Family Driven Faith

As some of you may know, my wife and I are currently reading "Family Driven Faith" by Voddie Baucham Jr.  I was recently introduced to him by a good brother in the Lord, Mike, who lives in Michigan.  For those of you that don't know who he is, Voddie has preached with Louie Giglio (Passion Conference), Alistair Begg (Parkside Church), and John Piper (Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World) among others. Voddie is a pastor, professor, conference speaker, and Bible teacher. His is a graduate of Southwestern and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminaries and has also studied at the University of Oxford.  Baucham is the author of The Ever-Loving Truth and the Telly Award-winning Ever-Loving Truth Bible study curriculum.  He has a wife, Bridget, and four children.  

Recently my wife and I were at the hospital with our daughter Noelani because she had to be treated for jaundice.  As my wife and I had some extra time, I figured we could start reading Family Driven Faith. 

Chapter 1: Lay of the Land

Voddie begins by telling a story of an encounter he had with a young, 21 year-old college junior.  He had been asked to preach at a chapel service and after the sermon the young lady approaches him and thanks him for the message and starts to open up to him about a relationship she was in.  Sadly enough, the young woman was a backsliding christian trying to get over a two year relationship with an unbeliever.  He goes on to mention the following statistic:

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.  According to researchers, between 70 and 80 percent of Christian teens are leaving the church by their second year in college (Pinkney, T.C., Report to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, September 18, 2001)....Researcher Goerge Barna, for example, discovered that 85 percent of 'born again teens' do not believe in the existence of absolute truth. Over 60 percent agreed with the statement, 'nothing can be known for sure except the things you experience in your own life.' More than half of those surveyed believed that Jesus sinned during His earthly life!"

After Voddie has "sounded a desperately needed alarm", he writes about how so many christian parents have deemed their children's education, sports activities, etc. more important than their walk with the Lord.  

"If I teach my son to keep his eye on the ball but fail to teach him to keep his eyes on Christ, I have failed as a father.  We must refuse to allow trivial, temporal pursuits to interfere with the main thing.  Making the team is a tremendous achievement; however, it must be put in its proper perspective. No sports endeavor will ever be as important as becoming a man or woman of God."

"There are many worthwhile pursuits in this world, but few of them rise to the level of training our children to follow the Lord and keep His commandments. I desperately want my sons and daughters to walk with God, and I am willing to do whatever it takes, whatever the Bible says I must do in order to be used by God as means to that end. My prayer for you is that God would awaken in you that same passion."

It was this chapter and listening to the message  by Voddie called the "The Centrality of the Home in Evangelism and Discipleship" (click here to listen) that brought Nana and I to our knees.  We pray that you too would be blessed by the message.  Thank you Mike and Susan for having sent us this book and message. Lord knows how timely this message has been for our family.  

Soli Deo Gloria