Keith was asked to speak at church for the Father’s Day service. They wanted him to take about 5 minutes to speak about Family Discipleship. It was stressful for him, because he isn’t comfortable speaking on stage in front of people. He spent a lot of time preparing what he wanted to say, and we prayed over this opportunity. He did an excellent job this morning - at both services! He gave a charge to the men/fathers in our church – a charge that is applicable to all husbands and fathers.
I had to wrestle these away from him....here are his notes:
My name is Keith Andry. I am the husband to my beautiful wife, Carri, and a blessed father of 6 children. I have been asked to speak a little bit about family discipleship and the importance of a father’s role in discipling his children. Let me say right off the bat that I am a sinner saved by grace. I haven’t figured everything out. But one thing I know for certain, men, is that we have been called to be the spiritual leaders of our home.
A verse that I quote time and time again as a foundation for family discipleship is:
Deuteronomy 6:5-7 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
A recent study found that over 80% of youth raised in evangelical churches will abandon their faith within the first year of high school graduation. This is a sobering statistic that should make us weep as a church.
Why are they leaving the church?
The answer lies in the 20% who did not walk away. The common element of the 20% was that there was regular Bible reading in the home.
Something we say at our house is that we must know what we believe and why we believe it. It is not always enough to say “Because the Bible says so….”. The world will challenge our children in their “foolishness of the cross”. If our children don’t have a defense of the hope of what is within (1 Peter 3:15) then how easy it will be for our children to be blown to and fro with wind.
In Matthew, when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, his response was that it was to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. How can we expect our children love God with all of their heart, soul, and mind if they don’t know who God is?
Hearing the word preached for 45 minutes on each Sunday is not enough. We need to be teaching our children consistently. The Apostles themselves spent 3 years (24/7) with Jesus and many of them still didn’t believe until the day of Pentecost.
Faith comes from hearing and hearing of the Word of God. I remind our children that the more you know who God is, the more you can’t help but fall in love with Him, thus fulfilling the greatest commandment.
As a husband and father, I am called to be the prophet, priest, protector, and provider of my family. Most men would agree that we have the protector and provider figured out, but we struggle with the prophet and priest.
Provider: Obviously as the provider, we are called to meet our financial and material needs.
Protector: As a protector, we think of someone standing at our door and protecting our family from harm. I would argue that it goes even further by protecting our family from everything that comes into our house - tv, internet, books, who our children spend time with etc. We need to be protectors of their hearts.
Priest: Someone who is an intercessor - someone who represents his people before God.
Prophet: As a prophet we are to teach and instruct our family as written about in Deuteronomy 6.
For those men who feel inadequate to teach God’s word to their family, I want to encourage you that God will equip you if this is your desire. There are many tools out there to help you.
For those woman who want to see their husband pick up the slack - my advice is do not nag him, but pray for him.
Several years ago, I was one of those men who was shirking my responsibility. God finally got His hook in me through the study of His Word and reading several books on family discipleship.
One thing that has been very helpful to me is the Catechism. Catechism comes from the Greek word ‘katakeois’ which means to teach orally by repetition. Paul actually uses the word katakeois several times in letters to the Corinthians and Galatians.
This goes back to the early Jewish tradition of asking questions and having students answer - and then repeating over and over again. Even the early Protestant and Reformed churches continued to catechize as part of teaching biblical doctrines and truths.
In our home we are catechizing our children. Our goal is to reinforce basic doctrines such as justification, regeneration, sanctification, to name a few.
We are also reading through the bible - specifically historical books of the Old Testament, and using it to teach the redemptive history of God - showing our children the thread of Christ from Genesis to Revelation.
The Great commission does not tell go into the world get people saved - it tells us to make disciples of all nations… baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all that He has commanded.
Are we to treat our children any less than the nations of the world?
As parents, there is no greater joy than to watch the veil removed from our children’s eyes and see the effectual calling of God on them. Through the reading of His Word, the family is the perfect environment for the Holy Spirit to operate.
Just as the elders of a church are held to a higher standard as referenced in 1 Timothy and Titus, husbands and fathers are held to the same standard. Fathers are the elders of their home. God will hold us accountable.
Are we fulfilling our responsibilities as the Biblical head of household?
And so, with that, my prayer is that the men of this church will rise up and take their place as the Prophet, Priest, Protector, and Provider of their family. Thank you.
