Description of a proper "Family Integrated Church"

Status
Not open for further replies.

nasa30

Puritan Board Sophomore
I did not want to hijack the Sam Waldron thread so I thought I would start another.

Another thread today had an critique from Sam Waldron of the FIC "movement". A comment on that site from one of my fellow elders gave a much better description of the basis for why we do what regarding age integration and I thought I would share.


It is unfortunate that you have picked a few questionable examples and statements from the FIC movement to critique. Let me give here a much more broad and balanced description of the basis for age integration within the Church.

The Scripture defines and details an architecture, a model, a pattern for the people of God. The Bible tells us who we are and what we should be doing. When the glorious Gospel pierces our hearts and we repent, we are converted and placed into the Lord’s precious family. There is a wonderful picture of this process at work in Acts 2:37-47.

The Church
We need to be very careful how we describe the Church because it is Christ’s body and His precious bride. A couple of statements concerning the architecture of the Church need to be made before listing the characteristics of a family integrated church. First, family integration is only one element in the architecture.
The Church, this beautiful structure that is Christ’s body and bride, is much bigger than her age integration. Second, the foundation of the architecture depends on your beliefs about Scripture. Family integrated church structure rests on the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. We need nothing else but what the Bible teaches in principle, precept and command to rightly structure and operate the church of Jesus Christ.

Paul wanted Timothy to know three things: 1) Scripture is perfect(2 Timothy 3:16), 2) There is a way we should engage ourselves in the Church (1 Timothy 3:15) and 3) There is a fixed pattern of church life (2 Timothy 1:13). Biblical Christianity begins with God and His pattern. The church is not subject to men or the world but to God and His Word alone.

Once we understand that age-integration is only one part of church structure and we are resting on the doctrine of sufficiency of Scripture then we can rightly examine the marks of a biblical congregation. Here are fourteen characteristics of a Family Integrated Church:
1. An orthodox church that is faithful to biblical theology and practices. The gospel is the central message. Orthodox biblical ecclesiology is lived out. Scripture is the basis for the things that we do in the church. Biblical preaching is practiced. The Lord’s Supper is celebrated. Baptism is practiced. Prayers are lifted up and songs are sung. Biblical church discipline is implemented. Biblically qualified leaders are appointed. The emphasis is on the Word of God. We don’t start with the family. We start with God. A family integrated church does not have its center in the family. The glory of God is the center of the church (Ephesians 3:21).
2. Families worship together. Age segregated, family dividing ministry and the exclusion of children from worship is a recent, unbiblical result of creative Christianity. You will not find these practices in the Scripture or in historic Christianity. If you study church history you will find that family integration, family worship, and church structure flowing from leadership to fathers were core components of movements back to biblical authority, especially during the Reformation. The pattern of age integration is found throughout the Scripture.
3. Singles are incorporated into the full spectrum of church life. Nowhere in the Scripture do you find certain groups separated from the fellowship of the church. Every member should be ministered to, and be ministering, in the context of the body. Singles have a great opportunity and responsibility to minister in the body, not separate from it.
4. Fathers are equipped to be the spiritual leaders of their homes. It is painfully obvious what has happened in our culture. There has been a massive meltdown of the biblical family. The Bible says that children are to be trained by their father. When you bypass the father you have rejected the clear teaching of the Bible. In most churches tremendous energy and resources are devoted to programs and activities. Are the resources of your church focused on promoting the equipping of fathers?
5. Biblical roles and jurisdictions are in order. There are three jurisdictions in Scripture; civil government, church, and family. Each has a distinct function. What we have in modern evangelical Christianity is a violation of biblical jurisdictions. The church is trying to do what the family should do and the state is trying to do what the church should be doing.
6. Children are not isolated but incorporated as full participants in church life. Adolescence is regarded as a myth in family integrated churches. There is no evidence in the Bible that children are to be isolated. Children are to live, work and grow next to their parents and assume adult responsibilities early in life. Age segregation in every area of life is a modern, unbiblical phenomenon and works against multi-generational discipleship and faithfulness.
7. Biblical youth ministry is implemented. Biblical instruction and discipline in the home by the father, solid biblical preaching by pastors in the congregation and cross-generation discipleship in church life is how Scripture defines youth ministry. Where do the concepts of youth group, Sunday school and children’s church come from? You won’t find them in Scripture. The fact that modern evangelical Christianity has lost the next generation is a statistical reality. Unbiblical practices fail and biblical obedience is blessed.
8. Wives are functioning in their role as complement to their husband and nurturer of children in the home. God has established gender-oriented roles. The Bible is clear as to the roles and responsibilities of men and women. The Christian wife/mother is to be a fully educated, highly skilled, spiritually strong, motivated and productive agent of God – under the leadership of her husband, working at home and lovingly bringing children to godly maturity. Civilization hangs in the balance on how wives and mothers respond to the commands found in Titus 2:3-5.
9. Biblical offices and Biblical requirements for church leaders are applied. There are only two offices prescribed in Scripture, elders and deacons. The Scripture has much to say about the office of elder/pastor/overseer. There are two main problems facing modern evangelical Christianity with regard to this office; 1) There is no biblical basis for the office of chief executive pastor, recreation pastor, youth pastor, singles pastor, etc. These man-made offices work against Biblical church structure, 2)Many of today’s leaders are not qualified to hold the office because they are not managing their own households well.
10. Family integration, as a principle, guides the programs for equipping and evangelism. In general, families are walking together in evangelism, missions, discipleship, etc. The ministry of evangelism, discipleship, serving, and all other ministries should flow from elders equipping the saints to do the work. There is a beautiful picture of this in Acts 21 as the entire congregation ministered to Paul when he left. We do not believe that families must always be together but that age integration is key to fulfilling Biblical commands.
11. The household and hospitality are the centerpieces of community ministry. There are many hospitality commands in Scripture. Conduct a word study of “household” in Scripture. Modern evangelical Christianity has the erroneous understanding that ministry only happens within the walls of the church building or by church program.
12. The ministry of the body is not primarily programmatic but relational. There are about 50 “one another” commands in the New Testament. The ministry of the church is very personal and very relational. We need to be extremely careful not to over program the local church.
13. The fatherless are brought into the mainstream of church and family life. What do we do with the ocean of youth who do not have families or have non-Christian families? What we ought to be doing is engaging what God has given us toward them. The Scriptures have a road map for caring for the fatherless and widows. Go to them, bring them into your families and minister!
14. Multi-generational faithfulness is promoted. Parents are to teach their children how to know God. Then those children are to teach their children, and so on. This is the clear and unmistakable command of Scripture.

There is a complementary pattern for church and family life. There is a design for church structure and Almighty God is the Great Designer. In the architecture of this great family of God, families are brought together. Every aspect of this architecture is not designed to exalt the family but to use the family to glorify God and communicate the Gospel from one generation to the next. Family integration is only one architectural element of Biblical church life but if you lose that one element you have lost much.

O Lord, we are ready for the imprint of the pattern of sound words (2 Timothy 1:13).

MPoe
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top