Tuesday, May 31, 2011

It's The Church's Responsibility To Train My Children

Or is it?

Did you know that, "Teens are 3x more likely to stay in church after high school if there are regular faith conversations at home"? - Jim Burns

Did you know that the average child will only spend 2 hours or less at their church each week.  Do you honestly believe that the church can train your children in the way your child should go in just 2 hours every week?  Absolutely NOT!  That isn't their responsibility.

The Lord has called us, as parents, to train our children.  We are to be their main influence.  We should send them to classes at church, of course, but we should not put that responsibility on their teachers and leaders.  The church's job is to plant seeds and reinforce what the kids are learning at home.  And then, we as parents, should in turn, reinforce what the kids have learned in their classes at church.

I have heard many parents say, "I decided to enroll my child at the Catholic (or Christian) school because I wanted them to get some religion.  I think what they teach is a good thing and I want my kid to get that."  I've also been a part of several conversations (remember, my husband was a student pastor for several years) where parents are upset, even infuriated, because the student pastor or lead pastor hasn't done their job to speak enough into their child's life.  I agree that some student pastors just "do their job" and don't get as involved in their students lives as they should, but to expect them to make the kids come to church or make them come to youth activities and to act appropriately is not their responsibility.  It's ours!

I know at Journey, our home church, that our Children's Pastor, does an excellent job at teaching my kids.  But I would never want it to end there and he would totally agree.  That's why they give the parents handouts when we pick them up after church.  These handouts have excellent discussions and activities that we can do with our kids throughout the week.  We can reinforce what they are learning.  I love those handouts.  It makes it easy to talk to our kids.  It helps them remember what they are learning, so it goes farther than the church building.

Parents, let's work together with the church to help make our kids GREAT for God!

7 comments:

MeMe and Poppee said...

Great post. I totally agree.

Unknown said...

I love this! What a huge responsibility it is, but it is still ours as parents. It does get tougher in the preteen years, for sure, but that just makes the burden even bigger to share when they are young;) What an excellent writer you are Tasha!

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with this! We work with youth in our church and it is amazing how many Godly parents just don't consistently share their faith with their kids. They really leave it all up to the church on Sundays and Wednesdays no matter how much we do to encourage talk at home!

Kelly Via said...

Amon. and Amon.

Unknown said...

What most people don't realize is that most teenagers in the future will leave the Catholic church as soon as they can.

At some point, their friends who give them peer pressure will show them these facts about Catholic child rape (on their IPhones), and the kids will sympathize with the child victims. They will read the details of the Philadelphia Grand Jury report, just as one set of examples, and see how 12 year old Ruth was raped by a priest, and taken by that priest to get an abortion.

They will read about how the bishops lied about it, and they will see how the congregation ignored the victims. They will see more hypocrisy than they have ever seen, but no one will talk openly about it.

Their friends will convince them to leave the Catholic church as soon as they can, and they will, and they will never go back. They will also convince your teenager that the Catholic church is evil (citing indisputable proof online), and will be able to tempt your teenager with drinking, drugs, stealing, cheating, or any type of evil. If they are Catholic, they will be defenseless to argue.

You will probably delete this post to hide it from your children, but this is the truth, and its the legacy that this church has left for your children and their children.

The current Catholic church has ruined the Catholic religion for future generations. Think about how you will deal with that before you delete this post, and think about how you will answer to God for what you did. God isn't stupid, and He's going to be angry.

The Via Colony said...

"PatO" thank you for your response!

I am highly aware of the depravity of man...EVERY man.

We live in a fallen world, and as much as we want to believe that these kinds of things just do not happen in the church, there is wide-open proof that it does exist.

My husband and I are heart-broken every time we hear of these kinds of events, as well of pastors and church leaders falling prey to pornography addictions, multiple affairs and the such.

We will not hide this from our children. This just helps us guard our hears. We must be so very careful not to put the Pastor or leader on a pedistal or think of them as perfect in any way. Jesus is our example, NOT our pastor!

I do, wholeheartedly, believe that we, as people in ministry, are held to a higher standard for sure! We are responsible for so much more. But nobody is beyond temptation and Satan knows exactly where to hit!

Just like I tell my own children that I am a mommy who makes mistakes and is continually learning how to be the best mommy God wants me to be, they know that I am not perfect.

Church leaders are NOT perfect. People's hearts are corrupt. People's motives can be impure, church leader or not.

Yes, is sad, it's disgusting, it's disappointing...but that is the truth and that is reality.

BUT

God cannot disappoint! He is who we should give our whole heart to.

I hope you did not fall victim to such circumstances, but if you have I pray that you will find a godly church who speaks Truth and leads you to the one who does NOT disappoint!

The friz said...

PatO what are you even talking about? I'm failing to see the relevance to this post. Tasha used the word "catholic" one time as an example, and you ran with it like it was the primary point.