Some Practical Suggestions to Exercising Faith with your family....

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Phil.2:12-13 ESV)

One of the things I keep hearing, reading and seeing in the youth of today is, how does my faith apply to real life? How do I live a life dedicated to Jesus and His glory that we talk about all the time? We as fathers, mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers and church members in general have a responsibility to live out our faith and not only that but to also show others how to live out their faith. We should be instructing them, investing in others, teaching them, and showing them how real life faith is worked out in the real world. 

I hope my theologians and scholars in the church don’t crucify me for this one. No deep theological discussions or scriptures this week. This week my aim is to give some simple yet impactful suggestions for exercising faith as a family. 

1.) Open the Word of God as a family, (I told you it wouldn’t be real deep remember) I know it sounds simple but don’t just find time to do a devotion, don’t just squeeze it in on the days you have time. Make time each and every day to open the Word. Show your family it is important, so important that it becomes a priority each and every day. Utilize the tools the church provides like weekly devotions and family lessons. (Dinner time is a great time, in most families it may be the only time a family is completely together, so use it!) This is not age restricted, it should be an all your life practice. Grandparents take time and open the scriptures with your grandkids and show them, tell them what they have meant for you in different stages of your life and how they have gotten you through the good times and the bad. 

2.) Make teachable moments out of everything.  One of the greatest joys a person could ever have is opening up one of life’s moments and being able to relate it to God. Remember the whole WWJD craze? It really isn’t a bad practice to be able to take real life experiences and say, “What does the Bible have to say about this?” An example is when you take your kids, grandkids, or even friends to the movies and something comes up that you weren’t expecting. Maybe crude language, or inappropriate sexual relationships, or any number of things you are likely to see in a movie today; instead of doing what we have always done and saying, “Don’t do that, or we don’t talk like that, or do those types of things” try this, well what did you think of the movie? When the topic of the questionable material comes up then go to the Word of God and say well this is what God has to say about that, but don’t let it stop there. Children, friends and family need to know more. The next step is to say, now why does God tell us not to do those things? We need to be able to provide a reason and not just a “because I said so, or because God said so” moment. Make sure you do the same for positive experiences as well, not just accentuating the negatives. Take advantage of every little thing life hands you and use it as a teachable moment for real life faith. 

3.) Serve alongside others, All good things must come in three points, right? A huge difference maker in the faith of youth today is seeing others serve and not sitting on the sidelines but serving right along with them. Everything that I keep reading and coming across continues to show that if a youth or young person has parents that serve in church and invite them to serve too, it is then that they are more likely to serve and stick in church and in the faith through all of life’s problems; college, kids, family and more. Here is the more startling statistic, the surveys also show that if a youth has at least 5 others in the church who invest in them and show them their faith, and serve alongside them they are 80% more likely to have a faith that “sticks”.  

So you may be saying, I don’t have kids, or my kids live far away, my kids are grown or even I only have my kids every other weekend, there is always a chance to invest in the lives of others, to make disciples here in our field of labor, and to be a church that lives out the great commission. My prayer is that we could do this together and learn to live out our faith as a community working together for the sake of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. 

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)