Family Ministry Philosophy

At no time since Calvary have Christian families suffered under such common yet almost universally accepted philosophical and theological influences which are contrary to the gospel. In addition, the common family model presented through media is unbliblical at best and ill at worst. In part, Christian families are not fulfilling God’s creation mandate because they lack biblical models from which to draw pictures and sustenance. The biblical norm is not the American cultural norm, yet the American cultural norm seems to be influencing the modern Christian family more than the biblical norm. Hence, modern Christian families think they are well when they are not.

The subtlety of this all pervasive pressure toward worldly conformity has no doubt been part of an effective strategy to isolate the Christian community from mainstream America. At other times, the direct opposition to passing on the faith from one generation to another is overtly, unashamedly addressed. A recent Maryland State Board of Education ruling reads that the “right (of parents) is not absolute. It must bend to the State’s duty to educate its citizens.” The family is the bedrock of any society and especially the church whose gospel is the hope of the world. Hence, godly families create the platform on which a nation and world may survive and thrive. Fundamentally then, the family’s wellbeing is the hope of any nation and the family’s hope lies in God’s faithfulness to His redemptive promises and covenanted people.

Baptists have an unspoken but real tendency to discount biological evangelism as a viable means to fulfilling the Great Commission. When evangelism or baptisms are discussed in Baptist circles, the familiar query “Yes, but how many of them were children?” evidences an ignorance of the pivotal place families play in world evangelism and an undervaluing of the biblical family altogether. However, no father or mother minimizes the salvation of their own precious children. Heritage Family Ministry exists to enable parents to fulfill the Great Commission within their own families.

The scripture celebrates this world reaching strategy as divine and, as such, the very means by which the gospel has been successfully proliferated into the 21st century. Families form the primary context in which biblical means are utilized to evangelize children, adults and the world. This is a responsibility given uniquely given to parents and its mandate occurred millennia before the Lord Jesus issued the Great Commission (Deut 4:10; 6:7; 11:9). This parental responsibility is inculcated into the fabric of the family’s created order. Other people or entities may cooperate with the family in this holy endeavor but there are no divinely established surrogates and parents cannot abdicate their essential role. It is true that God is the “Father of the fatherless” and “settles the solitary in a home” (Psalm 68:5-6) reaching untold numbers of people who are not graced with a Christian family but evangelism outside the home does not replace the essential purpose of the home which is to raise up a godly seed who will be a continual witness to God’s glory (Malachi 2:15) from one generation to another.

The biblical record of redemptive history begins with the first family. Abel’s accepted sacrifice (Genesis 4:4) was the direct result of God’s revelation to Adam who taught Abel and Cain how to approach God. The Hebrew nation was conceived in Sarah’s womb and propagated by Isaac and Jacob who birthed Israel’s twelve tribes, caretakers of the euangellion (Genesis 3:15). God brought Joseph’s immediate family of seventy people into the incubator of Egypt and birthed an entire nation through whom the Messiah was eventually incarnated on earth. When Paul and Barnabas left Antioch in that initial New Testament missionary enterprise their first stop was Barnabas’ birthplace in Cyprus. He evidently considered it only natural that God would extend the kingdom through his own flesh and blood. Later, Paul wrote that he would wish himself accursed for his own genealogical family. He and Silas insured the Philippian jailor and Lydia that God intended to further his kingdom in them as individuals and also through their families. Such is the gospel’s good news and it does not exclude or bypass our own children but specifically, intentionally includes them. The gospel seed is spread in the field of our own families before it is sown in the world. God’s plan is not to fail at home but succeed elsewhere. God does and will save our children. After all, we are promised that “the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children” (Psalm 103:17).

Heritage Family Ministry is humbly offered as encouragement to families within our congregation. It exists to equip families to fulfill the Great Commission within their own families and throughout all generations, previous, present and future. As generations of families before us, let us raise our Ebenezer to the certainty of God’s victorious conquest when “all the families of the nations shall worship” (Psalm 22:27) our God - our own children first and foremost.

This philosophy of Family Ministry at Heritage is
adapted from the Pastor Reggie’s larger work
entitled: Biblical Family Ministry

© Reggie Weems

Return to Family Ministry Home