Last week I had the incredible opportunity to spend a day at The Rethink Group (whatisorange.org) offices in Atlanta, GA with some amazing leaders. With Dr. Chap Clark (www.fuller.edu) as our host, we unpacked the principles found in Reggie Joiner and Cary Nieuwhof's book, "Parenting Beyond Your Capacity." To say it was "eye-opening" would be an understatement! Its going to take me awhile to process all the information we covered, but I wanted to share my experience with you. So here is part one of my day at Orange...
Shortly after arriving at the Rethink offices and meeting the other student pastors who were taking part in this forum, we jumped right in and began filming. Below are some of my notes from our first session:
*Disclaimer! The vast majority of this information comes directly from Dr. Chap Clark.
Widening the Circle
-Parents need 2 things from churches
1. Baseline information
2. Ability to process that data
-Parents need to pursue "strategic" relationships for your kids.
-We need to push beyond/past affinity to something that is mutual.
-We are in a new paradigm, because never before have our kids been more on their own!
-Our kids are desperate for relationships WITHOUT an agenda.
-Non-Parental, but invested adults affect and influence our children greatly.
Bottom line: Everything we thought we knew about our children and students has changed. Not only does our information need to be updated, but so do our systems. If churches don't get more intentional about helping our parents "widen the circle" of influence in our kid's lives, they will look some place else. That can't happen. The local church is still the hope of the world and best positioned to resource parents.
When Moses addressed "the congregation" in Deut 6 he is not inclusive re: parenting. The body of Christ is just as responsible for training and raising our kids as moms and dads. But we have to be on the same page. We have to communicate. We have to care. We have to "Widen the Circle."
Stay tuned for part two...
