As for me and my house....

“I don’t want a church that focuses on families, I want a gospel centered church that equips families for the Kingdom of God.” (Dr. Timothy Paul Jones, Family Ministry Field Guide) 

If I had to choose a slogan for family ministry here at Faith, this couldn’t sum it up any better. As I continue to read books upon books and as I continue to study God’s word it is becoming clearer and more apparent that this is God’s design for the family and even for His Church.

If you look at some of the first disciples they immediately went and told their families. (Matt. 4, John 1:43-51) If you look at the culture of Hebrews in the Old Testament they took painstaking care to instruct their children until they were of age to study for themselves. (Deut. 6) Joshua makes the highly quoted statement referenced in the very title of this article, making an all to infamous stand for God in a godless world at the time. 

However the real issue at hand here is discipleship. I have read the book of Acts several times and I have ceased to find large evangelistic campaigns, tent revivals or door knocking. That’s not to say that those things don’t and haven’t worked in times past and presently and even in the future. I’m just simply stating what I have read in the Bible. Jesus charged His Church with the responsibility of disciple making, Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV) (emphasis my own) So if there are no campaigns for winning souls to Christ and then discipling them, how did 12 men turn the world upside down with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  I’m glad you asked. 

It’s not that conventional methods, programs and ministries don’t work, but we must remember Jesus spoke to a different audience 2000 years ago than He does today. He knew in the first century that the most influential position in all the world was the home. There was no large scale gov’t. run education system, a majority of the entire world still received all their training at home. I do find in the book of Acts where a father finds and falls in love with the Good News and he and his whole house/family were saved and baptized. (Acts 16) 

I guess what this young pastor is saying, instead of trying something new and exciting because it’s different, maybe it’s time to try something old that is proven. The Bible and its method of “training up a child” and Deut. 6:7-9, “7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

As we begin making disciples in our own homes and families, I truly believe it will take an act of God Himself to stop the Gospel message from spreading. If we can truly teach the Bible and it’s life altering message to our children (and maybe even ourselves) there will be nothing that can stop us from wanting to share that to everyone else we come into contact with. So here goes nothing..... “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 (ESV)(emphasis my own)