Church-Parent Partnership in Discipling Children

The church's role is to nurture, encourage and equip parents to train and disciple their own child. This was the main theme of my article in the summer edition of the ChinaSource Journal titled, "As the Family Goes, So Goes the Church." The local church has the responsicility to engage and equip parents to be spiritual leaders of their child. God's Word teaches that parents have the primary responsibility to disciple their child - not the church or the school. Parents have become distracted by the self-imposed pressure to help their child excel intellectually and are not giving as much attention to mentoring their child to know, love and serve God. Church leaders in china must reclaim their responsibility to nurture the spiritual life of parents so that they, in thurn, can train their own child spiritually.

During the last few years, there has been a growing realization in the church around the world of the need to develop far more effective ministries with children and youth. Leaders recognize that they have not given proper attention to targeting this demographic group. In response, there has been an increasing realization in China to "rethink" the way we mentor and disciple children.

Helping Children Do Great Things for Tomorrow

What are you doing today to help your children accomplish great things for God tomorrow? This morning I read 1 Chronicles 22-27. These chapters describe how David prepares for the temple that his son, Solomon, will build to honor God. David gathers the building materials but the task of finishing the duty goes to Solomon.

David is a good example of a farsighted father. The greatness which Solomon would later achieve was a large measure due to the careful planning and provision which his father, David, made before his death. Though Solomon receives the acclaim for building the temple which bears his name, it was David who drafted the blueprints, gathered the materials, signed up the workers and created an elaborate public relations program to ensure support! David envisioned greatness in his son that he himself would never achieve, and he did his best to pave the way for it.

What sort of heritage will you leave your children to build upon? Will they someday be able to thank God for your farsightedness in building a library, providing for their education, or instilling a vision for ministry that they can continue after you are gone? Take some time today to plan a project for future spiritual greatness for your children.

Raising The Next President

We received some wise parenting advice today from an unlikely source. We visited the William Howard Taft Historic Site, the birthplace of the only man to serve as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the United States. The park ranger's guided tour emphasized the importance of Taft's family, and the National Park Service brochure amplified the purposeful efforts of his parents in guiding his upbringing. Taft's mother Louise wrote about her parenting strategy in 1860, when Taft was three years old and the Civil War was about to begin. Louise Taft wrote, "I am more and more impressed with the responsibility of training children properly. It is what we are, not what we do in reference to them, which will make its impression on their lives." Listen again: "what we are, not what we do" that fulfills "our responsibility of training children properly." The brochure recounts the efforts that Taft's parents made toward that end, opening their home for Christmas sing-alongs, games and dances, dinners with Taft's friends, and discussions about slavery and women's suffrage with visiting celebrities. Taft fondly remembered his childhood as he matured into the President and the Chief Justice.

How do we fulfill our responsibility to raise our children properly? How do we use our homes? How will our children remember their childhood? I pray that we will have the same impression on our children that Louise Taft had on her future President and Chief Justice of the United States.

"4/14 Window Summit" in Cameroon

My 13 year old daughter, Laura, and I just returned from a two week trip to Cameroon. We went with a team of people to launch the vision of the 4/14 Window movement in that country. We partnered with Silas Nfor and a steering committee of Cameroon children's ministry leaders.

The 4/14 Window is a missions strategy to focus on a demographic season of life comprising the years between 4 and 14. This is the time in a person's life when they are most receptive to the gospel of Christ. Research data shows that 85% of those who become Christians do so between the ages of 4 and 14.

On January 4-5, 2010 we launched the 4/14 Window Summit in Bamenda, Cameroon. The purpose of the summit was to bring the vision of the 4/14 Global Movement to church leaders in Cameroon. Eighty leaders representing 25 churches and ministries gathered to hear about this new global mission strategy. Ten people gave presentations on the importance of the 4/14 Window and strategies to raise up a new generation to transform the world.

Worship Christ as Lord during this Christmas Season!

This morning I pulled a book off the top shelf of the bookcase to look at it again after many years. This is a special book. I gave it to John, my husband, several years ago when we started thinking about having family worship. It's entitled: "Daily Family devotion; or, Guide to Family Worship" by the Rev. John Cumming and was published in Edinburgh, Scotland around 1700. Many years ago (about 20) we asked our friend and pastor, Scott McAlpine, who is from Scotland and now pastors a church in Washington, DC, to bring us a book like this when he took a trip to Scotland. We have treasured it ever since.

Inside the book, W. Lindsay Alexander writes an introduction which reminds us of the importance of family worship. Here is an excerpt:

The institution of family religion has come down to us from the remotest
antiquity, invested with the highest sanction, and recommended by the noblest
examples. The first social worship in our world was family worship. When the
progenitors of our race gathered around the altar hard by the gates of lost
Paradise, it was as a family group that they assembled: and though error and
ungodliness too soon introduced schism into their little society, and set up a
rival altar to that at which they worshipped, yet in the line in which the
primeval revelation was preserved, the worship of the true God by devotion and
sacrifice was followed, and the father still officiate as the priest and
minister of his household.

Abraham, the friend of God, content to dwell in tents, and to lead a nomade life, that he might show that he sought not an earthly settlement, but a heavenly inheritance, was careful, wherever he pitched his tent for any protracted stay, to build there an altar, that he might call on the name of the Lord. His example in this respect was followed by his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob. And that in thus providing for the worship of God they sought not merely their own spiritual benefit, but were solicitous also for that of their households, is evident from ceretain statement in the brief record of their history.

More on this tomorrow.......

Family Education - Hebrew or American?

Families today hear a lot about the importance of shaping and discipling the next generation. Along with that envisioning we have a lot of tools and resources to equip families to disciple their children. But there still seems to be inactivity on the part of Christian parents. Why? We realize that parents have a great potential in developing spiritual strong young people.

Could it be there we are not basing our ministry in the home to raise up disciples on a holistic model? One that involves the spiritual, relational, experiential and instructional dynamics of transformation.

Let's learn from the ancient Jewish education. These lessos may help us fram the nurturing in our own families. The practices of the Jewish home show a holistic process of transformation. According to Edward Hayes in his book, The Biblical Foundation of Christian Education, "The relgious rites of Hebrew people were occasions for pedagogy. Household ritual provoked wonder, reverence, and joy, as well as questions." Parents should strive to intentionally set spiritual goals and think about a holistic process to disciple their children to know and love God.

Ancient Jewish families viewed the "extended family" when they defined the term family. Today, how can we think more creatively about inter-generational people building?

In ancient Jewish homes, all generations were learning together. Life together, conversations, working together and eating together were more prevalent in Jewish homes. It's pretty hard to have conversations when we rise up (referring to Deuteronomy 6) and laong the road when we are too busy or when we don't have a plan.

So what does this mean to us today as we discern our responsibility as parents to train and disciple children?

Can Parents Teach Their Children about God?

With Internet, TV, sports, school activities, friends, music lessons, and family, kids' lives today are pretty crowded. A survey done by the Barna Research Group (May 2003) revealed that 85 percent of parents of children under age 13 believe they have the primary responsiblity for teaching their children about religious beliefs and spiritual matters, and 96 percent believe it's their job to teach their children values.

But, "Related research revealed that a majority of parents do not spend any time during a typical week discussing religious matters or studying religious materials with their children" (Barna Research Online).

Clearly, the church has a role to play in the spiritual nurture of children but is it playing a role that effectively equips parents to fullfill their responsibility to train up their own children?

I'm chewing on the morsel of a proverb;

I'll let you in on the sweet old truths,

stories we heard from our fathers,

counsel we learned at our mother's knee.

We're not keeping this to ourselves,

we're passing it along to the next generation -

God's fame and fortune,

the marvelous things he has done.

He planted a witness in Jacob,

set his Word firmly in Israel,

then commanded our parents

to teach it to their children

so the next generation would know,

and all the generations to come -

know the truth and tell the stories

so their children can trust in God,

never forget the works of God

but keep his commands to the letter.

- Psalm 78:2-7, The Message