Mon 7 Jan 2008
One of the few times Kristi and I have a chance to listen to sermons together is in the car, especially on road trips. We recently had just such an opportunity when we took the boys to Sea World in San Antonio. One of the things we had a chance to listen to was Voddie Baucham’s appearance on Family Life Radio, which featured his sermon to the pastors of the SBTC (of which our church is a member), “The Centrality of the Home.” For those who have not had a chance to listen to this sermon, it is a powerful charge that the way we have come to approach “youth ministry” actually undermines the central role of the family in developing faith.
Whatever your position on “youth ministry,” Baucham made some powerful challenges to these pastors, particularly dealing with attitudes towards children. His words boiled down to challenging these pastors on whether or not we really believe what the Bible teaches about children. The Bible repeatedly teaches God’s people to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:22, 28; 8:17; 9:1, 7; 35:11, etc.). Psalm 127:4-5 says that the man who has many children is blessed. The truth of the matter is that many, even in our churches, simply don’t believe this.
Instead, we have come to view children as a hindrance to our lifestyles. It was recently reported that the U.S. birth rate has dropped to an all-time low while many European countries actually have negative birth rates. That is, they’re simply not making enough babies to sustain the country. Children have been sacrificed at the altar of convenience, both literally and figuratively. We pursue luxury and children are seen as a hindrance to that. I started thinking again about this when I read that Disney World recently banned children from one of its fanciest restaurants. While I understand wanting a dinner away from the kids, the idea of Disney World banning children from anything just doesn’t sit well!
Sadly, our attitude in the American church is often not much better. Baucham points out that if you don’t believe this, watch as a family with lots of children come into your church and watch the looks they get. Or watch the way some parents can’t drop their children off to Sunday School quick enough. We don’t have a lot of children (we are expecting our fourth) but even we get comments in public asking why we would want so many children. I’m not one of those people who thinks that if you have fewer children than someone else that you’re less holy, but I do worry that even in our churches, we view children as anything but a blessing.
We need to believe God at His Word and we need to view children as a blessing, because He does. We need to lay aside selfish ambition that sees children as standing in the way of what life is about and we need to treasure them. We need joyfully be fruitful and multiply without looking down on those who do. We need to cultivate family-friendly, children-treasuring churches and we need to remember that churches change only as individual attitudes change.
- Visit Voddie Baucham’s official website
- Read Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham
- Visit Family Life Radio’s page dedicated to the Voddie Baucham episode
- Read the article about Disney World
on 07 Jan 2008 at 8:56 am 1.danger blog » Blog Archive said …
[...] Brent Thomas on children and priorities. The Bible repeatedly teaches God’s people to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:22, 28; 8:17; 9:1, 7; 35:11, etc.). Psalm 127:4-5 says that the man who has many children is blessed. The truth of the matter is that many, even in our churches, simply don’t believe this. [...]
on 07 Jan 2008 at 9:23 am 2.It’s not a rant, not much of one anyway… « Unbound said …
[...] 7, 2008 · No Comments Brent Thomas talks about what a blessing kids are…and I take a rant-tangent. Tell me aboutit. Try going anywhere with four kids. It doesn’t cause hysteria in restaurants but it’s amazing how rude people can be. It’s so bad sometimes that even the kids notice it. And that ticks me off. We’re not even talking about a fancy restaurant. I’m talking about IHOP. [...]
on 07 Jan 2008 at 9:38 am 3.Children: A Blessing or Burden? « Life Together said …
[...] Read the rest of Brent’s post [...]
on 07 Jan 2008 at 9:43 am 4.Jim said …
Maybe we could have a contest in the comments section to find the best retort to “Haven’t you figured out how this happens?”
I heard that from people I work with when announcing our 3rd child. It shows how calloused our culture is toward children.
A friend told me his response, “Yeah, and we obviously like it.” I’m not suggesting being spiteful in a response, but since the person is usually trying to joke with you, it would probably be fun to come back with something totally unexpected in response to the tired cliche.
on 07 Jan 2008 at 9:55 am 5.Josh said …
Thats a good one.
My favorite is “Whoa! You’ve got your hands full!” Duh right? To which I invariably reply, “Yes, but their full of JOY!” And that always invokes a puzzles stare and silence and allows me to get on with eating.
on 07 Jan 2008 at 10:48 am 6.Emily said …
Living in Utah is nice if for no other reason than taking our four kids out to eat in a restaurant evokes no stares, dirty looks, or comments. Four is nothing here.
Thanks for this post.
on 07 Jan 2008 at 10:50 am 7.Kristi said …
I get the “Woah, you’ve got your hands full” ALL the time, and when they find out we’re having a fourth boy, “I’m so sorry!” Jim, I usually do come back with a positive comment like, “We’re blessed with boys.” Or something like that. It usually throws them off guard. It is fun. :)
on 07 Jan 2008 at 11:06 am 8.Calixto Arce said …
I am reading Family driven Faith and love it! I would love to give it to every parent we know! We even started reading the Westminster Shorter Catechism to help our children gain a biblical world-view. The statistics from Barna that he site in this book are very scary!!
Brenda
on 07 Jan 2008 at 11:21 am 9.Jake T said …
It’s not the restraunts that bother me any more than nonChristians doing sinful stuff bothers me.
What bothers me is the attitude in church that kids need to be wisked away so that we can ‘really worship.’
How are these kids supposed to have any idea what goes on in church if they’re never there for it?
And if we can’t worship with our families (and with other people’s) and the noise they bring, how/where are we supposed to worship?
on 07 Jan 2008 at 11:41 am 10.Stephen Newell said …
What’s funny is that I’m guilty of just such behavior, but in a different way.
When I see a couple who has a plethora of one sex I will tell them (only if I know them) or my wife that “they need to keep going. They don’t have enough girls/boys yet!” ;-)
on 07 Jan 2008 at 11:13 pm 11.Proverbs31 said …
Child Number One: Congratulations!
Child Number Two: Another one already?
Child Number Three: You do know what causes that don’t you?
Child Number Four (or more): Are you having more on purpose??
I’ve only got three but I have so many friends with four or five that we all get a lot of comments. I confess that I often fall into the same line of thinking, feeling like I have my hands full. I don’t mind having them with me during worship but it’s easy to feel irritated when I can’t follow the sermon for all the interruptions. How easy I forget that it’s my job to teach my children to sit and listen to the sermon too. :)
on 08 Jan 2008 at 10:39 am 12.Stephen Newell said …
Came back and realized I should make my comment a bit more clear.
What I say is that, depending on which gender they lack, they should keep going till they even things out a bit. No dad should have to put up with excessive estrogen, and no mom should be tortured with excessive testosterone. ;-)
on 08 Jan 2008 at 1:33 pm 13.Josh said …
I have three girls and a boy and I fully intend to teach my son that fishing is the better part of valor in some cases.
on 10 Jan 2008 at 4:17 pm 14.Jessie Stimpson said …
Good post! I get the “hands full” thing a lot, and we only have two girls! People seem to think having kids closer than 4 or 5 years apart is burdensome or crazy or something. I love my girls!! Yeah, I need a break sometimes, but I love involving them in whatever I do. They’re not a “handful” if you don’t let them just do whatever they want and go nuts. The Bible teaches us to train our children in the ways of God. If our multitude of kids are all well-behaved in public, then people will wonder what’s going on. But if your kids are ever nuts, just go to Wal-mart and see what crazed really is. :)