FAMILY
“Teach
them to your
children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you
walk along
the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”Because we believe that God has ordained the family, and not the local church, to train up children, we will make it our aim to equip parents in any way necessary so that they can effectively disciple their children. The Church in the Hills will not become the surrogate parent, in that we will not bypass the parents when it comes to the discipling of children and youth. Any program aimed at the discipleship of children and youth will be seen as supplemental to the discipleship of the family, or will be seen as providing discipleship in the absence of believing parents.
To that end, we have created a 300-week Strategy for parents to use to walk their children through the entirety of the Scriptures. If utilized over time, a parent of a first-grader will be able to walk their child through the Bible twice before they graduate from high school. This is not a special program for special parents and children. This is what God expects of us as parents; therefore, the church must play a role in equipping parents to perform their role.
Because we believe that discipleship goes well beyond reading the Scriptures, we will allow parents to play crucial roles in the celebration of communion, of baptism, and of corporate worship experiences. We will encourage our families to be active in ministry and mission endeavors.
In the end, our desire is for parents to heed the biblical command to train up their children in their faith, and to mature and equip themselves in order to be effective in that role. It is our desire for children to look to their parents as their spiritual mentors, and only to church staff personnel if necessary.
