Spiritual Parenting - 1

Welcome to some of my journey of spiritual parenting - the art and discipline of nurturing, teaching, and equipping spiritual children. God has birthed this blog in my heart because we have been on a learning curve - and recently that curve has started in an upward motion at a much faster pace than ever before. The Lord seems to be leading us into a more holistic understanding of what it means to lead, to pastor, to mentor, to parent, spiritual children - all in the context of a vibrant family of Jesus (an organic church).

A few important stops along the way over the years thus far:
-About 8 years ago the Lord led us out of the institutional church of my youth and into worshiping in our homes and outside of the context of institutional Christianity. One of the first questions in our minds was, "What about teaching in the house church?" We did not know what that should look like - and in a way, still don't.
-2 and a half years ago, we learned about CO2's - churches of two - through John White and Luke 10. That became a powerfully formative tool that we have used ever since in our marriages, ministry partnerships, households, and during our house church gatherings each week. As of this day when we gather together we usually follow the CO2 pattern for our church family gatherings.
-About 9 months ago, an elder brother in our house church sat down with me and my ministry partner Bruce in our church family (my co-pastor for lack of a better term), looked us in the face and said, "What you are doing right now will not grow the saints!" He said that we had some wonderful things going for us (the discipline of checking in, the meal and communion and intimacy we share during gatherings, the sharing what the Spirit is saying on a consistent basis together), but that a few absolutely essential things were missing - among them was vital teaching, or feeding, of the saints. We took that and pondered, discussed, and prayed about it.

Well over the last several months I feel like the Lord has been giving us revelation on that topic (feeding and nurturing of the saints) and answering that question (What place does teaching have in the house church) more and more - forming a more holistic picture of what place, what purpose, and what form the teaching, feeding, and care of the saints can have in the life of an organic church family.

I look forward to unpacking that journey going forward piece by piece on this blog, Lord willing. I want to share our process of learning and discovering new territory, through our high points and low points. We don't have it figured out yet - far from it - but I do believe that as we share our journey and share what we are learning, anyone else out there who has a heart for healthy churches and growing saints will benefit. Welcome to the journey!