Review of Voddie Baucham's New Book On Family Ministry

Family Integrated church is a big topic in many evangelical circles. What theology should drive our ministry to families? Should pastors encourage more parenting in the pews? Follow the link below for Ray Van Neste's review of this book.

Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God, Voddie T. Baucham, Jr. (Crossway, 2007), hb., 222 pp.

I finished reading this book this weekend and really enjoyed it. My primary overall reaction was, “This book more than any other I have read expresses what my wife and I aspire to for our family.” This book can be of a lot of help to a lot of people.

If you have heard Voddie any time in the last few years you have probably heard some of the material in this book. It is great now to have all of this (and more) in book form. He stresses the role of parents in discipling their own children, the importance of the husband-wife relationship for the children, and the value of children (in contrast to our culture). With these themes he stresses the importance of family worship and the importance of fathers taking the role in teaching their children about God. He powerfully contrasts this with typical priorities among fathers. He encourages having and raising children without being legalistic about how many and how soon we should have them. He talks about how churches fail to help by sustaining the idea that parents need not disciple their own children. There is much of value here and our people (particularly fathers) will gain much in reading this book.