We Owe It To Our Children

Today I submitted a letter to the editor in the Grants Pass Daily Courier. It's an experiment. Since local citizens openly opine and moralize on their favorite issues, I figured, why not me? Let the conversation with the culture begin.

We Owe It To Our Children

Family restoration is one of the most urgent needs of our day. As the family goes, so goes the nation. The home is the foundation of faith and virtue, and when the family crumbles, the entire structure of society is at risk. Today divorce and dysfunction are so common as to appear normal. Is it any wonder that a nation of broken vows and broken homes has produced so many broken contracts and broken laws and broken lives.

But here’s a note of optimism. It’s never too late for parents to turn their hearts toward home. A spark of conscience may yet ignite the hearts of fathers, and prompt them to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to their families. Men and women may yet devote themselves to honoring their God and their country through faithfulness in marriage and a commitment to train up virtuous sons and daughters.

The prophet Malachi declared God’s promise to “turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest [He] come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction” (Malachi 4:6). Clearly, God is serious about families; and fathers in particular.

Parents, let your marriage and your family be your most important earthly project. Men and women, let your faith in Christ be the uniting focus of your home. Moms and dads, let your career path, your finances, your leisure, every choice you make be consistent with your commitments to lead and guide your children into the next generation. You owe it to your kids. You owe it to your country. You owe it to your God.

Pastor John Sleadd
Coram Deo Church

The Missional, Family-Integrated Church

John Sleadd, November 5, 2007

What does it mean to be a missional, family-integrated church? It means that families are equipped as a team to live a Great Commission lifestyle. As families study the Bible, worship, pray and serve together, they are molded into ambassadors for Christ. Their homes become places of ministry for the Gospel.

Family-integration is not an end, it is a means. It is a method by which we further God’s kingdom through discipleship. A family-integrated church strives to teach sound doctrine to all ages inclusively in order to fulfill the Great Commission. This is wonderfully suited for training new believers and the un-churched as well. The establishment of household embassies, led by disciple-making fathers, creates a missionary network able to minister to people all over a community.

Family-integration is more than establishing a like-minded community of believers. Pastor Mark Driscoll, in his book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev, writes: “Without a clear definition of what a missional church community is and does, tragically, community will become the mission of the church. Consequently, the goal of the people will be to hang out together in love, like the family they never had. While this is not evil, it is also not sufficient. If taken too far, this can lead to the heresy of participatory redemption, in which the goal is to have authentic friendships and a loving community instead of repentance and personal faith in Jesus Christ as the means of salvation.”

Evangelism is the short term work of proclaiming the Gospel to all who will hear. Discipleship is the long term training of those who come to faith by hearing that Gospel. The beauty of a family-integrated model of discipleship is that it carries the work of ministry to the next generation.

Coram Deo is committed to uniting church and home, with a missional purpose, for the benefit of both. We believe God has strategically placed men in the crucial discipling role of leading their families and raising their children in the fear and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). When men recognize the missionary potential resident in their homes, a fuse is lit that leads to a powder keg of ministry, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.

Coram Deo Church is calling men into the Lord’s service in obedience to the Great Commission. Our goal is to equip ambassadors. May God stir the hearts of men into the glorious service of expanding His kingdom.