As we work through the coronavirus pandemic, my family is adjusting to the “new normal.” At home is the “new normal.” But what does that entail?
In Psalm 78, God gives us a blueprint for how faith is replicated throughout all generations. He chose to use the family as the primary place to nurture faith. Now that social distancing is the new normal in these next few months, families are spending more time together. It is the parent’s responsibility to “tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done” (v. 4).
As a working mom, I am learning to make the most of this new normal by connecting with my kids in new and meaningful ways. We are spending intentional time together, taking walks, riding bikes, completing projects, throwing footballs and Frisbees, we are leveraging the gospel in every connection. We are asking questions and verbally taking notice of God’s faithfulness each and every day together as a family. We are finding habits and routines that include praying, Bible study, worship, serving, and giving.
As ministry leaders, we have the privilege and the incredible calling to help parents not be perfect, but be intentional about passing down their faith in such an unprecedented time. I picked up my copy of Recalibrate this week and chapter 9 by Lydia Randall is blowing up my heart as a parent and as a ministry leader. Here are some strategic words from this chapter, I hope they inspire you to dream and strategically formulate a plan to help families connect to Jesus and each other:
The church must cast vision and let parents know that God’s plan is for them to be the primary disciple-makers, but to have the most significant impact would be to not only give parents a plan but to give them specific training and information to carry out that plan. Parents need real-life tools for these steps of faith. We must provide practical how-tos and set up the parents to win. We have to make it easy and we have to make it more likely. We also need to resource the parents by becoming knowledge brokers—helping sift through the plethora of resources. A lack of resources is not the problem. The problem is there are too many resources and not all of those resources have been created equally. Since there are more resources on healthy biblical parenting today than ever before, we have to try to make it less overwhelming to parents by giving them workable material.
Lydia Randall, Recalibrate: A New Measure for Family Ministry, Randall House, © 2019.
In the time where parenting is becoming more complex, the church must respond to the new challenges. Remind parents they have the Bible as a guide and the church is here as a partner. With all the influences—God has provided the church to be support for the parent, not the reverse. God is doing what He has always done, using the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and the church to help parents to be more successful.
If we want our children to have faith that that is “impressed on their hearts” as Deuteronomy 6 depicts, the church must reestablish the home as the primary place where faith is nurtured, by training and equipping parents. It must be modeled by those of us who lead in our own families. Whatever you do as a church leader, do something! And start with your own family. We cannot pass something to those we lead unless we are practicing it ourselves.
You can grab a copy of Recalibrate and read the entire chapter to gain practical insight and wisdom about equipping parents to pass down their faith.
I hope you are as inspired as I am to intentionally partner with families in this crisis. Please check out our Covid-19 resource page. You can also go HERE and download the D6 app for free resources to help families pass down faith.
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