Why? Why a family-integrated church? Part 1

Here are some of my notes and thoughts on my Honey's Sunday sermon, please keep in mind, these are MY notes and MY thoughts on what he taught. :) There are two reasons for a family-integrated church: 1) The Bible shows us a family-integrated example, 2) we want our babies to know what the Bible says about how a family should operate. In this day and age of professionalism, it seems like the trend is to trust everyone but yourself. You need to read better, hire a tutor; you need to build a house, hire a contractor; you need to be healthier, do everything the doctor tells you; you need to your children to learn the Bible, hire a sunday school teacher! Society has this mindset of leave it all to the professionals, forget using your brain or searching out answers for yourself, leave it all to the professionals and that attitude is seeping into our churches. They are the professionals in theology, they have ministry degrees and parents are left with the belief that these are the ones who should be teaching their children. That we need to leave our children to the experts, it's for the best, parents no longer believe that they are equipped to teach and nurture their own children. I hear it over and over in reference to homeschooling; "I could never do what you do", "I just don't have the patience", "I'm not that smart". It saddens me when moms tell me these things bc I just want to say but YOU are what's best for YOUR children, God chose you for them! He knew your weaknesses and wants to strengthen you for this task. I am not always patient! There are plenty of days that just fall apart! Don't think I don't question our decisions, sometimes weekly! However, I trudge on, I pray, I cry, I laugh and then I look at my babies and there are moments when it all works and in those moments I have the peace that we are right where we are supposed to be and that God is with us on our journey and has not left us alone, that He and He alone eguips me with all the things I need and all the things my babies need. The church (in general) is trying to conform to an unbiblical society. Instead of shaping society, the church is letting society shape it! We are supposed to be seperate from the world, we are supposed to be light in the darkness, to shine out! The professionals will do it for it, so you can sit back and just relax, leave everything to those who know what they are doing. The church will teach a politically correct view of Christ, the schools will teach government propaganda, and the cops will be our protection, no need to study your Bible, worry about what your children will learn or to bear your own arms! Children NEED correction and this is the parent's God-given responsibility. Psalm 78:1-8, Glenn stopped at verse 5 and asks, "What is this saying?" and Kirsten answered, "that you are to teach YOUR own children" and she added an emphasis on the your! Deuteronomy 6:6-7 We are to teach our children at all times, in all things. Then my mind wondered from the sermon a bit and I wrote this in my notes, feels so peaceful this way - Kayson is sleeping in my lap, laundry is going, lasagna in the oven, kiddos coloring while listening, Mama and Daddy are here too. Then I tuned back into the preaching. :) Is this only an Old Testament concept? Ephesians 6:1-5 fathers, bring them up in the NURTURE (not nature!) and ADMONITION (instruction) of the LORD! Salvation is NOT genetic! Our children need to hear the gospel. They need to know Christ! in their own everyday lives! They need to see Him in their parent's everday lives too. There are two differences in the traditional church and the family-integrated church. 1) There is no segregated sunday school. One person, among others that has influenced age segregration is Plato. In 380 B.C. he wrote that children should be seperated from their parents, he even went so far as to say that children should not even KNOW their own parents! That children should be raised by the state and they would be better for it! This goes directly against Biblical principles and mandates that fathers are to teach their own children in the ways of the Lord! I know children will not understand every thing they hear in every sermon every week but that's not really the point, The babies benefit from learning how to sit in service but also from seeing the example of their parents sitting in church, by seeing their parents engaged in the sermon and soaking up Biblical learning, they may learn more from witnessing their parents' reactions to church than any sermon could ever teach them. :) 2) There is no youth ministry. To be continued, Honey says, "come next week to hear why I changed my belief on youth ministry (what I believed I was called to)" I am looking forward to hearing what he has for us next week, he has already been working on it! :)