Normal Christian families and....the other people

While musing recently on the demographics of the (universal) church, I was considering how certain Christian life things seem to be more complicated for the Christian population that comes from broken homes or non-Christian homes.

For instance, a man who grew up without a Christian father may experience hesitation from a future spouse and/or father-in-law because he may not understand what it means to be a Christian husband and father. The same for a child of divorced parents, and the same may be true for either example if he were looking to get into ministry.

I realized while musing thus that I have been thinking incorrectly about this Christian population, but not in regards to how we should respond to these brothers and sisters. While those experiences can be disproportionate and unfair, they may not always be wrong. What I thought was wrong was that I viewed these phenomena as a minority, and exception to the rule. What do we do with people who don't grow up in Christian homes and have good Christian instruction?

First, I needed to understand that everybody has a deficient upbringing. No one had a perfect childhood (duh).

Second, I needed to realize that brothers and sisters in Christ that have grown up without Christian parents or with divorced parents, or Christians saved in their 50's that don't have believing children should not be a minority. They are not an anomaly. If we are doing evangelism right, we will be taking the Gospel to to the unsaved at all stages of life and, by God's grace, welcoming new believers from every walk of life.

This, of course, does not discount the necessity and joy of families training up children in righteousness and many generations sharing a spiritual family as well. But, while we want this, we should just as often have a young mother/new believer relearning how to parent, a new believer teen boy learning how to be a man because his dad wasn't, and couples getting happily married even though their parents divorced. This should be happening as often as "normal" Christian families.