We have 4 children. This is no surprise. Our oldest is twelve, and is getting ready to move-up in the church youth system. This caused us to start to really examine youth groups, as we know them. Some pretty interesting things started popping up for us.
For my husband, it started last summer at some point. He was convicted about not having a time of family worship. A time set aside daily, where we as a family could gather around God's Word and learn. He began doing this with our children in the summer, and I joined in later. He was inspired by the Drapper family in England. Theirs is a pretty neat story.
It all started for me on October 31st. I listened to Family Life Today, which i rarely do! I was driving to my kids' school to drop something off, when the program came on. You can find it HERE. It is titled "Why Our Kids are Leaving the Faith". This got my attention. The numbers they shared were staggering to me. This prompted me to do more research, and it became clear that the percentage of kids leaving the church during the college years were astonishing... up to 80%! And they are saying now that these kids have "checked-out" as early as the junior high years in the church youth group. I believe it was around February that we watched a documentary called Divided: The Movie. Find the link HERE...you simply have to sign up for a newsletter (which i have not received one yet) to watch it for free. Watching this gave us much to think about. Much. We talked about it and prayed about it. We searched the Scriptures. Finally, we came to a similar conclusion: we could find no basis in the Bible for dividing out the ages as much as we do in the church. Yes, this is how it has been done since early in the 20th century, but why? With the stakes so high (our own children hitting these ages), we knew we had to do something.
Growing in both my husband and i was a sense of wanting our children with us in worship service. We desired to worship with ALL the generations together, and not be so separated out. A verse that God has spoken to us clearly is this:
Thus says the Lord:
“Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.
Jeremiah 6:16a
Also, we began sensing that a smaller church might be a better fit for us as a family. This was not about style, etc. This was about a desire that God placed in our hearts to worship corporately with all ages and stages of life, via the singing of praises to our great God and the preaching of His most excellent, sufficient Word.
In March, we began acting on what God had placed in our hearts...We began looking for a new local church to join ourselves to. We deeply desired to belong to a family-integrated church....and God blessed us. We believe that God has called us to join in His work at Grace Community Bible Church. It is a family-integrated church. This church stands firm, preaching the Word expositionally. Our children are enjoying it, and are jazzed to go each Sunday morning and Thursday evening.
We are thankful for the years that God gave us at our former church. When we first walked through the doors there, we were needing to rest. It was a beautiful place to heal, connect, grow, and serve. We are grateful.
We are also very excited for this next part of our journey. Grace Community is a newer church, just 3 years old. It is an exciting time to be a part of the story God is weaving together there.
For His Great Name and Glory,
Jeanette
