Family discipleship: What God intended

Many people in this day and age expect churches to be full service discipleship centers. From the moment a child is signed into Sunday morning childcare until the time they graduate from high school an expectation of church discipleship exists.

Some parents may never have a meaningful prayer time or discussion of spiritual things with their children, yet still expect fully formed followers of Christ at age 18. Why? Because the children and their student pastor are supposed to be having these discussions. The parents feed the kids and make sure they are educated. The church leaders are responsible for discipleship.

This seems to be a common line of thinking even if unspoken.

To be sure, the Bible does teach believers to help guide one another in walking with God. The process of teaching prayer, Bible study, evangelism, fasting, and other spiritual disciplines to believers is usually called discipleship. The word derives from the word for learner.

Whose responsibility, then, is the discipleship of children? Primarily it is the responsibility of the parents.

Think about that early Jewish Scripture, Deuteronomy 6:7, which reads, “Repeat [these words] to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Ephesians 5 makes it clear that parents are to raise their children in the “nurture and teaching of the Lord” (v. 18). Nowhere is this responsibility delegated to any other spiritual leader. This is not to say pastors, elders, or teachers have no role, but the primary responsibility of spiritual guidance in a child’s life belongs to the parents.

One of the exciting things about Bible Studies for Life is how it aids parents in this task.

In many churches, the adults are studying one thing in small groups, their teen aged students study something else, and their elementary aged children still something else. Everyone is studying different concepts, making conversation between parents and children difficult to navigate.

Bible Studies for Life helps parents initiate spiritual conversations with their kids through a tool called “One Conversation.” Imagine moms and dads knowing exactly what their family members are studying in the Bible each week, and knowing how to start a conversation with their kids about life and truth. Even more, if moms and dads use Bible Studies for Life in their small groups, then the whole family actually studies the same biblical concepts each week

Think about the benefits to this: the entire family can engage in one conversation, group leaders can be assured they are not solely responsible for spiritual growth, pastors are confident the families of the church are learning together, and children are discipled by their parents while learning the pattern they need to successfully disciple as parents.

Needless to say this will take a new way of thinking for many parents, but while the whole concept of parental discipleship of children will be new for many, the joys are amazing and eternal.