If society is falling apart and family life is being eroded, then there’s a challenge for every Christian couple: do we raise our children according to the philosophy of this world, or according to the Word of God?
This world’s philosophy is built on something called secular humanism, which states that we can manage on our own and therefore have no need of God. This opposes the teaching in the Word, which states that God is the source of everything. He is the creator who made men and women and instituted marriage and family life. If something’s going wrong, we must get back to God and to His blueprint in the Word.
Many Christian couples don’t raise their ...
Last week we launched our parenting course. Jon and Lucy Hewitt did a great job hosting and the feedback from parents on the course was extremely positive. I am looking forward to future sessions.
Some people ask me why Liz and I spend as much time as we do talking about parenting, I think some people think we should move on to other things now. But the reason we still speak at churches and conferences on the subject is that I believe that a Christian family can be one of the greatest evangelistic tools that God can use in society today.
Family life is falling apart around us and a Christian family is a fantastic testimony. Naturally, we don’t tell our ...
In the first part of this mini blog series looking back over what I shared on Vision Sunday I asked and answered three questions; (1) Why do we exist? – Mission (2) What sort of church are we? – Values (3) What are we called to do? – Vision. In this post I want to ask and answer the final two questions;
4. How are we going to do it?
The first thing to say is that if we are going to fulfil all that God has called us to do over the next 5-10 years then we need to either build on what we have already accomplished over recent years or step out into some new areas by investing our time, energy and finance ...
I don’t know whether it is because it has been in the news a lot recently or because we seem to be in a baby boom at New Community at the moment, but I am feeling stirred about parenting.
The Bible says, “sons (daughters) are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3). Children aren’t here to ruin our lives. They’re gifts from God. He wants them to be a joy and it’s our privilege to raise them as well as we can. Maybe you’re a parent, or thinking about having children. What does God want you to produce in these children? The way you raise them will reveal whether you think they just exist or have a purpose in coming into your life.
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Musings from Dave Holden, Elder at NCC and working into nations with many friends.