Family Discipleship - Introduction

by Dave Rueter on May 19, 2021

What does it mean for the modern family in the 21st century to be about the task of discipleship?  Perhaps when you hear the word discipleship it conjures up images for you of a church program.  Maybe you envision an intimate relationship similar to that which Jesus had with His disciples, walking, talking, and generally doing life together in the context of faith.

After His earthly ministry, Jesus gathered His disciples on a mountain in Galilee.  There He provided final instructions that the church has come to know as the Great Commission. Matthew captures the moment in his gospel in chapter 28 verses 18-20. 

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

This unlikely group of fishermen, tax collectors, and others, were being given a charge to change the history of the world.  Luke records in Acts 1:8 that Jesus affirmed for the disciples that they would be empowered to accomplish this expansive vision that He had for their ministry, letting them know that “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

This sets the structure for the ministry activities or the “acts” that Luke records for our edification.  Just a chapter later in Acts 2:42, following Peter’s preaching at Pentecost and the miraculous growth of the church that day, Luke notes how the church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  The curriculum for the early church was a replication of the teachings that the apostles had already received from Christ.  Each succeeding generation of disciples was catechized and discipled in that same apostolic faith, first taught by the Son of God.

In Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the foundational teaching of our relationship with God and one another known as the Shema is recorded.  “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  This is followed by verses 6-9 with a model for the family to pass this essential teaching on from generation to generation.

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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

It is striking that as God is working to transform a nation that grew from the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He returns to the family’s foundational element to establish a model for maintaining faith in God through the teaching of His word.

It is in the home that the foundational work of faith formation takes place.  The local church is to be a support for this to take place, providing resources through worship and Christian education, but the ministry of your pastor, DCE, or teachers of your Lutheran school, cannot replace the formational power that parents have in the lives of their children. 

To that end, this series of blog posts will seek to outline ways in which parents might be intentional in their discipleship of their children.  Faith formation happens whether we are intentional as parents or not.  It is better as parents that we seek to take purposeful action rather than merely reactively respond to life as it comes at us.The goal is to provide practical approaches that you can apply or adapt and apply in your family. 

This series of blog posts is not intended as a list that you need to complete.  Not only is there too much material for any family to implement with our making themselves nuts, not every family or for that matter child within a family has the same needs.  Feel free to pick and choose based on what you understand as the needs and personality of your own family situation. 

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