Off Script Again!

Afternoon everyone!

Today, Pastor Kevin went off script again and instead of doing the next lesson in Romans, he wanted to share what he learned at his pastor conference last week called conclave.

Notes from Conclave

Discipleship begins at home.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says, “Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them to your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

Church should be a supplement to the teaching that begins at home.

Some sobering statistics: 20% of senior pastors have a plan to teach members how to disciple their kids.

Only 10% have sources available to disciple children. 😳

Only 10% of church-raised teens actually become resilient disciples in adulthood. The rest disengage or settle for nominal faith.

If they hear the message at home that they are worthless or hard to love, they will go looking for acceptance elsewhere. This can lead to cults, or worse.

Despite Gen Z’s low biblical literacy, the good news is 44% say they are extremely curious about the Bible or Jesus.

Other teens go to. Church because it’s what they’ve always done, but they aren’t getting anything out of it because the parents don’t live it out at home. Kids mimic their parents. Show them what’s right!

We are so guilty of not being the right kind of example for our kids. We went to church sporadically. We didn’t make them go with us. We didn’t pray before meals, or read the Bible together and now we wonder where our kids “went wrong”. Duh!!!

Sorry, but had we done right by our kids they wouldn’t have experimented with drugs and alcohol. They would have been getting spiritually fed at home. We really screwed up and now they are lost adults, scratching to earn a living. Struggling to hang on to relationships. Struggling to get by, medically in trouble due to drinking and other things. I feel like we are to blame for all of it.

As adults, we should have listened when our grannies tried to tell us the correct way to bring up our kiddos. We thought we knew best. Then when they left the nest, we started going to church more. We started asking them to go but by that time, we had lost them. They weren’t interested anymore.

Nothing would make me happier than to hear that all three of my boys have a personal relationship with God. They know I want that for them now and I would say all but one are trying harder at it, yet still not taking it seriously.

It’s too late for my kids but you can still teach your kids how to have a relationship with God. Ask your pastor/priest/clergyman for resources on disciplining your children. Bring them to church with you if you attend (and I sincerely hope you do) and read to them from the Bible at home. Start saying grace at meals. Little steps can become routine and/or develop into a habit that will carry on into adulthood.

My grandmother gave me my first Bible when I was three. She taught me the 23 Psalm and took me to church on Sundays (and maybe other days but I was too young to remember) but later on my religious upbringing was patchy. I was raised in the Catholic church, when to youth group, and did my catechism lessons and graduated. In the service I had lots of friends expose me to different churches and had some wild experiences but all along I knew who God and Jesus were. It’s been a struggle in our marriage but I think we are getting closer to being on the same page.

I have to go now, we are having a guest for dinner but think about this. If you want your kids to learn right from wrong and know who God is, if this is important to you that they be raised with morals it has to start at home. Don’t let them become a sad statistic like so many of our “lost youth.”

Thanks for stopping by and if this resonated with you, drop me a comment.

Have a blessed Sunday. 🙏☺️