Reflections on God's Work
Part 11
God is at work. In 2023, the Beacon feature articles seek to capture a snapshot of the ways God is working in churches across our conference. We pray that these articles encourage your faith and spur you on to join God in the work he is doing in your local congregation.
~Kelsey Jurkovich, Publication & Literature Committee
One reality that marks Fairlawn Mennonite Church is the abundance of children the Lord has blessed us with. Our senior pastor is fond of saying, “We take the command to be fruitful and multiply seriously at Fairlawn!” It’s true! Seeing someone with a newborn baby is a regular occurrence in our church.
We are starting to see the stirring of God in the context of our families. With every child born, a new responsibility has been given to the child’s parents—to teach them to love and follow God (Deut. 6:4-9). With the birth of every new parent, a new responsibility is placed on the church leaders—to equip them for the work of discipling their children (Eph. 4:11-16).
In efforts to fulfill our responsibility to our parents, this past April we launched an annual Family Discipleship Conference aimed at equipping parents to pass their faith on to their children. The theme of the first year was God’s Design for Family Discipleship.
Through preaching and breakout sessions, we showed parents their God-given responsibility to disciple their children as well as help them think through some of the cultural issues confronting their families.
Because of the way that God moved and will continue to move, every one of those nearly 70 children will have the chance to see God and the gospel more clearly through their parents.
There was a modest attendance of just over 50 parents. This number represents about 25% of parents with children under age 18 at Fairlawn. While the attendance was lower than I would have liked, these parents account for nearly 70 children.
The way I saw God working in these families came through some of the results we received from our conference survey. The last survey prompt was, “Write down 1-2 things you will implement or change with your family discipleship based on this conference.”
Here are some of the responses:
“Create a disciplined rhythm for worship in our home. Focus on the importance of being honest and devoted role models for our children.”
“Family meals together. Pray together as a family more often.”
“More structured Bible study with the kids. Bible reading with them and more missional living.”
“We want to be more intentional in our family worship.”
“Work on myself so I can help my family.”
“I want to determine the goals we have for our kids and then begin to think about/prioritize our time with them based on those things.”
“We want to get better at sharing our story with the kids and being more intentional about family time.”
“Preparing our children to care for their own family and home someday.”
“Consistent family worship time. Intentionality with kids on planning things to do together.”
Of all the many hours spent planning and executing this conference, the best part of the whole thing came a few days later as I was sitting in my office reading these (and many more) responses.
The responses were like a window, allowing me to see how God was stirring and moving the hearts of these parents. God was working to convince parents of their need to love and follow Him. He was working to convince them of their need to prioritize the things of God in the lives of their children. He was working to establish consistent family worship in their homes.
Because of the way that God moved and will continue to move, every one of those nearly 70 children will have the chance to see God and the gospel more clearly through their parents. Lord willing, in March 2024, God will do the same in more parents and more children’s lives.
God is moving in the parents of our church—establishing, renewing, and reviving His call to hand down their faith to their children. May the Lord extend this movement to restore faithful family discipleship beyond Fairlawn Mennonite Church to His Kingdom at large, so that the generations that follow us will know and love the Lord.
“One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4 ESV).
