RSS FeedTo church or not to church
One of the most common questions we get asked after "are you Mormon or Catholic", is something along the lines of, "do you make your kids go to church?" or "what do you do about church and Sunday school?". The short answer is, on Sundays we expect our kids to go to church with us. Do we make them go? I sure hope not. Especially with our teenagers, we want to talk about buy in, in other words, what do we as a family want to be about? Philosophically here is our approach, on Sundays this is what the Pritchards do - we get up, we eat, we go to church. Maybe the bigger issue is what we do once we establish "our family goes to church". Years ago we read a book, Making Sunday Special. The author Karen Blurton Mains talked about the Jewish week of anticipating and reflecting on the Sabbath. It's easy for church to become just another, on a list of hundreds of things our kids do - go to school, dance lessons, the movies, soccer practice, birthday parties, and the list goes on. Do our kids see us living a passionate life for Jesus and church is just another part of living out that passion or is it competing with the school dance or the latest movie for a spot on our calendar?
This recently appeared in a Breakpoint (www.breakpoint.org) article, Busyness is a problem all of us face. In fact, a 2007 study asked over20,000 teens and adults if “the busyness of life gets in the way ofdeveloping [their] relationship with God.” The response? Six in 10Christians said they are too busy for God. We'll spend more time unpacking this in a future blog, but for now let's change our perspective from "making our kids go to church" to "making church an important part of a vibrant faith that we are living out with our kids".
This recently appeared in a Breakpoint (www.breakpoint.org) article, Busyness is a problem all of us face. In fact, a 2007 study asked over20,000 teens and adults if “the busyness of life gets in the way ofdeveloping [their] relationship with God.” The response? Six in 10Christians said they are too busy for God. We'll spend more time unpacking this in a future blog, but for now let's change our perspective from "making our kids go to church" to "making church an important part of a vibrant faith that we are living out with our kids".
Today my younger son and I were getting ready to go to worship and he said he didn't want to go. So I asked him what his reason was. He replied the typical eight year old answer," I don't know." So I told him that it was not a good enough reason and that he should come along anyway. After worship I picked him up from his classroom. First of all he didn't want to leave and secondly he was learning the Lords word that he had on a piece of paper. It reads, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1. He turns to me excitingly and reads it and then asks me what does it mean. I said, well Son, it means that just because you can't see Jesus, it doesn't mean he is not with you, he's lives in your heart. Seeing isn't always believing. The most precious moment is when he had the AHa! look on his face and I knew then that he got it. So in my opinion, all our kids need sometimes is a positive nudge to "Go to Church". Great topic Uncle David!
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Being that my Dad pastored the same church for 22 years, going to church was part of our life. We learned from a young age, that it wasn't just that we had to go to church, but that we GET to go to church. (having missionary friends all over the world helped remind us that not everyone had that privilege) I can remember my Dad telling us that even if he was bricklayer, we still would have been at church. I grew up knowing that my faith was based on My personal relationship with Jesus, not just the beliefs of my parents or as some call it "religion." I remember going to college & being shocked that the other students in my Anthropology class didn't know basic Bible stories about Moses, Noah, Daniel, etc. I thought everyone learned them in Sunday School, talk about a mission field! God has always been the constant in my life, in good times & bad. God has given me a new "mission field" as a Navy Wife. One of the first things I talk to Navy families about is to get "plugged in" to a church. I grew up with the church as my "Extended Family" a lesson I still carry with me, as I have no family around. I love that I can go to our awesome church and be loved, and encouraged, just like in my real family. I have challenges in my life just like everyone else, but I know that no matter what happens, God is Faithful. The lessons of faith, family, and serving others are all things we are teaching to our daughter. It gives me joy to see her love the Lord, and that the "Spiritual Legacy" that goes back to my great-grandparents continues to be passed down.
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