Building Balance in Church and Family Life

CHEC Home School Conference--Part 4

So far, I have written about the following seminars we attended: Rebuilding the Wall by Doug Phillips, Building Covenant Communities by R.C. Sproul, Jr., and Building Meaningful Family Worship by Kevin Swanson.

In the 4th seminar we attended, Kevin Swanson, a pastor and the executive director of CHEC, discussed the different types of balance needed in church and family life, and how Christendom today is flailing for the proper balance. He covered a lot of ground in this seminar, so I will just share a few of his ideas.

#1 Jurisdictional Balance
God has ordained three institutions: family, church, and state. It is our duty to have a proper understanding of the rights and responsibilities of each. In today's society, the state holds an undue amount of influence in our lives. Swanson stated, "Anything that's dominated by the state will be destroyed by the state." I think this holds true in many aspects of our lives. One just needs to look at examples such as the public school system in this country, the way the government "protects a woman's right to choose," or the way the welfare state has destroyed many black families in the inner city.

#2 Core/Crust Balance
Our core is our heart; how we truly are. Our crust is that external self we show to the world. Scripture is clear on the fact that God looks at the heart, so we know this is important. Yet, our external self is important, as well. Swanson was focusing here on how we act and treat others.

#3 Heart Balance
We need to balance three aspects of our heart; our mind, our will, and our emotions.

#4 Here are five ways we can attempt to achieve balance in the various areas of our lives:
1. Honor our fathers (I would add mothers, too)
2. Be humble
3. Be long-suffering
4. Pray, pray, pray
5. Use God's Word

Building Meaningful Family Worship

Home School Conference--Part 3

Kevin Swanson, executive director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado and pastor of an OPC church, spoke on the importance of family worship. His thoughts dovetailed quite nicely with those of Doug Phillips and R.C. Sproul, Jr.

Swanson began by sharing an interview he heard with a Catholic college provost on the Hugh Hewitt radio show. The provost said, "Western civilization is falling apart," citing the low birth rate in Europe and the fading importance of the Christian church. But, the guest added that there is some hope left in the US because of the home school movement. He called these homes the "monasteries of the New Dark Age." What an important task we face if we look at our responsibilities in that light!

Swanson then proceeded to make many compelling points urging us to spend time, DAILY, in family worship. He talked about the importance of integrating our faith into our daily lives. This integration is difficult if we don't have habitual practice. We need to have family worship EVERY day; it is too easy to get our priorities jumbled very quickly. If we don't do it every day, we send the message to our children that it's not important.

Swanson also praised his parents for the Godly upbringing he received. He listed the reasons he and his five siblings are strong in their faith:
1. they were home schooled and protected from negative outside influences
2. they had daily 40 minute family worship
3. their mother prayed diligently for them
4. God's grace
5. singing--it brings God word into the heart

Building Covenant Communities

Colorado Home School Conference--Part 2

R.C. Sproul, Jr. was the second person we heard speak at the home school conference. Now, I know he's said and done some controversial things recently. I was a bit skeptical myself after reading various internet blogs and sites. But, I listened to him with an open mind, and was pleasantly surprised with both his message and demeanor.

He based his talk upon I Peter 2, and I'm sorry to say that I didn't write down the specific verses to which he referred, but these two seem to relate to his message.

Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps.
1 Peter 2: 17, 21

Sproul preached that a covenant community needs both the love of family and the law of authority. Problems occur when things become too lop-sided on either the covenant side or the community side.

A recurring theme that permeated all of his talks was introduced in this first one. He stressed that we need to love our neighbor and walk humbly with God. We have to guard against thinking we have all the answers, that our church is the only church that is true to the faith. (He was NOT advocating embracing churches that don't adhere to the fundamentals of the faith.) His stress on being humble seemed, to me, to be heartfelt and serious. I have never heard him speak in person before, but I get the sense that he has been humbled by the firestorm he's been through, and that he's learned valuable lessons as a result.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say that R.C. has been diagnosed with cancer. He began chemotherapy just days after he returned to Virginia from Colorado, and thankfully the type he's got is highly treatable. He did not, in any of the talks I heard, mention anything about it. I just learned of it while reading the Highlands Study Center website.

(The above photo comes from this website of family photographs taken in the early 1900s in Texas.)

Rebuilding the Wall

Notes from the home school conference, for my dear friend Carla, whom I have been woefully neglecting of late.

Doug Phillips, founder of Vision Forum, was the first keynote speaker at the conference. His text was from Nehemiah 4:14. To lay some background to the text, Nehemiah has gone to Jerusalem and organizes the rebuilding of the wall around the city. The Jews are mocked by their enemies and threatened with attack. Nehemiah positions the Jews, according to families, along the wall to defend it, and has them take up arms. Then he "rallies the troops" with this speech.

And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

The church and the family of today are fighting enemies who mock us and seek to attack us. We need to band together and symbolically rebuild the wall. Phillips spoke of the "new paganism" that worships the individual, youth, the body, and athletics. It also includes child sacrifice (abortion), bodily mutilation (tattoos & multiple piercing anyone?), and the feminization of men. One only needs to look around you or glance at the covers of magazines and tabloids at the grocery checkout to see the evidence of this. It's pretty hard to be unaware these realities.

To cloud the waters futher, many Christian churches harm families by having a harmful philosophy about many aspects of church life. This appears in areas such as church growth (numbers vs. spiritual growth), shepherding (reactive vs. proactive), ministry (clergy only vs. brethren), socialization (peers vs. family), and scripture (inadequate vs. sufficient). My family and I have seen evidences of all of these at the various churches we've visited in the past 11 months as we've looked for a new church home.

As you might suspect, the entire conference wasn't governed by a "The Sky is Falling!" mentality. This opening talk was, "Here are some of the problems," that preceeded the solutions. I'll try to write more soon.

This public domain clip art comes from The Bible Revival.

Clash of Cultures

After the past weekend of an inspiring home school conference I chanced to thumb through an old magazine and was struck by the vast dichotomy between the two. The conference speakers I heard exhorted us to be in the Word and to teach it to our children (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). We were reminded of the immense blessing our children are, and of the fact that it is our solemn duty to train them and educate them in the things of the Lord.

On Sunday, I happened to leaf through the August 2005 issue of Sunset magazine before putting it on the recycle pile. I think it was sent to us for joining the Art Museum. The issue's theme was, "Last Minute Vacations."

Ponder these opening words of the editor's column:

"When it comes to last-minute vacations, I'm something of a veteran. Sudden desire to flee to Hawaii over spring break? Been there, and planned it in about three weeks. Spontaneous trip to Disneyland? Did that one too.

It seems I'm prone to these quick getaways because I have a habit of thinking I can't possibly take days off. Then suddenly, it hits me: Time is passing fast, my daughters are growing up, my mind needs a break. I decide we need family time, and fast."

If you can get quickly past the bragging and name dropping of the first paragraph, take a close look at the second. She "can't possibly take days off." Can't possibly take days off from what? Aren't our children more important than our "careers?" It hits her "suddenly." What, she doesn't think of it often? These are her children! Her mind needs a break? Oh, I thought it was that her daughters were growing up. And, notice how one has to go to Hawaii to give the mind a break? "We need family time..." At Disneyland?? What kind of family time does one get there? Standing in line for 30 minutes in order to hear "It's a Small World" ten million times?

Now, I love Hawaii as much as the next guy. But, what can be more important than our children's eternal souls? Certainly, not our mastery of executing last-minute vacations to places with palm trees!

"Be Thou My Vision"

This is one of my favorite hymns, so it's no surprise that I've already posted this hymn already. I had to include it again because of the events of the past few days. My husband and I attended the Colorado home school conference this weekend, and what a blessing it was! (I'll try to write a little bit on it this week.) On Friday morning, the general session opened with everyone singing two hymns, including "Be Thou My Vision." All those people singing gave me a glimpse of heaven and touched my heart. I was moved to tears and couldn't even complete singing all of it.

Go here to hear the music. And go here to read my first post on "Be Thou My Vision." It includes some interesting information about the history of this great Irish hymn.

Happy Father's Day to my husband, who travels the blessed road of parenthood with me.

"Be Thou My Vision"

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.