Wheaton Bible Church
 Wheaton Bible Church is
on a mission to restore parents and grandparents to their biblical role as primary
spiritual trainers of their children and grandchildren. We are in year number
four of this overwhelmingly complex challenge to change the culture of church
away from the delegation model of spiritual training. In the delegation model,
Christian parents feel that the most important thing they can do to help their
kids and teens grow spiritually is to get them involved in church programs. Our
vision is to restore and reclaim a biblical culture of family discipleship, where
parents and grandparents take the lead in the spiritual training of their children
and teens at home, and the church is able to give our best efforts to helping
them be successful. Ben Freudenburg (author of the exceptional book, Family Friendly
Churches) calls this the “home-centered,
church-supported” model for the evangelism and discipleship of the next
generation.
Here are four key areas that we are working in as church in order to equip
and inspire parents and grandparents to take the lead in the spiritual development
of their children:
1. Our mission statement explicitly calls families to worship together
at church and at home. For many years, teenagers in our church would attend youth
group on Sunday morning while their parents would attend “church.” We
have become convicted that families worshipping together on Sunday morning is
the most important, most biblical, and most powerful spiritual experience for
everyone in the family. Calling our people to worship at home is a new thing
for us. According to Deuteronomy 6:7, family worship, sitting at home and talking
about the things of God, is the starting application point of the Great Commandment.
Currently, less than 25% of WBC families practice united prayer, Scripture reading,
and spiritual discussion in their homes. We have a long way to go.
2. We are developing a new curriculum model which brings together church
and home into a powerful spiritual partnership. In the fall of 2008 all the kids
in the church, k-12, will be learning the same thing at the same time. In other
words, all the kids might be doing a series on the attributes of God. Each grade
level may be talking about different attributes, but all levels will be learning
about the same general subject. In advance of each 8 week curriculum module,
a family discipleship guide will go home to every parent and grandparent in the
church. The family discipleship guide will provide creative ideas for family
worship in the home, along with Scriptures to discuss throughout the week. The
essential key is that the family discipleship guide is designed to be done before
church each week, not as a follow up. It is our vision that parents and grandparents
will never again have to ask, “So what did you learn at church today?” – because
they will have already had the opportunity to learn together with their children
at home earlier that week.
3. Our youth and children’s staff embrace the goal of “hitting
for the cycle.” In baseball, if you hit a single, double, triple, and homerun,
all in the same game, it is called “hitting for the cycle.” That
is what we want to do in our youth and children’s ministries. What does
it mean to hit singles, doubles, triples, and homeruns with kids and teens? Here
is our ministry model:
We believe that when we bring kids and teens to church for ministry programs
that those are valuable, but in comparison to the other things we can do, those
ministry events (Sunday school, youth group, kids clubs) are hitting spiritual “singles” with
kids and teens.
We can hit spiritual doubles when we create spiritual growth events for kids/teens
and their parents/grandparents. A retreat weekend with junior high boys may have
spiritual impact, but a retreat weekend with those boys and their dads will go
deeper.
We believe that we hit spiritual triples in the lives of kids and teens when
we offer ministry programs where parents/grandparents are trained to disciple
their kids. If we have 100 high school students together to talk with them about
dating and sexuality, that is one hour of ministry. If we have 100 parents of
high school students together to train them how to talk with their teen about
dating and sexuality, that one hour just multiplied itself into tens if not hundreds
of hours of ministry conversations at home, in the car, etc. We use the Visionary
Parenting workshop to inspire and equip parents
and grandparents to lead spiritual discipleship in the home.
4. Lastly, we believe that the most powerful spiritual event in the life
of a child or teenager is when their parent or grandparent leads regular family
worship in the home. It is our vision to do everything in our power to call,
inspire, and equip families gather together often in their homes to pray, sing,
read the Scriptures, and participate in learning activities that communicate
God’s
unchanging truth.
 Rob Bugh
Rob Rienow
410 North Cross Street
Wheaton, IL 60187
630-260-1600
630-260-1811 (Fax)
rrienow@wheatonbible.org
www.wheatonbible.org
|
