One of the greatest struggles as a Christian parent is seeking to raise my children with an abiding faith. In a world that tends to not be the most supportive of a biblical Christian faith, it is an understandable concern. Some will push back on this statement because they see "toleration" of the Christian faith in the public sphere. It is true that in some areas there is a nod that is given to faith by many areas in our society still, yet, more often than not, the "tolerance" that is spoken of is a redefinition that is nothing like the tolerance that has been afforded to other faiths for the majority of the existence of the United States of America. Tolerance has become more closely used as a synonym for allowance. Sadly, allowance is not the principle our nation was founded upon. When we speak of the freedom of religion, it is not just the freedom to worship but the freedom to practice faith in all aspects of one's life. Companies make accommodations for those who practice Islam so they may be free to pray at their appointed times while they are working. Most modern Christians do not have such required times of daily prayer any longer, so those accommodations are not necessary. Yet, how often are the dates and times set aside for Christians to worship and have time for Christian education for the youth no longer respected in our schools? Wednesdays used to be commonly respected as a "no-go zone" for sporting events, school programs, or other activities, but slowly that has been stripped away. The same is true with Sunday, most especially Sunday mornings.
These complaints are nothing new and have been drifting this way for decades. We can sit and lament this fact, but that will not bring about any change and to claim them back will take time. Rich Melheim has spent his life in ministry working on the question of how to restore the faith in the family. He and other pastors from Luther Seminary founded Faith Incubators to create materials to help congregations and families counteract this work. As well as youth leaders like Tiger McCluen and pan-Christian ministries like Youth Specialties or Think Orange. As a parent, I only recommend some of the ideas that I have cited, but I will caution you to be discerning as there is still some drifting in many organizations out there from clear biblical teaching. We should always be thoughtful of this when we are teaching the faith to our family.
The beginning of raising a family of faith is to ensure that you, as a parent are grounded in the faith. Rick Melheim in his book Holding Your Family Together, which I was blessed to be able to read and endorse before its release, speaks of the impact that modern Sunday School has had on the faith family. Most people think that Sunday School has always been a practice in the Church, but it is truly an innovation in the Christian faith that arose in the late nineteenth century. It was created because orphans did not have parents to raise and teach their children the Christian faith. Otherwise, it was the parents, particularly the fathers, who were biblically responsible for teaching the faith the the family as outlined in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. God desires for the father to be the faith leader in each home. This outlined the expectations of God's people, Israel, as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. The principles still are for us today as followers of Christ.
To begin as parents it is important to think about the practices we form in our household. There are a lot of formulas that have been created and many tools available not only at the sites that I provided but also elsewhere. The issue that many struggle with is that they need to do things that will also fit the patterns that we find ourselves in our individual families. There are universals and there are personal aspects of things that need to be done. The universal is that practices should be established and principles should be taught. God desires this to be carried out in all aspects of daily living, but this process begins with us as parents and then we can begin to instill those principles into the lives of our families. In future installments, I will explore some of the various tools available in a little more depth.