The Problem:
Our churches have had it backwards for 50 years now. We have whole-heartedly ripped your kids from yours and your wife's hands and have made it our mission to isolate them from you and anyone else older than them. We have messed up big time and the statistics that have been coming in over the last 5-10 years are proving it. 70-85% of youth that attended church through their senior year of high-school have dropped out of the church scene by the end of the freshman year in college. Why? Because we haven't practiced the Word (Eph. 6:4) and have allowed discipleship to become a church program instead of a lifelong relationship between a father/mother and their kids.
Part of the Solution:
Hey dads, scripture calls on you, not the church, to disciple and raise your sons/daughters in the faith. You can make the first step towards becoming your childrens spiritual mentor by practicing routine family worship.
Family Worship Resolutions
- I will lead my family in reading the Bible together at least once a week
- I will lead my family in singing a song or songs from the Sunday set list at least once a week
- I will lead my family in a prayer time together at least once a week
Family Worship Tips
- Stay consistent
- Keep it brief - you want your family to enjoy it, not dread it
- Be patient
What Scripture Says:
Ephesians 6:4 - "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 - "These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 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."
Joshua 24:15 - "But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Psalm 78:4-7 - "we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done. 5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children, 6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. 7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.
What the Greats of our Faith Have Said:
- Richard Baxter - "We must have a special eye upon families, to see that they are well ordered. The welfare and glory of both the Church and the State, depend much on family government and duty. If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all. Therefore, if you desire reformation, do all you can to promote family religion."
- Jonathan Edwards - "Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful."
- Charles Spurgeon - "First, let us begin by emphatically declaring it is parents (fathers in particular) and not the church who are given the primary responsibility for calling the next generation to hope in God. The church serves a supplementary role, reinforcing the biblical nurture that is occurring in the home..."
