I was directed back to Voddie Baucham’s excellent book Family Driven Faith recently. One of the major themes of the book is how God has set apart the family as the primary means of grace for children to be reared on a proper foundation of loving God. Unfortunately, many today feel that this role should be done by the church. Voddie comments on how reading an average youth ministry’s purpose statement sounds really incredible, covering all of the bases, but then he laments:

There’s just one problem with the aforementioned mission statement. It makes absolutely no mention of parents! This ministry sets out to do for teens what God commands parents to do. Think about it. It is not the job of the youth pastor to evangelize my child — that’s my job. It is not the youth pastor’s job to equip (disciple) my child — it’s mine. And it is not the youth pastor’s job to send my child out to engage the world; you guessed it — that’s my job too. (pp.176-177)

There are an increasing number of people who think that it is the church’s job to provide all this kind of “meaningful programming” for their kids. All the while, in their very admission, they are confessing with their life and lips that they don’t measure up the standard God has clearly set forth for them in His Word. This doesn’t mean the parenting task is easy or that we shouldn’t seek help in doing this most effectively. It does mean that we shouldn’t shirk our duties to others.

Isn’t this an amazing gift that God has given us? May all of our families be tools in God’s hands to further glorifying and enjoying God, forever, in the lives of our children.

For more info on Voddie and his ministry, visit Family Driven Faith.