Terry’s comment below was an excellent one.
He reminded us of the old African proverb – ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. Its a proverb I often use and I have to say I am very grateful for the ‘village’ we are a part of who help us with the job of raising our kids. No doubt if we were left simply to our own devices our kids would not be as healthy as they currently are.
For us that village includes:
– extended family especially grandparents who love and nurture the kids.
– our church community who really do engage with our kids in significant ways. We feel privileged to have such a fantastic bunch of people around us.
– our friends in the local community, who may not share our faith, but who love our children and help us as we parent. We have connected with some beautiful people in this suburb and I believe its an essential part of our kids development to be loved by people who are not from a church community. By not separating them away from ‘heathens’ they learn early that there is much goodness and common grace in our world.
– our friends who are outside the local community. There are way too many of these to consider, but this diversity of people all influence our kids in various ways.
– the people we have in our home as guests. I was reminded of the value of this again last weekend when Geoff & Sherry came and stayed. They talked to, played with and loved our kids when it would have been easy to fob them off. The kids now think they are the greatest people on the planet. They even like Alan Hirsch
… because of his many visits here! 🙂
Its a great ‘village’!
Of course you can choose not to be part of a ‘village’, and many people do. The cost of genuine relationships is high so many will live with superficiality or surface engagement because they don’t want to invest time or energy in more.
Like most stuff in life – you get what you ‘pay for’…
This is wonderful stuff Hamo.
I was deeply moved by Danelle’s sharing about your kids faith jounrey as a part of community.
Very, very gospel.
Thinking about Terry’s comment, and without wanting to detract from anything that’s been said here (Parents are the primary influencers in their children’s lives – either by engagement or disengagement) – the Church programme, if done well (and in the traditional church setting, I mean), can and should be part of the ‘village’.
I think what hamo is saying though is that ‘the village’ isnt just a place. It isnt just at church, it isnt just in his own backyard, but its all the different people that we meet along the way who have influences in our lives.
I may be way off, but thats how I read it.
I grew up with lots of different things. Sunday school and church, but it wasnt just that that discipled me. I grew up with Dr. Carl Weiland coming to visit teaching me about creation science and Mr Greenhalge who does the stuff in QLD working with kids on the steets – there were all these different people who were in our lives that helped disciple me. They didnt just ‘fob us off’ like hamo said.
I dont think that just the church on its own can do this.