Faith At Home and the role of the Parent and the Church

Many people rely on the church as the main instructors of Faith in the life of a child or youth. This is a job of the church, to instruct people in the way of God's word, but it is not our duty alone. Faith teaching should be Parent led and church supported. 

Before I go on, I do not want it to seem like I am coming down on parents, because the church is more at fault in my opinion. We as the church have taken this duty on without instructing parents how to lead their children in the way of Faith. We just accept it as our "job description" to be the main faith instructors and we move on with life. Our job as the church is to give the necessary tools to disciples, so they can go and "make disciples" as well. (This is the main purpose of the blog, this is a tool for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles.... you get the idea.)

Lets take a look at a statistic....

 “Fewer than 10% of parents who regularly attend church with their kids read the Bible together, pray together (other than at meal times) or participate in an act of service as a family unit. Even fewer families – 1 out of every 20—have an type of worship experience together with their kids, other than while they are at church during a typical month,” (Barna 2003, 78). 

To me, as a young husband, minister, and hopefully one day a father, this is a ground shaking statistic. What we see by this statistic is if you are in a church of about 60 families, only 6 are reading the bible and praying together. Now this is on average. Some churches will have more, and some will have less, but the statistic is mind blowing all the same. We are approaching a time in society where "church" within the "church building" is becoming less popular. More church is happening in coffee shops, nail salons, on the baseball field before the Sunday morning game. So why can't church happen in the home. We all know that the church is the people, not the building. The building becomes the church as we the people of God (The church) occupy the building. Why do we not see our homes and our family as a small church unit?

If we read Deuteronomy 6: 4-9...

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your  soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them  on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. "

Deuteronomy lays out a clear picture that we as followers should abide. We are to take what we as adults, parents, followers have learned and impress them on our children. 

I think step 1 to faith at home is viewing our house and our family as a church.

I am going to let this marinate just a little...

Next post... The beginning to building Faith at Home

Resources:

Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions: Why Children should be your Churches #1 Priority, by: George Barna