Don Hart explains in this video that having one's home in order is certainly a Scriptural command and is a requirement to be in a position of church leadership. Just because one's home is in disorder doesn't mean that we shouldn't evangelize or that we can't talk about the things of God with others. The mere fact of one's family being in order is a witness to others.

1 Timothy 5:8 (NKJV) - "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

Our Lord's last command is our first priority. In the church, in the family, in the city, to the ends of the earth. Join us in October for White Under Harvest. I think order in the home is certainly a scriptural command. We certainly see it described in terms of those who would desire to evangelize in the context of the church as a leader in the church, as one who would aspire to the office of elder pastor overseer.

Of course, the context of evangelism in the church is very interesting, but these men who are to be leaders in the church are qualified by the order that we find in their homes. And so you certainly can't argue very effectively that there is some kind of a disconnect between good order in the family and what should be going on with regard to evangelism. We also, though, can't use that as an excuse to fail in opportunities that we have to evangelize. If we wait for our homes to be in perfect order, we'll never evangelize and we won't have any elders or pastors either. What we're looking for is a normal condition of order, a normal condition of children who are in subjection to their fathers and who are not in rebellion and in a home that is in order.

And of course, that testimony with regard to a family is so critical to our credibility as we seek to evangelize. People look at us and they evaluate our evangelism message frequently by things that we don't really realize that they're looking at. Our credibility is often so closely tied to the order in which we have our families. So in my perspective I think there's a strong connection between evangelism and order in the home. Whether we're talking about leaders in the church preparing the church to go and evangelize, discipling the Saints, or whether we're talking about an evangelism opportunity.

The situation with the family and how that impacts people is difficult to overstate. I don't know how many times I've had folks come back to me and say, you know, it wasn't you, it wasn't so much the message that you had. What really grabbed my attention and gave you credibility was your family and how I saw you interacting. And the Lord gives us precious opportunities whenever we have our hearts turned towards our families and we seek godly order.