Children, Bible, Family

My church is in the midst of a five day seminar about the Bible. We're learning how it came to be, the manuscripts used to assemble it, etc. I am learning some things I did not know, but that is the point isn't it? We all, even the teachers, can learn if we are open and willing.

Some in my church, even some in leadership, are neither open nor willing to learn. They have cemented thoughts they learned 30 years ago into idealized notions that the world around them has not changed. They believe "there is nothing new under the sun," or that even if there is they don't need to be familiar with it.

Their ideas seem to be the Bible hasn't changed, therefore there is no reason to change the way it is presented. The problem with this reasoning is, of course, that Satan changes his tactics on an almost daily basis. If we are not prepared as Christians to confront his innovations for attack we lose.

One of the areas of ministry that I see as lacking is in the teaching of children. It appears, at least to me, that this is now left almost entirely in the hands of the paid professionals. However, if those professionals see no need to "educate" the children in what they will confront in the world as they grow and develop all of our talk will have been for naught as the secular can quickly undermine the spiritual if we are not prepared.

We all know the statistics of Christian children returning from University as agnostics or even atheists so those stats must indicate a fundamental problem in the way we do things in the church. I believe, and have believed for some time, the problem lies in Christians parents allowing the busyness of our lives to override the necessity for parents to train their children in "way they should go." Here is an excerpt from an article which addresses this problem:

The average Christian receives an education from the Church that presumes that said Christian will never encounter someone with a different worldview or even one that is positively hostile. We educate our youth as though when they go to college their professors will be sympathetic to Christianity.

Now, in my view, spiritual formation is a duty that chiefly resides in the family with the parents being the primary mechanism by which the faith is transmitted from one generation to the next. Assisted and supported, of course, by the Greater Church. I think Church professionals have allowed too much to be delegated to them, willingly taking on duties that should be performed by the father and mother. They ought to work actively to restore parents to their rightful place in the chain.

However, at the same time I am a realist. Many parents don’t know that the Bible lists them as the primary medium for raising godly children. (Prov 22:6, Deu 6:7) They need to be told this, and then equipped for the task.

I'm not sure I see or hear anything on the church horizon to indicate a return to the Biblical notion that parents are to raise and educate their children. Too many seem to have been locked into the secular notion that the State has this responsibility therefore the church doesn't need to educate parents as to their responsibilities.

Personally, I'm enjoying the educational aspects of the "Bible Seminar" we are having, but I believe there are more pressing issues than telling people Origen used the wrong manuscripts. We should be having "seminars" on how to live in a world which hates Christianity and is getting more vocal about hating individual Christians. Who is teaching our children how to deal with these realities?

Instead of Bible Seminars how about Parental Seminars training parents how to train their children at home?