Allow me to share my heart and then a decision that Cindy and I have made for our family for the near future.

 

Over the course of the last year my eyes have been opened to ministry to families, not just children.  During my brief stay at Pine Grove I experienced parents who were more concerned that there was a Children’s Church than they were with what their children were learning in Children’s Church.  The ones who sought out a change to impact the children were the Children’s Church workers themselves.  Even now, in our Awana ministry, I am seeing some of our kids who have not studied their handbooks during the week and seemingly parents who don’t care or express concern about this fact. 

 

The problem that I see with ministries to Children and Youth in today’s churches is the apparent lack of involvement from and to parents.  The church has assumed the role of nurturers concerning the spiritual well-being of each child and the parent is just there to drop off and pick up their child.  We must realize that the biblical responsibility for the spiritual training of children and youth falls on the parents, not the church.  The church has many important roles and functions – but in terms of children the church’s role is only to partner with parents in this endeavor, helping to train parents to assume their right place.

 

This mindset does not come from bitterness or anger towards parents but yet out of love for parents so they can recognize and assume their role – to not let the church steal the joy and satisfaction of ministering to their own children.

 

Ministering to my family has been an important concern of mine for a long time.  My decision to return to school in September 2005 and resign from staff was mostly due to the stress I knew would come on my family if I tried to continue with work, church, home, and school.  Even though it surprised and probably upset many it was done for the best intentions for my family and my ministry.  I believe that if I cannot minister to my own family then I have no right to try and minister to anyone else.  This falls under the biblical standard that a man must rule his house well.

 

Cindy and I have, over the past few weeks, sat down and prayed about the direction of our family.  We have concerns about the time put on some things and the time not placed on family worship.  To be honest, we have been very lax in having family time whether it is devotions, scripture reading, or simply prayer time.  This failure falls right back on our shoulders as parents.  Simply doing church has not served our family well in the past in terms of training our children.

 

Over the next few weeks and months we have decided to spend more time at home and bring our family back to where it needs to be in terms of a home that truly serves God.  This means there will be times that we are not at church – and I wanted to let you know so you are not alarmed.  We fully understand the role of church in our lives but we feel this is a step we need to take as a family to strengthen our ties and bonds to each other and, more importantly, God.

 

We ask for your prayers and support during this time.  I know many will question this decision and place doubt about why it was made but I simply ask that you respect it.  We look forward to ministering with each of you in the future.

 

God Bless, Sam.