Posted in Church Life

It has been some time since I shared an update on our church situation.  I know that several of you have been praying faithfully for us as we have sought the Lord's direction in the matter of finding a church home.  Family integrated Reformed churches are rather hard to come by in New England (churches that teach any kind of Biblical truth at all are few and far between), and it has been a long, hard, lonely year for us.  We ended up in the not-so-ideal position of worshipping at home most Sundays and visiting several churches which were long distances from our home.  This proved very isolating and I found myself becoming extremely discouraged.  And yet, God still showed Himself faithful and He kept alive the vision in our hearts of seeing a good, solid Reformed church established in our area. 

In answer to some fervent prayer and diligent inquiries, about eight months ago we began a monthly Bible study in our home with the view that it will eventually become an established church.  This study is being taught and led by a very dear pastor friend of ours.  He and his wife sacrificially make the 2 1/2 hour trip to our home each month, leading a group of about 8 families in prayer, worship, singing, and wonderful teaching from the Word of God.  It has been a tremendous blessing and encouragement.  I have hesitated sharing about this here because for some time I was in awe of the work the Lord has been doing right before my eyes.  I am a bit wary of becoming too hopeful.  And yet, He is still doing some amazing things in and through the little group of brothers and sisters who gather once a month in our home.  What started as a vision in my husband's heart grew into three families willing to meet regularly around the Scriptures, and has continued to grow each month since then.  (To get an idea of the kind of solid, Biblical teaching we are privileged to receive each month, check out Pastor Curt's blog.)  In addition to this, we are also visiting the church he pastors, though we only manage the 2 1/2 hour trip every five or six weeks.

About a month ago, my husband also came to the realization that we really needed the stability of regular church attendance, long drive to the nearest reformed church notwithstanding.  And so, we are now making the weekly hour-long (one way) drive to attend a small Orthodox Presbyterian Church pastored by a sweet elderly gentleman.  Many of our closest friends (and Bible study attendees) are also making the trip each week.  Though the long drive is not ideal, it is good to worship regularly with other Believers each week.  It is a sacrifice, but a worthwhile one, at least for now.

Thank you for your continued prayers for us.  It has been a long, hard journey, but God has been so good to us.  We have seen Him do some exciting things in our family.  My husband and I are still learning so many wonderful things about God and His Word, and He is growing and stretching us in so many ways.  It will be interesting to see what He has waiting for us next on this journey.

Posted in Church Life

It has been some time since I shared an update on our church situation.  I know there are several of you who have been praying and waiting with interest to know how things are going.  For those unaware, several months ago, my husband and I, along with a small number of other families, felt led of the Lord to start a small fellowship, a family-integrated, reformed church.  We knew from the start that it would be some time before it actually looked like the church we believe the Lord wants to raise up in our local area (reformed, family-integrated churches are very few and far between in the New England region), and so many of the things we chose to do (having “interim” elders for a short time, meeting in homes) were intended to be temporary.  We had such hope for what God would do with our little group.  We also had a sweet sense of unity and fellowship.  That being the case, it was very difficult to experience the time of testing that would come a few short months later.  When two of the families in our small group broke away within three months (for different reasons), it brought us such sadness.  What we had planned and expected did not come to pass.  In fact, being the eternal pessimist that I am, I came to believe for a time that all our hopes and vision for our family to be a part of a true covenant community had been completely dashed.  My husband held firm in his belief that God has a work He wants to do, and that He is going to allow us to be at least a small part of that.  I clung to my husband’s hope, as I had very little of my own left.

The Lord, in a very short time, showed Himself faithful yet again, and I now have a renewed hope, though it looks slightly different than it formerly did.  What God is doing is so much bigger and sweeter than what I thought He would.  You see, though our vision was clear, our timing was a little off.  God’s timing, on the other hand, is always perfect, if we would only trust Him to bring His will to pass when it is right for Him to do so.  We are now a part of a fellowship group made up of most of the families from the original group, along with several others whose friendship and fellowship have so greatly blessed our family in recent months.  We now meet regularly with a number of likeminded families who have the same passion for the Word of God, as well as a spirit of maturity and an appreciation for one another’s unique gifts and convictions.

So, even though what we have for a church situation now isn’t what I thought it would be when we embarked on this (somewhat scary) journey almost ten months ago, it is, in fact, better.  We have learned many extremely important and valuable lessons through the last few months.  The Lord has been refining us and stretching us in ways we would not have expected.  Some of the refining and stretching has been quite painful.  Perhaps that is why I have for so long put off sharing some of these things here.  I have now finally come to a point where I can honestly thank God for the difficulties, the hurts, the betrayals, the uncertainties.  I am beginning to come to an understanding of the fact that all these things have been blessings because they were for our benefit, to shape and mold us into what He wants us to be.

Our convictions haven’t wavered.  We believe wholeheartedly in the family-integrated church model.  We believe in the doctrines of the reformed faith.  We believe in the importance of matching our orthopraxy with our orthodoxy.  And we are passionately continuing to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, trusting in His covenant promises for them.  We are looking with great hope toward the future generations, those yet to be.  What we do now will have an impact on those who come after us, which is one of the main reasons we made the step of faith we did when it came to how we “do church”.

I am again at a point of excited anticipation for what God is doing in raising up a community of likeminded Believers for which our family to be a part.  He is so good and faithful, and I have seen Him answer so many prayers in the past, why would I have any reason to doubt what He will do in this?

Posted in Church Life

" We grew up thinking that the church is a building; God's Word says the church is His people.  We grew up thinking that church activities occur mainly on Sunday morning or Wednesday evening, forgetting that a man talking with his neighbor is a church activity, or a mother going shopping with her daughter is a church activity.  We grew up thinking that God somehow lives in these buildings, but His Word says that He lives in our hearts.  We grew up thinking that the room where God's people assemble to worship is the sanctuary, when the Bible teaches us that our hearts are His sanctuary."
                               ~Eric Wallace, Uniting Church and Home

"The dichotomy between Christian and humanist thinking is so vast that, as Christians, we must examine our reasoning, by taking the 'desert island challenge.'  We must ask ourselves questions such as, 'With the Bible alone to guide you, would you conclude that it was acceptable to send your children to government schools to be trained by those who do not fear the Lord, and thus have no knowledge (Psalm 7)?'  Or, 'If all you had was the Bible, would it be normative for mothers to be the spiritual leaders of their homes?'  Or even, 'If all you had was the Bible to guide your path, does scripture teach you to separate children from their parents in the worship service of the local church?'"
                               ~Doug Phillips, Introduction to How God Wants Us to Worship Him

"If we are to change the world, we must first change the church.  Currently there is no distinguishable difference between the way our culture views marriage and family and the way we do in the church.  We do not have to change every congregation into a family-integrated church, but we do have to promote a biblical view of marriage and family.  We must do this by holding marriage in high esteem, welcoming and celebrating children, and placing a premium on family."
                               ~Voddie Baucham, Family Driven Faith

Posted in Church Life

For several weeks now I have been promising to share some of the exciting things God is doing in our family.  It has simply not been the right time to do so until now.  At last, this situation is at a point where I can share what has been going on in our lives in recent weeks.

For some time, my husband and I have felt the Lord speaking to us about the idea of family-integrated worship (see the great comments following this entry).  We began seeing in His Word that His plan is for parents (and especially fathers) to be responsible for discipling their own children in the faith.  We discovered through the Scriptures that the normative practice is for children to be present in times of corporate worship.  Through careful study on the subject, we learned that the modern Sunday school movement is quite recent and actually has its roots in evolutionary philosophy.  These things caused us to question practices in the church which we had long accepted as “the right way to do things”.  We became convicted of the Lord that we should not take part in these practices.  My husband in particular began taking even more seriously his responsibility as the spiritual leader of our family.

Around this same time, our views on evangelism and even, in some areas, theology began a slight shift as God taught us through in His Word and our thinking began lining up more closely with Scripture.

During this time of learning and growing in the Lord, we also had a feeling of great loneliness.  We felt as though no one around would understand our journey, and that was very isolating.  We began a quiet search for a likeminded fellowship of believers.  We very soon realized that churches like the one we were hoping and searching for are very few and far between in our area of the country.  This was a disheartening discovery.  We began praying fervently for the Lord’s wisdom and direction in this area of our lives.  Eventually, we felt God leading us to step out in faith and, with two other families He brought to us, begin a family-integrated Reformed Baptist church.  Over and over again, we saw the Lord affirm this leading through various circumstances, and always when we went back to the Scriptures, we saw reassurance that this was the right thing to do.

This past Sunday was our very first worship service together.  (Though we do not plan to be a “home church” in the usual connotation of that term, we are meeting with several families in our home at this time.)  What a sweet time of fellowship and simple worship before our Lord it was!  What a blessing to learn from God’s Word alongside my children, with my own parents nearby as well.  What a time of refreshment and encouragement with likeminded brothers and sisters in Christ.

I cannot say that the road to this decision has been easy, or that we have not met with some opposition.  There have been those who have misunderstood what we have chosen to do.  But there have also been many who have been supportive and encouraging as we have sought to follow the Lord in this work.  This is only the beginning, but we feel the hand of God on us in this and know He will bless us if we are faithful to obey Him. 

Posted in Church Life

I read a lot of books on many different subjects, and I like to record the titles I have read as I finish them.  I have a wonderful little journal called a Booklover's Diary for just such a purpose.  I find it very helpful and valuable to keep track of what and how much I am reading at any given point.  I have noticed that I often read several books on a particular theme.  There are certain subjects of which I like to be as informed as possible.

Over the last year or so, one of the areas I have done extensive reading on is the subject of family-integrated churches.  I first learned about the family-integrated church "movement" from the Vision Forum website.  Since then, I have read several books and listened to a number of CDs, as well as using many online resources to extend my understanding of the topic.  My husband has also done much studying in the same area.  Following is a list of some of the resources we found especially helpful in learning more about this important area.  If you are unfamiliar with the idea of family-integrated churches, I would encourage you to read some of the online articles and other related links I have included.  If you already know what I am talking about when I mention family-iintegrated worship but would like to learn more, please follow some of the links and use one or more of the invaluable resources to become more informed on this Scripturally essential area.

National Center for Family Integrated Churches   This is a ministry of Vision Forum which seeks to "work for godly change within pre-existing local churches, and to help plant family-integrated local churches"

Uniting Church and Home by Eric Wallace  An excellent book on the whys and wherefores of family-integrated worship

Family-Integrated Church  by J. Mark Fox  A wonderfully encouraging book written by the pastor of a family-integrated church

Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham, Jr.  Highly recommended!  A life-changing book

Critique of Modern Youth Ministry by Christopher Schlect  Written by a former youth pastor exposing the problems with youth ministry

Parenting in the Pew by Robbie Castleman  For the parent who is completely clueless about how in the world they could possibly get their children to sit through an entire church service--I've been there (I still am on some days)

The Family: Together in God's Presence   A wonderful (and very practical) atrticle on families worshiping together  (also see The Children, The Church, and the Chosen)

The Age-Integrated Church   A very good introduction to age-integrated church structure (and interestingly enough, written by a 16 year-old young man)

How Modern Churches Are Harming Families   My husband and I listened to this CD exactly a year ago, and it became the catalyst to send us on a literally life-changing journey

The Role of Children in the Meeting of the Church   Excellent treatment on the Biblical basis for children being present in the worship service

The History of the Sunday School Movement   Eye-opening account of when and where the idea of Sunday school originated (it's not what most people would suspect)

I will be sharing more on this particular subject in the near future.  This is an area that has become very dear to my heart and extremely important in our family life.  I look forward to giving a little more details on how our family has been impacted by all this reading.

I also hope to share more book lists on other themes in the future.