The Family Integrated Church

While perusing my Vision Forum 2012 catalog a few months back I noticed a movie titled, "Divided." I read the brief description of the movie and thought, "Hm, sounds interesting." Since then I have been hearing little bits and pieces of what a Family Integrated Church (FIC) is. What I'm gathering is that the FIC does away with things like Sunday School groups and youth groups divided by ages. Families would attend a Sunday School or family group together instead- as one family. Here is their website, which I found and began looking at today, if you'd like to look into it further.

The thought of how our church is run has been rolling around in the back of my head for those few months. I have yet to see "Divided" but plan to when we start our subscription to Puritan Picks this January. (My husband and I are getting the subscription as a mutual Christmas present to each other.)

So, where am I going with this?

Honestly, at this point it would have still been a thought that was rolling around in my mind somewhere had I not read two articles today in The Home Educating Family Magazine. I have not subscribed to this magazine as of yet but have been interested in their Facebook posts, giveaways and what treasures their magazine may have. I have tried to order a subscription twice in the past but for some reason, just did not get all the way through the process. How I got this free issue, I don't know. It just showed up in the mail yesterday.

As I read through the article titled, "Mission of the Family, Mission of the Church: A critique of the Family Integrated Church Model" in the 2011 Issue 3 printing, I heard the argument against the FIC. I put the magazine down and gave it some thought. Then I re-read the article. I also read an article review of the movie "Divided" in the magazine.

Something just wasn't clicking for me.

How could a magazine that believes Deuteronomy 6:7, say that the idea of a FIC is a poor idea?

One of their main arguments is that singles and the elderly are left out of the picture in FICs. Why would that be? If EVERYONE is attending Sunday School together then why would that exclude an elderly person? Why would it exclude a young adult? Maybe I'm misinterpreting the purpose of the FIC. Are they wanting a church full of JUST families? That would be hard for me to believe. Especially when I know of some of the homeschool fathers that support FIC such as Doug Phillips and Voddie Baucham. If I am wrong, please let me know!

In the review of the "Divided" movie HEFM argues that "It is notable that the film does not offer any measured response to FIC. There are many conservative, biblical Christians who reject FIC and I am sure it would not have been difficult to interview a couple of them. Leclerc does not allow any of them to speak." That's like asking why Ken Ham doesn't include the response of an evolutionist in any of his films. Realistically, documentaries are mostly one sided, no matter what the documentary is about, so that argument isn't valid.

"I see young people abandoning the church and though I am saddened by it, I Am Un-alarmed." What???? I read that sentence over and over trying to have that make sense.

Then in the next article, "I believe there is little debate...when it comes to fathers being...servant leaders of their homes and the family growing in love and admonition of the Lord while worshiping Him together in Spirit and truth." (bold emphasis mine)

Isn't that what the FIC is for, not against?

"A look at the demographics of the FIC movement reveal that FIC's are predominately made up of homeschool families with K-12th grade students. That statistic undermines the very term 'multi-generational' " My question to that would be, "Who do you think is going to begin the FIC churches, a bunch of teenagers?" No, it would be families that want to worship together as a family.

My only conclusion then is that a home schooling magazine that encourages Christian parent to bring their children home to be educated would be condoning a traditional church that separates a family for the better part of Sunday, that sends babies off from the security of their parents, lumps a bunch of young children together in one room and sends teenagers off on Sunday nights (or whatever night you have youth group) all to be taught from someone else other than their parents? Sounds to me like............well............. government school.

I could see Christians that already send their children to public school questioning FIC, but Christian homeschoolers?

With all that said, this is something that my husband and I will have to give a lot of prayer to. I'm not suggesting that anyone leave their traditional church at this point. We have no plans of looking elsewhere for now. It's just a thought that will need a lot of wisdom and guidance from the Lord.

What are your thoughts on Family Integrated Churches? I'd really love to hear!

for those that pray

Our pastor and his wife have been traveling for the past 2 weeks to a pastors conference and then to see family when last night our pastor's wife got really sick. They went to the hospital and found out that she had a brain hemorrhage. When they went in for surgery they found an egg sized cancerous tumor which they removed. She is in recovery this morning. They are in Mississippi.
Please, please pray for her. For her health and recovery. For God's peace right now. For the doctors who will be re-evaluating her in the next days to come. For her husband, our pastor, for strength and the confidence that the Lord does not make mistakes, that He is always by our sides and that He has a plan that we can't see; one that is for the good and that good things always come from the Lord's plan. Please pray for her 3 adult children and their families as well.
Thank you!

VBS

I'll be kind of scarce this week because our church is having VBS. No, it's not a disease, although anything that's abbreviated with capital letters theses days seems to be. It's Vacation Bible School! It's this entire week long so I won't be around much. For any of you that live in our area and have children ages preschool to (entering) 6th grade, come on over! Smith River Baptist Church! Monday - Friday 9am-12noon. Everyone is invited!

"no, I'm naken"

That's been the comment coming out of Layton's mouth lately when I ask him if he'd like to (please) put some clothes on. "Naken" is what he calls "Naked." Good thing I still don't have a memory card for my camera or you may have been subject to shots of cute little buns running around the house.
I think I'm going to try and get a new card today. It depends on how the day goes. Yesterday it was kind of last on my priority list. I actually had a super productive day yesterday. 1 jelly roll, 2 quilt tops, done! One trip to the park for the kids to play somewhere other than our property, done. Dinner, made. Bible study, attended. Not too bad of a Wednesday if I do say so myself!

Easter Hunting

Well we had a terrific time yesterday at church (three people got saved on Easter!!) and then over at Gavin's parent's house. All the family came out and the kids had fun hunting for eggs. The rain held off until later that day so we, thankfully, had a dry hunt- for once in our lives! I was surprised at how well Timber carried her little basket and collected her little eggs. She was so stinkin' cute! I think we had about 25 adults watching 2 little ones collect eggs. Everyone had out their cameras and video recorders to capture the fun.

I once again have picture overload for you. How many pictures can you see of kids hunting eggs before it gets repetitive? Surprisingly, not than many. :)

O.k. I'm done now. Sorry it was so long! :) Hope that you all had a great Easter!

Sundays

This is one of my all time favorite songs. Every time I hear it, it takes my mind to the special day of Sunday.

Raymond's in his Sunday best.
He's usually up to his chest in oil and grease.
There's the Martin's walkin' in,
With that mean little freckle-faced kid,
Who broke a window last week.
Sweet Miss Betty likes to sing off key in the pew behind me.

That's what I love about Sunday:
Sing along as the choir sways;
Every verse of Amazin' Grace,
And then we shake the Preacher's hand.
Go home into your blue jeans;
Have some chicken and some baked beans.
Pick a back yard football team,
Not do much of anything.
That's what I love about Sunday.

I stroll to the end of the drive,
Pick up the Sunday Times, grab a coffee cup.
It looks like Sally and Ron finally tied the knot,
Well, it's about time.
It's 35 cents off of ground round,
Baby, cut that coupon out!

That's what I love about Sunday:
Cat-napping on the porch swing;
You curled up next to me,
The smell of jasmine wakes us up.
Take a walk down a back road,
Tackle box and a cane pole;
Carve our names in that white oak,
I steal a kiss as the sun fades,
That's what I love about Sunday.


Ooh, new believers gettin' baptized,
Momma's hands raised up high,
Havin' a Hallelujah good time
A smile on everybody's face.
That's what I love about Sunday.

-Craig Morgan

You can watch the video here.

Family Camp

Every August our church, Smith River Baptist, holds "Family Camp" for 4 days where we camp, eat and worship! We aren't camping this year because of many things, but we did go last night for the pot luck and service. The food was great, the praise and worship was wonderful and our guest speaker was fabulous! Wyatt missed out that evening due to football practice but he was able to be there during the day. Everyone had so much fun. I added a little video at the end as well of Timber. It's pretty cute- check it out! Enjoy!