Many in our churches insist that we need to spend lots of time and energy on children’s ministry because they are our future. They want to expand ministries and programs to draw kids in and keep them coming. I love children’s ministries, and I think churches should teach kids the Bible. But the result of the way we’ve been doing it has been a lot of children showing up at churches, with comparatively little adult involvement. I am not sure if you’ve noticed this, but I have. Well-intended church ministries have become “drop-off” services, and parents have presumed that these ministries will provide their children all they need for their spiritual growth. Consequently, many parents have failed in parenting their children to love and worship God, the most important of all parental responsibilities. I’m not saying that these parents are bad parents, or that they don’t love their children, but simply that they are missing the boat when it comes to the most important aspects of parenting.
The sad truth is that Biblical parenting was lost, by and large, a few generations ago, but no one noticed. It was simply replaced by authoritarian, heavy-handed parenting that taught manners, and the value of threat and reward. It worked for a time. But, the results are in, it no longer works in a culture where rebellion against authority is celebrated in our music and in our movies. Look at the increasing number of unchurched, even among the formerly churched, and you’ll see what I mean. Young people are leaving the church in droves. Now that the flaw in that technique has been exposed, we don’t have any other ways of doing it. So, what do we do, and where do we go? The answer is simple: we must go to God’s Word.
Many will say, “God’s way is too hard;” or “God’s way will not work.” Sadly, and to our loss, these attitudes result in God’s way being left untried. Few people have taken the initiative to really understand their spiritual role in raising their children; few churches are helping.
This is where I want us to be different. I want our church to begin to create a community of believers that have returned to the roots of biblical parenting. We are working to create a community where the Gospel is known, understood and applied to raising our children. We want families who understand that good behavior is not the goal, but rather a by-product of biblical parenting. Biblical parenting has as its goal the instruction and guidance of a child’s heart to know, love and worship his Creator. It requires us to help our children to understand the source of their bad behavior, the sin nature within them; and to seek the only cure, inward change through believing the Gospel.
So, in a sense, children are our future. We want children to learn to trust in Jesus, not in themselves. We want children who depend on Christ’s righteousness, not their self-righteousness. But, parents are our now. We want parents who can help their children, not lay it off on the church. We want to shore up the foundations so that another generation is not lost to unbiblical parenting. And, since biblical parenting has been lost for generations, it will take entire churches submitting to God’s Word to recover it.
That is why a parenting class. That is why we are inviting all ages of adults, and why we are inviting every church in our community. God is good, and our children should worship Him. That is why a parenting class.
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