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.

5 Reasons Your Kids Should Go To Big Church

Here are two new buzz phrases for you:

• Family integrated worship
• Family integrated church

These ideas aren't new but many parents and pastors are re-discovering the that "church" means kids too. Guys like Voddie Bauchman are preaching about this everywhere they go. Southern Seminary has hired Randy Stinson as the Dean of their Christian Ed school. God's design for the spiritual development of kids in the family context is making a comeback. But does that mean kids should go to Big Church?

My church is moving this direction. Only two years back the kids didn't even know were the sanctuary was. Now we dismiss the children after about 25 minutes to KidZone Worship. Reform is a process. I'm using video clips in children's church to train the kids how to listen to preaching. We are moving in the right direction.

One problem is that many parents do not see the benefits of having their kids in the worship service. The distractions, the discipline, the potty breaks - all seem like more hassle than it's worth.

Jonathan who blogs at Excogitating Engineer (I'm not sure what that one means) posted on five reasons he wants his kids to come to Big Church:

5 Reasons Your Kids Should Go To Big Church

1. Children can observe their parents singing praises to God and can listen to the exposition of God’s Word. Children learn by watching.
2. Children lose the opportunity to play and not pay attention. Sitting by the parents helps them actually learn.
3. Children are taught that God’s Word and the exposition of it is the most central part of worship.
4. Children are taught great hymns and worship songs of the faith.
5. By being in worship together, parents are better able to develop teachable moments using the sermon from Sunday morning.

I really appreciate hearing dad's talk like this. This is the kind of vision that I want my kids to have when they become parents.

What does your church do? Is family integrated worship on your radar?

If you have your own reasons to add to his list, leave them in the comments.

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