Trained in the Fear of God: Family Ministry in Theological, Historical, and Practical Perspective , ed. Randy Stinson and Timothy Paul Jones.  Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2011.  290 pages.

SS.27.Trained in the Fear of God.LgRandy Stinson is dean of the School of Church Ministries and vice president of Student Services and Institutional Comeback at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  He also serves as the president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  Timothy Paul Jones is an associate professor of leadership and family ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, every bit well as a best-selling author.

The extended championship of the book makes no secret of its ambitious goal.  Past exploring the theology, history and practical aspects of family ministry, the editors seek to paint a picture of what it means to train families in the fearfulness of God.  It'south certainly a pressing and godly goal that every church has reason to struggle with.  To meet this goal the editors have collected seventeen essays, almost exclusively penned past the faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Though speaking from a different theological viewpoint, the issues the authors seek to address will sound very familiar.  They come across churches that are rich in programs aimed at every function of the family, nevertheless families that are poor in growing in God's Word in their own homes.  Youth groups are thriving, yet youth are spiritually languishing. Dominicus School classrooms are total, but family unit Bibles are closed.  The value of – and alternatives to – this "segmented programmatic" approach to family unit ministry is put under the microscope.

After a cursory preface, the book is divided into three main groupings of essays.  The first role seeks to build a solid theological foundation for family ministry that could be summed upward this style: God designs the dwelling, not the church, to be the primary place of discipleship.  Basic scriptural tenets of human sexuality, gender roles, and parental responsibilities are discussed.  Part Ii traces the history of home-based, church-equipped faith formation work.  While non much can be said for the early centuries of the church, greater detail is provided within post-Reformation church bodies.  The 3rd function of the book aspires to equip ministers and churches for a more comprehensive, family-equipping ministry arroyo.

The Lutheran minister won't find too many surprises in these pages.  The renewed call to strengthen families and take God'south Word living in our homes is something to which every Lutheran pastor would requite a heart-felt, "Ja!"  Nor would one be shocked at the imitation doctrines that creep into the essays – the full-blooded of the authors might pb u.s. to look unscriptural statements on the nature of religion and conversion.  The gospel-driven power of baptism is, of grade, flatly denied (58-59, 202), and information technology's assumed that immature children cannot all the same have saving organized religion (180).

It shouldn't surprise us to encounter such teachings; likewise, nosotros might not be surprised with how similar of a challenge we face in our own churches.  The pastor looks wistfully at the heading in the Small Catechism, "As the head of the family should teach them in the simplest way to those in his household."  Is this happening?  The Sunday Schoolhouse teacher mourns when her students –so faithful during the school year! – all but disappear from church building during the summertime months.  As our worker training college aggressively pursues programs in Early on Childhood Ministry which aim to bring youth into increased contact with the church, there'due south e'er reason to ask ourselves, Are we strengthening families or circumventing them?  Are nosotros equipping parents to give their children what they demand, or are we giving them the impression that this is primarily the church's responsibility?

The challenge is a valid and ever-present one.  The authors take done a fine service past raising the question and addressing its implications.  Once the reader sorts through the doctrinal problems and the at-times heavy history, he would likely be saying, "I hold with the premise!  Let's dig into the solution."

Information technology's at this point where the book disappoints.  The authors debate that a segmented-programmatic approach (centered on youth groups, VBS, Sunday School, etc) doesn't strengthen family catechesis.  We might grant that argument.  It's time for churches to do a ameliorate job of partnering with parents and equipping them for lives of devotion, discipleship and missiological purpose.  When it comes to concrete suggestions or guidance, though, the essays are lacking.  At that place is a fine suggestion here or there (do consider teaching your children to say the Creed as part of your morn or bed-time routine; you won't regret it), merely the "practical" role of the volume reads more like a theoretical map.  We agree that families should read scripture in the home, that parents should cultivate informal opportunities to teach faith lessons, and that there is great value when the church building helps train and equip families to do so.  Yet practical suggestions for how this family ministry might look or function are scarce.

That'due south non to say that this book is without value.  Essayist Kevin Smith gives the congregation serving in a matriarchal African American customs much to think most (131-142).  "Why Your Kid's Brain Needs Family Ministry" (211-220) is concise and approachable enough to share with parents when discussing the bear on of boob tube and video games on a child's ability to develop college level critical (and theological) idea.  "The Freedom of Christ and the Unforeseen Consequences of Feminism" (235-242) gives much nutrient for thought and material for discussion in a Bible written report setting as the essayist talks virtually her journeying to finding true joy in her calling as a Christian adult female.

The greatest value of this book might be in reminding frustrated church leaders: Y'all aren't lonely in facing this challenge.  May that betoken – and the importance of facing this challenge – non exist lost on us.