Preserving the Remnant
By Doug
Phillips
The Church of Jesus Christ is the true centerpiece
of history. She is the object of God's love. To know the true state of a nation,
look at the state of the Church. To know the state of the Church, look
at the families who populate her pews. To know the state of her families,
look to the fathers who lead them. Destroy the vision of the father, and you
render impotent the family, thus creating a chain reaction that spreads throughout
civilization.
On the other hand, when fathers turn their hearts to families, then children turn their hearts to their fathers, and the result is that the Church victorious emerges ready for battle. This is why you can never truly know the heart of what is happening in the Church unless you know the status of family life within the Church.
Progressive Sanctification
|
Progressive
sanctification is the doctrine of God's gradual work of spiritual maturity
in the life of the believer. The same principle applies to the progress
of the Church. For more than forty years the Lord appears to have been
preparing the Church victorious “to make ready a people prepared for
the Lord.” Here is my take on this progress: During the 1960s, Christian parents concerned
about the rise of youth rebellion and evolution began an exodus from
the government schools that resulted in the rise of the Christian school
movement. Unfortunately, the Christian school movement at this time
was characterized less by a change of worldview and educational methodology,
than by a change of venue. With the 1970s came the recognition that it was not enough to take our children out of government schools, we must teach them to think differently. I attended one of the first Christian schools in America to emphasize a biblical worldview. The content was wonderful, but the philosophy of education de-emphasized the role of parents and continued to perpetuate the age-segregated, one- |
 Doug Phillips |
The 1980s birthed the modern home school
movement. Home educators realized that neither content nor methodology were
neutral. The results were phenomenal: Wise children with a solid worldview who
recognized the importance of multi-generational faithfulness. The ancient
biblical methodology of daily and comprehensive parent-directed discipleship
was restored to its rightful place as the centerpiece of Christian education.
One flagrant error persisted: Home education
was primarily a mother's movement. Dad had not turned his heart to home.
Fathers
Come Home
Enter the 1990s. After almost a decade of
home education, the results were manifestly self-evident: Home education was
producing respectful and intelligent children with vision. Dads began to take
notice. The Holy Spirit moved. Hearts softened. Many fathers longed to build a
foundation for family renewal. The “lost Book of the Law” was opened. Men began
to hunger for their families. Their practices changed. For the first time in
two-hundred years, they adopted a new emphasis on child discipleship, family
worship, and a unified vision for family life.
During that decade, home school conference
attendance by fathers rose more than 400%. Words like “patriarch” and
“multi-generational vision” were dusted off and once again introduced into the
vocabulary of the Christian man. A genuine revival of biblical manhood broke
out. It is still breaking out.
But
Crisis
led to home education; home education led to fatherhood; fatherhood led to a
renewed vision for the family -- “a turning of the hearts of fathers to their
children.” But a new crisis emerged. The same Scripture that directs fathers to
turn their hearts to their families directs families to turn their heart to the
local church. So what happens when the local church has bought hook, line, and
sinker into the very same father-emasculating, family-destroying philosophies which
created the problem in the first place? The result is chaos: Families are
grieved at pastors for compromising. Pastors are grieved at families for
disloyalty. All the while, the gap between church and home grows bigger and
bigger.
Dictators,
Nomads, and Rebels
Sadly,
many churches have taken it upon themselves to actually persecute families who
want their children to worship with them rather than attending “kiddy church,”
or who will not participate in the church youth group or
Parents who object to such activities are
deemed troublemakers. The church leadership is tempted to adopt a dictatorial
approach which includes squashing anything which questions the methodology for
church growth that they learned in seminary.
Equally sad is the fact that many families
have responded to the crisis of the local church by simply giving up. The
tragic results are nomadic families who flit from church to church, or
renegades who refuse to place themselves under the accountability of a local
church. Quite popular in recent years is the notion that the Sabbath meeting of
the church is made up of dad, mom, and children reading the Bible in the family living room. This is
non-normative at best and downright heterodox at worst. God requires His people
to be under biblical local churches with biblical preaching, biblical church
government, biblical ordinances, and biblical discipline.
So how do we bridge the gap between Church
and home? Thankfully God's Word provides
us with all the answers we need so that we can be “perfect, thoroughly equipped
unto every good work.” These answers presuppose a biblical view of the
sufficiency of Scripture which allows us to develop a biblical understanding of
church growth, outreach, socialization, ministry, education, authority,
loyalty, and much more. It is in pursuit of these answers, and to equip the
body of Christ, that Vision Forum Ministries launched the
This ministry was founded after a group of
several dozen elders and church leaders from around the country met for an
historic dialogue to evaluate the growing tension between the modern local
church and the Christian family. The NCFIC was
started to help fathers and church leaders bridge the gap between church and
home by returning to biblical methods of worship, discipleship, and church
life.
Between August 12 and 14, 2004, we will be
holding in St. Louis, Missouri, the national Uniting Church and Family
Conference. We cannot begin to solve all the problems relating to church and
home, but this conference is an important first step toward the goal. NCFIC is unabashedly opposed to the non-historical, non-biblical
emphasis on youth culture, pragmatic reasoning, consumer-driven marketing
techniques, and feminism which have infiltrated the local church and are
assaulting fatherhood and the family. It is equally concerned about the
reactionary response to the crisis by many home educators and others who now
find themselves in opposition to the importance and authority of the local
church. We believe there is a biblical solution. It is the purpose of this
conference to explore such. Approximately 600 people are expected to attend
including elders, deacons, and families just interested in starting local
churches or working within their local church to build healthy families.
To view the current topics and
schedule for the conference, or to register, please visit: www.visionforumministries.org.
For
Such a Time as This
We live
at an historic time in the life of the Church. The Lord is at work and there is
great reason to be encouraged. For decades, God has been progressively
sanctifying the church and preparing the Remnant. Perhaps future generations
will look back on our generation and this decade, much as we look back with
thanks upon the Great Awakenings of our own past. Who can say what great things
the Lord will do as we turn to Him and remember “the old paths?”
Doug Phillips is the director of Vision Forum Ministries, a
discipleship and training ministry that emphasizes Christian apologetics,
worldview training, multi-generational faithfulness, and creative solutions
whereby fathers can play a maximum role in family discipleship. A
constitutional attorney, Doug served with the Home School Legal Defense Association
for six years. He serves as adjunct professor of apologetics for the Institute
for Creation Research (ICR), and co-authored the book, Weapons of Our
Warfare with ICR's president Dr. John
Morris. A strong advocate of mentorship, Doug has taught from his home
intensive college-level, independent courses on apologetics, law, theology, and
government to home school students and graduates. To
learn more about the NCFIC, please visit: www.visionforumministries.org.
