This post digresses from my book-writing to highlight an article that reminds us how important it is that we keep our own children and family at the heart of our church expressions and spiritual life. The simple, Biblical model is that our church gatherings, as well as our whole walk with God, embrace the family naturally and experientially.
Rob Rienow writes in Mission Frontiers:
Evangelism and discipleship are in dire crisis, and it is a generational crisis. We’re losing more of our own children to the world than we are winning adult converts to faith in Christ. As a result, the percentage of Bible-believing Christians in the United States is in steady decline.
Rob backs this up with some sobering facts about the decline, generationally, of those who trust in Christ alone for salvation. This is a sharp cry for the body of Christ in the U.S. to wake up!
But even more poignant is Rob's diagnosis of the problem:
Slowly but surely, we abandoned the biblical model of family discipleship and delegated the spiritual training of our children to “professionals” at church. I led this model at a large church for over a decade. One of the unintended consequences of my ministry approach which systematically separated children from their parents was that parents were free to remain spiritually passive at home. After all, they were making sure that their son or daughter was involved in a “great youth group.”
Just changing our church gatherings to simple/organic expressions will not solve this, but it can be a step in the direction of putting the family, as a whole, back in the center of our life with God. I pray that we will continue to take many more steps until we see again that God is working powerfully through 'households' rather than simply individuals.
Read Rob's full article here.
Comments
5 responses to “Children & Family Are At the Heart of It”
All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.
(Jdg 2:10 NASB)
The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.” Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
(Jdg 6:12-13 NASB)
But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
(Act 4:19-20 NASB)
Stories of past glories will not cut it with this generation. They need to “see” and “hear” and experience the works of God for themselves .
I have a question more than a comment. First a little background. My husband is an elder at a local church plant, we’ve been part of church planting in the reformed movement for over 5 years now. We also have 7 children and homeschool, we are purposeful in raising our children for the glory of God. My husband and his friend are planning of planting another church in the next year or so. He has been talking alot about home church. We are attending a conference this fall in which Paul Washer will be speaking. From my understanding his church meets in spread out in homes with Elder led meetings, and only meets corporately for service projects and other things. How does house church work? Never been a part of one, as a matter of fact I was part of the typical church “machine” as I call it. I was trained in music “ministry” and part of the glitz and glamour distraction for almost a decade berfore walking away 7 years ago. How does accountability and leadership work, we are part of a family intergrated church so we are not program heavy. I’m just asking about the practical aspects of running a house church and the accountability of it. Thank you for your blog and the above article is spot on!
Hi Shannon, I appreciate your questions about the practicalities of house church. I think there are several resources that can help you including this blog itself. On the top right of this page is a section called “The Basics” which includes some information about leadership. Also, the book I have available online for free may be useful: http://www.simplechurchrevolution.com. Finally, here are some books that others have found useful: “Houses that changed the world” by Wolfgang Simson; “The Starfish Manifesto” by Wolfgang Simson; “The Faith of Leap” by Alan Hirsch, “Organic Church” by Neil Cole, and “Getting Started by Felicity” Dale.
This is such a needed awareness, if only those that needed it as I did years ago, could get it. I was dying inside back then about how to practice this at home, being bound to a dead denominational style local church.
Children do what they see, not necessarily what they are told. My Dad did not want his children to smoke cigarettes, I remember encouraging him to stop smoking when I was growing up. But when I grew up, I started smoking cigarettes. I also did not feel like I needed to hide it because he always smoke, so it must not be wrong. I am a non-smoker now after 12+ years of being a smoker. My point, I did what I saw and not what I was told. I’m sure alcoholics do not want their children to become alcoholics, but if you do it in front of them, they will very possibility think that excessive drinking is acceptable.