK) and author of The Creed We Need (Amazon) and The Judas We Never Knew (Seedbed).
© 2026 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.