As I visit various churches and groups of churches with Root 66 training courses, an issue, which keeps coming up, is the role of parenting in the life of the church. In the December EN I raised this as an issue and I want now to suggest some practical ways of helping the parents of the children we teach and lead.
Most would acknowledge that parenting is no easy task. Often when our first child is born we feel that we’re making it up as we go along. When a child comes along we have all taken our new baby to church for everyone to admire and this can soon be followed with having to deal with some difficult issues.
It’s tough
The first point is probably most important; the ability to admit it’s tough. Many of our churches still seem to run on a council of perfection. The only greeting we allow each other is ‘I’m fine’ when we’re not. Parenting is seen as a sign of godly character and, if we are struggling with our children we somehow drop down the holiness and godliness stakes. I would love to see every young mother and father being mentored / loved / prayed for by an older couple who have been through the joys and sorrows of parenting. Titus 2 reminds us that this is the biblical norm; older women are to ‘urge the younger women to love their husbands’. If older men and women have grown something of a godly character in their mature years, they have so much to offer the younger family without being, in any way, patronising.
