Starting at Home

I have believed for a long time that the family is a powerful tool in evangelism. Because people perceive you often first and most lastingly by your family, it is very important that the family be both transparent and grounded in this visible witness. The fact that so many people come up to us and comment on our children and their behavior is what prompted the idea of the business cards and website in the first place.

Recently I have been introduced to the idea of the family being a point of evangelism for the CHURCH. The first was a CD of a message given by Voddie Baucham at the Evangelism Conference in Cedarville, Ohio this year. The points were right on with what we have felt for a long time- that age-segregated Sunday School is not the best approach to discipling children, that the men ought to be teaching the children (in particular the father) and not the women, and that youth groups create a lot of false converts because the foundation is not established first.

Then Heather sent me a link to the association of which her church is a part, which is all about integrating the family into the church instead of the other way around.

When families live as God ordained them to, they draw attention. Because He has compared our walk with him to that of a father and child, we ought to be able to see that repeated in our churches as well, abnd it is sadly missing from most of the church.