Society used to direct young people towards marriage. Now it does the opposite.

Just my two cents.

Obviously, I’m a big fan of what you’ve mentioned… discipling families and “doing life” together. I think that’s right in line with Deuteronomy 11:19:

“Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Discipleship of our kids doesn’t just happen in class, or through sitting down with them at home doing devotions… it happens as we do life together. There are teachable moments everywhere!

Perhaps the right question is not so much, “has the church been invaded somewhat with the prevailing ‘anti-child’ culture of the world” (after all, I don’t see many churches not liking kids), but “has the church lost its way in helping to encourage Biblical thinking about families?”

I know some of these questions open some seriously big cans of worms, but I think that topic includes a number of things:

What does Biblical thinking mean in regard to how husbands and wives determine the size of their families?

What does Biblical thinking mean in regard to our attitudes about children?

What does Biblical thinking mean in regard to our life priorities, especially once we have children?

What does Biblical thinking mean in regard to the educational choices we make for our kids?

What does Biblical thinking mean in regard to how we discipline our kids?

The list could go on and on… the point is, do churches do a good job helping people think through both the Biblical concepts related to families and parenting, and the practical implications of such in our lives?

A: We live in a convenience-driven culture. Children are not convenient.

Q: If so, is such a culture also prevalent in the church?

A: What do we do with our kids at most church functions? Similar to the way we tend to do adult discipleship, we put them in a class and give them information rather than walking with them. This is not to say that children do not need time with people their own age, but they also need to walk with Mom and Dad, Elder Bob, Deacon Frank, WMU director Mary, etc, etc so they can SEE how to walk with Jesus. We do what is modeled for us, not what we are told to do… so do children.

Q: What does this mean for the church?

A: Syncretism…?

Q: How do we begin to encourage families to reflect God’s design rather than cultural norms?

A:
1. Teach biblical discipleship for all (not just children). This means not just sitting in a class room, but doing life together.
2. Demonstrate it. “Do ministry” with our own kids.
3. Encourage other brothers and sisters to be involved in our children’s lives. Seek out godly influences (other than Mom and Dad) so they can see the beauty/diversity/unity in God’s Kingdom and learn how to walk with Jesus.

Not sure if this answers the questions you were asking, but I’ve only had one cup of coffee and these are the things our family is struggling through right now!

His peace be yours in abundance,
From the Middle East

I’m reasonably positive that the fundamental selfishness of humanism in our culture today has led to a general aversion to children. That seems to be pretty evident in culture overall. But I don’t think that this attitude has affected the churches … all joking about lots of kids aside. I think those jokes are usually only jest, with some measure of admiration.

Instead, I think the problem associated with children in our churches is that the vast majority of the members in our (Southern Baptist) as so far beyond child bearing age that it is no longer an issue.