What can readers expect to find in The Storm-Tossed Family? This is a book about the family, but family in light of the cross. It is at the Place of the Skull where we see the hidden presence of a faithful Father, the visible presence of a human mother, the background of a life lived out with an infancy, a childhood, and a hometown. There we see a Groom fighting for his Bride.

How would you define family in light of the cross? The church is a household economy, where all of us use our gifts for the sake of the mission. The fact that every person has a gift for the upbuilding of the rest of us is one more way of God signaling to us that we belong. We are wanted. We are loved...We are family. That means no Christian lives alone, and no Christian dies alone. There’s no such thing as a “single” Christian.

What inspired you to write on the topic of family? We are shaped and formed by family in all sorts of routine and unexceptional ways that we may never even notice or remember. However, we must see the family clearly, and we must see beyond it. The only safe harbor for a storm-tossed family is a nail-scarred home.

Why did you use the phrase “Storm-Tossed Family”? What does that entail? Bound up in a storm is both a blessing and a curse. And in both the blessing of rain and the peril of the storm, we lose all of our illusions of control. Family is like that too: the source of life-giving blessing but also of excruciating terror, often all at the same time.

How does the cross tie into that metaphor? These families of ours can be filled with joy, but will always make us vulnerable to pain. And the joy and the pain are pointing us to the same place: the cross.

Do you have any advice for those struggling with their home life? The way of the cross leads Home. The Light shines in the darkness, still, and the darkness has yet to overcome it. Whatever storms you may face now, you can survive. If you listen carefully enough, even in the scariest, most howling moments, you can hear a Galilean voice saying, “Peace. Be still.”

What do you hope readers will take away from The Storm-Tossed Family? Your family, whatever it is, will bless you, maybe in ways you don’t even notice in the blur of busyness at the moment. Stop and notice these blessings. Listen to what God is telling you through them. They will lead you where you never expected to go. But this is no reason for fear. The path before you is the way of the cross.


The following is an excerpt from The Storm-Tossed Family

For those of us in Christ, though, storms should be no surprise. They need not panic us, nor need they destroy us. The worst thing that can happen to you is not whatever you went through with your mother or father. The worst thing that can happen to you is not your sister who won’t speak to you. The worst thing that can happen to you is not a spouse walking out on you, or cheating on you, or dying on you. The worst thing that can happen to you is not seeing your child rebel against you, or even attending your child’s funeral, as awful as all those things are. The worst thing that can happen to you is dying under the judgment of God, bearing the full weight of the sentence of death and hell. If you are in Christ, that’s already happened to you. You are not only a survivor; you are a beloved child, an heir of everything. Even so, it’s hard to remember all of that when your life seems to be reeling back and forth on stormy seas.

Whatever your storms, though, you are not in uncharted waters. Psalm 107 speaks to this evocatively. “Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep,” the psalmist writes. “For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; they reeled and staggered like drunken men who were at their wits’ end” (Ps. 107:23–27). But the psalm does not end there. “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed” (Ps. 107:28–29).

The disciples of Jesus must have thought of this passage as they rocked back and forth in a sudden storm on the waters of Galilee. The panic in their minds and voices is palpable, especially in Mark’s rendering of the moment. Jesus, though, was asleep on a cushion. The disciples cannot be blamed for resenting this, for crying out “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). Jesus woke up, but not with the adrenaline-pumping alarm that most of us would expect. He spoke to the storm: “Peace! Be still.” And it was gone. Elsewhere, the same pattern would be repeated. The boat was in a storm, “beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them” (Matt. 14:24). Jesus, again, was preternaturally calm, walking out on the storm-tossed waters themselves. When Peter attempted to join him, though, he was knocked down, not so much by the storm as by his own panic. “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me’” (Matt. 14:30). Jesus, of course, grabbed him by the hand. In this, of course, Jesus was doing what he would do for all of us. He would endure the sign of Jonah, go into the storm of sin and death and hell, and take us by the hand to pull us out, safely toward home. Jesus was not panicked by the storms around him because he was headed into another storm, the really scary one, at the cross. The more that I think of it, maybe the question, “Have you failed in the plans of your storm-tossed life” isn’t loaded with a mixed metaphor after all. Maybe it makes more sense than I knew. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t write this book without humming that tune.

Excerpted with permission from The Storm-Tossed Family by Russel Moore. Copyright 2018, B&H Publishing Group.


Family can be the source of some of the most transcendent human joy, and family can leave us crumpled up on the side of the road. Family can make us who we are, and family can break our hearts. Why would this social arrangement have that much power, for good or for ill, over us?

Why do our families have so much power over us? In The Storm-Tossed Family, bestselling author Russell Moore (Onward, Christianity Today's 2016 "Book of the Year Award Winner") teaches readers whether you are married or single, whether you long for a child or shepherding a full house, you are part of a family. Family is difficult because family—every family—is an echo of the gospel.

Russell Moore serves as the eighth president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the moral and public policy agency of the nation's largest Protestant denomination. He is also the author of Onward: Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel.

Why do our families have so much power over us? In The Storm-Tossed Family, bestselling author Russell Moore (Onward, Christianity Today's 2016 "Book of the Year Award Winner") teaches readers whether you are married or single, whether you long for a child or shepherding a full house, you are part of a family. Family is difficult because family—every family—is an echo of the gospel.