Why You Should Consider a Family-Integrated Church
Benefit One: It reinforces the Biblical mandate for parents to take the lead in the discipleship of their children. All Christians agree that parents should be intentionally discipling their kids at home, yet most Christians ignore this responsibility in the hopes that the kids are getting enough from Sunday school and youth group. However, when Sunday school and youth group are eliminated, parents are forced to step up and provide spiritual training at home.
Benefit Two: It encourages children to start serving God now. Kids are not sent away from the adults and treated like the "church of tomorrow." They are included in the church today. They are invited and challenged to participate in church life even as a child. They are encouraged to volunteer with their parents, to speak up in small group, and to take good notes as the pastor preaches. This approach taps into the powerful value that the youth can add to the church. Children aren't viewed as babies to be fed, but partners in ministry.
Benefit Three: It capitalizes on the power of example. When you put a child in a room full of children, he is not going to be challenged to maturity; instead, he will likely pick up on some of the other kids' bad habits. But when you put a child in a room full of adults, he will put away childish things and grow much faster (1 Cor 13:11). As well, when you allow parents and children to do church together, this gives the parents an opportunity to lead and teach by example. They can exemplify for their own children how to behave in church, and then push their children to imitate them.
Benefit Four: It enables parents to observe their kids in a spiritual environment. Many parents have very little knowledge of what their children learn in Sunday school, or of how their children behaved. They don't know if their child was disruptive, or disrespectful, or rude to the other children, or completely uninterested in the Bible lesson and other activities. Therefore, it is impossible for the parent to know how to coach their children. But when families do church together, parents can force their children to behave, to participate, and can observe their level of interest, participation, and comprehension. After church the parents can answer the child's questions and help the child apply the sermon to his life.
Benefit Five: It helps everyone to get more out of church. The children get more out of church because their parents are watching them and forcing them to behave and participate. The adults get more out of church because the children are watching their every move and are learning from their example.
Benefit Six: It increases retention after high school. A youth group is sort of a "church within a church." They are their own entity. So when kids graduate from high school, they are kicked out of church and told they must assimilate into the adult church. This is a tough transition. Could this be one of the reasons that between 60-80 percent of students drop out of church after high school? In the family-integrated church, students are already assimilated into the church-at-large before they finish high school. Their church experience will not change from their senior year in high school to their first year in college. This stability will make it easier for them to stay connected as they transition from childhood to adulthood.
I absolutely love the family-integrated church and what it has done for my own family. If you would like to give it a try, or would like more information, contact me or simply meet us for church this Sunday at Church Acadiana.
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