Parenting is a big job that requires money, time, energy, and effort. My wife Sandy and I have four children. We love our kids and enjoy them, but it has been a big job raising them. It costs money to raise children! We could take a trip around the world with the money we have spent on our kids.
It also takes time to parent children. Our second son, Nathan, was born ten weeks early and only slept through the night once during his whole first year of life. That was only the beginning of our sleepless nights! We stayed up late doing homework, comforting sick kids, putting together Christmas presents, and waiting for teenaged sons to get home.
There’s also a learning curve in parenting children. We realize now that we probably weren’t ready to be parents. Mostly, we learned as we went. We learned you shouldn’t make your child continue to eat when he says he doesn’t feel well. We learned that kids play with matches and start the field on fire while you’re taking a Sunday afternoon nap. We learned you shouldn’t give a BB gun to a 10-year old. And we are still learning as we go.
The same things are true about parenting churches. It costs money, time, and energy to parent a church. While there is much to learn, parenting both children and churches brings great joy and rewards. Just last night, I was able to pray with one son, two other sons called and thanked us for things we had done for them, and our 17-year old daughter jumped into bed with us to tell about her day, and we laughed together.
The Free Will Baptist Church of New Castle, Delaware, where I pastored for a time, stumbled into parenting a church. We had grown in attendance, and had two Sunday morning services for years. Every door closed as we looked for more property in the local area, so we began to consider the idea of starting a church 30 minutes away from a nucleus of church people who had moved to that area. We prayed, discussed, and investigated.
The church had mixed emotions about the idea, but we voted almost unanimously to start another church and decided that I would be the church planter. It was hard but exciting work. Today, that church is doing well and planning to parent another church.
We need more churches in America! Our population is growing while churches are dying. Many churches are not preaching the truth. People are moving. New neighborhoods, communities, and towns are springing up, and we need new churches for them. People from around the world are moving into our country and do not know the truth about Christ. Parenting churches is only one answer to these needs, but I believe it is a viable answer.
If the idea of parenting churches interests you, here are three steps to take:
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Pray. Do this first. Get away for a day or two and spend time in prayer. Take time to pray with others.
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Visit our website to order a book on Ideas for Parenting Churches.
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Call me at the Home Missions Department. It is a toll- free call at (877) 767-7674; I’ll be happy to talk with you about it.
Parenting a church can be a blessing to your church. You will experience more involvement, more ownership, and more fellowship. A project like this can stir your people to greater dedication. Most of all, it means more churches can reach people for God’s Kingdom.
Richard Atwood is director of missionary assistance for the National Home Missions Department in Antioch, TN.
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