Around 2006 I picked up George Barna’s book, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions and a transformation began within my ministry. His book, and God’s guiding, led me to attend seminary, change my focus, and eventually led to being called to a new position in a new church.
When I picked up the book, I was a youth pastor focused on how I could minister to the youth in my church and town. Over the course of the next few months, my heart began to change as I began to see the family from a more holistic view and realized how much weight parents held in the life of their children.
I attended Grow Up at North Point Community Church (now it has grown into the Orange Conference) and heard Andy and Reggie speak about how most parents believe that they are the spiritual leader of the home, but they lack a plan.
A decade ago, when I picked up that book, the faith community didn’t have nearly as many resources focused on partnering with families. From Home Pointe’s Faith Path to Brian Hayne’s Legacy Milestones there are numerous ways that you can help mom’s and dad’s embrace their role as primary discipler.
This month, Cory Center authors will focus on sharing some of their thoughts.
I hope that you’ll join in the conversation!
I would love to hear other comments because I’ve been an advocate for our church to recognize how important it is to equip our parents to be spiritual leaders in the lives of their children. It’s been discouraging to have no response of understanding. Faith at Home was a great resource and when we (Kid’s Church) tried to implement some of the activities that bridged the relationship of parents with our ministry, we were asked to discontinue because of it’s affect on the main services attendance. Any ideas and suggestions would be welcomed.