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K, I know…I spelled “official” wrong.  I figured it was an appropriate way to begin a post about myself.   There’s a car dealership across from an intersection I sit at often.  It was painted “It’s Offical, We’ve Moved!” like 4 years ago on the glass…and since no one has purchased the old dealership yet….it’s remained misspelled indefinitely.  Someday that window will be broken by vandals.  And I will smile.

Speaking of me smiling, I absolutely had to share about how ridiculously cute my children are with two brief stories to encourage you today:

This past Sunday, after being gone 5 days to a conference in Dallas, I was at the breakfast table with my girls before church.  Sarah had made some homemade apple muffins that morning, and they were just about ready to eat.  Just then, Addie dramatically put her hand on her side/belly, and said, “My tummy hurts…”  To which Sarah and I, not really worried but wanting her to know we love her…asked her why her tummy hurt, and if she was just hungry for breakfast.  But before Addie could reply, a voice came from across the table…Sophie wasn’t waiting to hear anything:

“Dear God, please help Addie’s tummy to feel better. Aaaaa-Mennn!!  (then turning to Addie)  Now your tummy don’t hurt anymore!!”

Which would be the cutest event this week, until Childrens’ Church.  I went with Addie, because as a 4 year old, she still wasn’t quite comfortable being left alone in a new class of older kids.  So we sat/listened together.  They talked about Jesus “paying the price” for our sin, and enacted a scene to illustrate.  Each child stood before the “Judge” (a nice older lady, who couldn’t help but smile as she pretended) and read a card handed to them.  The card told them what they were guilty of (bad words, stealing, etc.), and the judge told them how much they owed.  No one could pay, so all had to head to the “Jail” (row of chairs), from which Jesus rescued them all later on.

Addie and I were last.  I didn’t know how she’d respond, but figured it was good to find out anyway.  We walked up to the judge and were handed our card.  “Lying to your parents” was our offense.  I looked at Addie with a wink to let her know we were just pretending and said, “Uh oh Addie, we lied to our parents.”

It didn’t take long for the fun smile to leave her face and her eyes to get larger.  But instead of the tears I thought may come from such an accusation, she didn’t miss a beat before defending herself: “No I didn’t, dad, it was Sophie!!”

Needless to say, me and the judge were cracking up. 🙂 

I love my girls. 🙂

The reason cited for so many young adults who are leaving the church?  Hypocrisy.  Not even simply Christians who go out and “do something bad”.  But Christians who talk about a life of faith, and experience of God on Sunday, and live like the rest of the world throughout the week.

Mark Holmen has written books, and spoken/ministered for years on the topics of faith development/growth at home.  Pretty solid stuff here.  He brought out a great question for us to be thinking/praying about:

“How do we equip the home to be the primary place faith is lived, expressed, and nurtured, using existing ministry structures?”

One thing they talked about over and over so far in this conference was this:  Being a church that partners with what God desires of our church’s homes doesn’t mean simply hiring someone with the title “Family Pastor”.  Or even tagging “Family Ministries” onto another job description of an assistance pastor.

In fact, he discouraged using the word “Family” in whatever we go back and do.  For several years, his church tried a new “Family” initiative, and got very little buy in.  They realized saying that, isolated and turned away people who didn’t view themselves as needing family development (i.e. usually view that as “young married with small children”).  So they changed to “FAITH AT HOME”, and are still continuing to grow in response.  Everyone has a home, and everyone is a part of a family, especially the family of God.

Such a thing doesn’t come from a new ministry, but a new set of ministry “lenses” that goes across the entire gamut of what we are involved in.  It generally will take 5-10 years to see a large change occur, often even a full generation.  We must build and grow on successes/health.

He gave 3 important “Next Steps” for what to do:
1. Personal Evaluation & Change – What do I need to do?
2. Your Ministry Evaluation & Change – What can I do there?
3. Your Church Strategy Evaluation & Change

So here we go….

Ed Stetzer serves as President of Lifeway (Baptist publisher) Research.  He admitted that because of this, he’s very into statistics and information.  Although I disagreed with how many of his results were gathered, and what conclusions he came to….he presented some still valid encouragement toward faith in the home.

He quoted (but didn’t give credit to) the term “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism“.  The fact that many people (not just teens) are pursuing a god that doesn’t exist.  One that desires us to just generally be “good people”.  That wants to make us feel better all the time, and put band-aids on our wounds.  That such a god must exist “somewhere out there, somehow”, but not quite giving it a name, or open to what god may mean in our reality today.

If that’s the god we serve, that’s the god our teens will pretend to serve while church services are entertaining enough, and then opt out when they realize the hypocrisy of declaring one thing, and living something quite different.

Stetzer reminded us the value of “owning your Faith” – as a parent AND as a family.  In lieu of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, that these things would be a part of every area of our being, and that would be obvious to our children and visitors to our home and life.  He gave 3 tips here:
1. Sharing Your Faith – Repeat them, vs. tell them.  We connect what is, with what has been.
2. Living a Life – Daily walking from, and drenched in the life described in these verses.
3. Marking Your Home – not just decorating, but it being evident to anyone who “peeked in” on your life this past week…..was it evident who/what you were about?

Yes.  I desire this….for myself….for my children…and for the homes in my church.  Not because it’ll help “retain members” now and in the future.  But because God’s Kingdom desires to be fully realized not only in our churches, but in our homes as well.  May His Glory be known, and realized in our homes this week…