Journal: Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry
Volume: JDFM 02:2 (Spring 2012)
Article: Equipping the Generations: A Trinitarian Model for Motherhood and Ministry
Author: Kori De Leon

JFM 2:2 (Spring/Summer 2012) p. 78

Equipping the Generations:
A Trinitarian Model for Motherhood and Ministry

Kori De Leon

Kori de Leon (M.A., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a speaker, conference leader, writer, and director of Adoring Christ Ministries. Kori, her husband Bobby, and daughter Jade live in the Houston area.

When I became pregnant with my first child I realized God graciously gives nine months to prepare us for the life-changing experience to come. Since God established my ministry before giving me a child I began praying and considering theologically what it looks like to be a mother and outward minister. I use the word “outward” because I firmly believe motherhood is a ministry in itself.

Trinitarian Foundations

The biblical foundation for the model I began to see is the Trinity: God is three distinct persons; each person is fully God yet God remains one being.1 God is love (1 John 4:16) but love is a relational term. In other words, in order to love, there must be someone or something to love. Some have suggested that God created humanity because he needed someone to love. Yet John 17:24 tells us that God was love before the foundation of the world; he was love before he created.

How could this be ?

The answer is, of course, the Trinity. At the core of God’s being, he is three distinct persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three persons are a community of love.

Scripture teaches that God did not create humanity because he needed humanity (Acts 17:24). Instead, he created humanity out of the overflow of the joy and love that exists within the Trinity. As John Piper says, God’s joy “wants to share itself”2 Thus we read the striking statement in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’“

Familial Implications

The most basic microcosm of human community is the family unit. Pregnancy is the way that new image-bearers of God are added to the fundamental family unit of a husband and wife. God designed this community to reflect the Trinity by each person finding their joy or satisfaction in God, treasuring each other’s unique individuality and roles, and letting this joy overflow into self-giving acts of love toward one another. In sum, humanity reflects the Trinity by being a community of love.

And here is where I believe motherhood and outward ministry merge. Just as the joy...