Family Integrated Church - Why Not?

edited from earlier today to add my thoughts...

Rich, from The Lens of Truth (Lydia's husband) posted a comment on yesterday's post. Since I hollered out a hearty, "AMEN BROTHER" after reading it, I thought I would use it as a springboard for expounding some of my same thoughts.

In my first post about the Family Integrated Church, I listed Voddie Baucham's "three basic flaws with systematic age-segregation". Today, I would like to address the first one of those.

(1) It's not found in scripture. He says, you can't go to the Bible and come away with this "young adults," "medium adults," "married", --you can't go to the Scriptures and come away with that kind of segregation as a church model. - Voddie Baucham

Rich said - "The first argument is one from silence and we just shouldn't do that. Just as the Bible does not say we have to have age segregated strucutures, it also does not condemn it."

I agree with Rich, that we cannot create a biblical mandate based on the absence of a particular practice. In the same way, we would never be able to replicate an exact duplicate of the New Testament church, especially dealing with the changes that have taken place in our culture.

In a great article about The New Testament Church by Bob Deffinbaugh, this question is raised:

“Assuming all of the principles of the New Testament are binding on the church today, how can we distinguish between apostolic practices which are binding and those practices which are not?”

• Are we to greet one another with a holy kiss?
• Are we to meet only in houses?
• Are we to eat a meal with the Lord’s table?
• Are Christian ministers to work to support themselves as Paul made tents, or are churches obligated to pay them?
• Are we to practice foot washing in the church today?
• Are we to expect and practice healing by men who have the gift of healing?

*Hmm. The foot washing aspect would certainly appeal to my son, but the holy kiss part might be an issue.

He then gives the following list of questions that "will enable us to distinguish between practices which are not binding from those which are."

• Was the practice in question universally and consistently followed in the churches of the New Testament?
  

• Is the practice directly related to a principle which we would violate by neglecting that practice?

• Is the practice a right or a responsibility?

• Is there a higher principle, which might override a particular practice?

When asking these questions regarding the Family Integrated Church model, it is clear that scripture could not be the basis for an argument which presents this model as "God's standard".

God's silence on a subject matter has great purpose.

When Deffinbaugh was asked, "“Doesn’t it bother you that the New Testament does not tell us explicitly what process we should employ in recognizing elders?”

He replied, "Not at all. The silence of the Scriptures on this subject informs me that God has given us freedom in the area of the recognition of elders within the guidelines laid down in the New Testament. God wants us to use wisdom in this process, knowing that there is no one way which works best in every situation. You see, God deliberately does not tell us how to do everything. This keeps us humble and dependent upon Him to reveal the best possible way of carrying out His will and His word."

Preach it Bob.

Since I am on a roll with all the quoting, I am going to leave you with a little more of what Rich had to say:

"Now I do see some good ideas coming out of what Voddie says but I simply can not buy into the fact that this model will solve all (or even many) of our problems. The basic problems still remain among sinful men and women who are not doing their jobs as parents, not hearing the proper preaching of Scripture and not holding a high view of God."

Preach it Rich.

"It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. that salvation is by faith alone through God's grace, we cannot boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

Family Integrated Church - Why?

Before I begin, let me confess. I myself have had periods of infatuation with the idea of a Family Integrated Church and as a result, have consumed in bulk, the opinions of those who both favor and oppose the idea.

I do not (did not) have a personal objection to my children being in the worship service with me. The reality is, that our church was low in resources (people) to meet the demands for nursery and Sunday School for every age group in both the SS and worship hours. We did spend some time trying to figure out the best solution.

So, I talked about it. Quite a bit.

The conclusion that I have come to is there is not one thing inherently wrong with choosing to keep your children with you in service.

And there is not one thing inherently wrong with choosing to take your children to Sunday School or your little ones to a well-equipped nursery.

Keep in mind, that most folks who balk at the church nursery are more than willing to place their young ones in the care of friends and family on occasion.




So with that in mind, I will start with a basic introduction to this church model through the lens of Voddie Baucham. Here, in his own words, he gives an overview:

The Family Integrated Church is a church that is intentionally designed without age-segregated structures. Family Integrated Church come in all shapes, sizes, all denominations. But the one distinguishing characteristic common in Family Integrated Churches is that lack of age-segregated structures, and therefore, an emphasis on discipleship in and through homes.

So the family, the home, becomes the mechanism for discipleship within the context of the local church — as opposed to the church that would say that the mechanism for discipleship in the church is various age-group ministries: For this part of your life you disciple here, for that part of your life you disciple there, for that part of.... The Family Integrated Church is the opposite of that in its structure.

Sounds good. Makes sense. Let's break it down.

Here, Voddie gives "three basic flaws with systematic age-segregation":

1.) It's not found in scripture. He says, you can't go to the Bible and come away with this "young adults," "medium adults," "married", --you can't go to the Scriptures and come away with that kind of segregation as a church model.

2.) That kind of age segregation has proven to be detrimental to the biblical model of family discipleship.

3.) It hasn't worked. We're losing young people at a rate of somewhere between 70-80 percent by the end of their freshman year in college. What we're doing doesn't work.

These "flaws" were listed in an interview with Motte Brown published in May 2008. In all fairness, I have great respect for Voddie Baucham and his passion for preaching the Word of God. The motive behind this movement was an intentional move towards reforming the church family and moreover the family in church. His experience with the church youth group and the ever-growing number of disgruntled and/or apathetic parents were a catalyst for his passion to unite the family.

Again ... all good.

But isn't there also a disdain within the Reformed Church against the evangelical Big Church for creating "niches"that are catering to a particular group of people? We are quick to hurl accusations of "pragmatism" at these churches because they are willing to compromise the actual Word of God in order to accomplish and set in place their own personal preference or agenda.

Enter - The Family Integrated Church.

To be continued...

Idols

During this volatile time, it is easy to get caught up in the voracious cycle of bad news about our economy. I have no vegetable garden, fresh water supply, or milk goat to sustain our family, should we spiral into the abyss that some have predicted.

For goodness sakes, I don't even have the ingredients I need for my white chili that I plan on making this afternoon. It's a good thing the folks at Wal-Mart don't know there is a recession, cause they are still lining up in droves over there.

I am reminded during this time, that I still cling very much to the the stuff in this world. My house, my things, our savings, our freedom. Can we just love this one thing a little bit more than you, God?

There is this constant battle, where I go and remove this worldly stuff from the alter, and try once again to shift my focus to the ... one and only ... holy and jealous ... God of the universe.
He commands that we place nothing before Him.

No good thing is good enough. Even when it carries the label of "church".

Scripture is sufficient. All things that man does, including the preaching of Christ crucified, that are used to give glory to God, are still the result of God's sovereignty. Our methods are but the means to an end and often still marred by sin. We could never credit our way to bringing about His will.

So that means that when we do it right, God is given glory.
And when we do it wrong, God is given glory.

He will be glorified.

Now. That truth could never equate to an apathy for sharing the gospel or an indifference to living a life of radical obedience to Christ. John Piper says, "Our costly obedience is the fruit, not the root, of being forgiven."

I am trying to lay a foundation for some future posts, regarding a movement within the church today. At first glance, it appears to have right motives for encouraging family unity through worship and studying of the bible. Through the use of scripture, this method encourages families to worship together and "turning the hearts of father's to their families."

To be clear, I have not one single issue with my family worshipping together. Samuel has been in worship service with us since he was three years old and Benjamin has yet to spend a day in the nursery. Because we met in a school, we were able to bring his stroller in the cafeteria. His schedule was fairly predictable and so we kept him with us during Sunday School, and he would always fall fast asleep when service began. Snuggled up in his stroller, he was content for the following hour. Samuel sat between Chris and I and wrote on a note pad or flipped through his bible. We tried to be deliberate in teaching that this time was to worship God. It was a challenge in the beginning, but got easier as time went on. At previous churches, equipped with adequate nursery facilities, we made good use of the nursery and our children were loved and well-cared for. I am not boasting in either.

It worked for us. It was good for us. We enjoyed it and I would even say that we were blessed by it.

But not once have I ever subscribed to the belief that I was somehow honoring God *more* by this decision. I never believed that having my small children in worship was an integral part of God's plan for the family and that by keeping them with us, I was in greater obedience than my sister in Christ who chose to use the nursery for her little one.

This idea is not scriptural and is proving to be divisive in churches across the nation. The church we visited this past week is doing a series called, Worship Wars. The norm is expository preaching, but they are spending time addressing issues that are threatening to divide this body. Interestingly enough, entirely different issues than the ones I am addressing here.

The pastor, Rich Ryan, says this:

"Worship wars exist because Christians ignore the biblical teachings on corporate worship OR make personal preference equal to scriptural mandate".

Doing something a certain way because it floats your boat is perfectly fine. Just as long as you don't say that God loves it more.

I will do my best to address the core beliefs within this movement. I sincerely welcome comments and conversation as a means to grow and learn as long as our motive is to honor God through that.