Paradigm Shift Needed

 

Got a small booklet, 58 pages total, in the mail the other day. I read the bold print across the bottom, Essential to a Healthy Community. Above the words a young boy was running, football tucked in his arms, as other boys ran to catch the red flags trailing from his waist. It was the fall Recreation Guide for our community. It is published by The Quality of Life Department of our small city and sent out to all the families. Here is just one more thing families ought to shoehorn into their busy schedules.

 

It seems to me that this is one of the reasons many church going parents are content to pass responsibility for the spiritual nurturing of the children to their church. Schedules are so busy; the tyranny of the urgent takes over. Of course, there are other reasons for the lack of a spiritual life together. 

George Barna states that while 85% of Christian parents still believe that they have "...the primary responsibility for the moral and spiritual development of their children, more than two out of three of them abdicate that responsibility to their church." As a result, most families just don't share much of a spiritual life together. In any given month, fewer than 10% of parents who regularly attend church with their children read the Bible together, pray with each other, (other than at mealtimes), or participate in an act of service as a family unit.

In addition to overcrowded family schedules, Barna highlights other reasons...