Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
What we've allowed, in the present framework of church, is the surrender of the role of a father to church leadership. Nowhere in the Scriptures is there even a hint that the pastor of a young man—or a young woman—is anyone but his or her father, particularly when the father himself is a believer. The typical "family" church invites the whole family to come to the church and it promises that there is a teacher for dad, a teacher for mom, a teacher for the various ages of the kids—“We’re a family church.” By doing that, we take from fathers the responsibility that God has given to them to grow up and to become mature and raise their own children properly. That’s why there are so few men qualified to be elders in the church today because the church leadership has been ruling in their homes when, in fact, fathers are charged by God with ensuring that their children grow up in the maturity of the things of God. As a result, there are few who are qualified to be elders because the basic foundation in which an elder is trained and taught to be an elder is that he “rules well his own house.”
That’s what Paul said to Timothy in I Timothy, chapter 3: “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.”
If church leadership is given the duty of the father to raise their children in the Lord, then fathers have abandoned their calling, in God’s perspective. There is no other godly responsibility that can cover that error. Therefore, those fathers, failing in their pastoral duty, will never mature and neither will their children while they are under their care.
What we've allowed, in the present framework of church, is the surrender of the role of a father to church leadership. Nowhere in the Scriptures is there even a hint that the pastor of a young man—or a young woman—is anyone but his or her father, particularly when the father himself is a believer. The typical "family" church invites the whole family to come to the church and it promises that there is a teacher for dad, a teacher for mom, a teacher for the various ages of the kids—“We’re a family church.” By doing that, we take from fathers the responsibility that God has given to them to grow up and to become mature and raise their own children properly. That’s why there are so few men qualified to be elders in the church today because the church leadership has been ruling in their homes when, in fact, fathers are charged by God with ensuring that their children grow up in the maturity of the things of God. As a result, there are few who are qualified to be elders because the basic foundation in which an elder is trained and taught to be an elder is that he “rules well his own house.”
That’s what Paul said to Timothy in I Timothy, chapter 3: “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.”
If church leadership is given the duty of the father to raise their children in the Lord, then fathers have abandoned their calling, in God’s perspective. There is no other godly responsibility that can cover that error. Therefore, those fathers, failing in their pastoral duty, will never mature and neither will their children while they are under their care.
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