Right now, all over the country there is a genuine movement of pastors, youth ministers, and consequently their churches that are asking themselves the hard questions of effectiveness.  Are we really effectively discipling the people with whom we are serving?Mike Yaconelli, right before his tragic death, was also asking these kinds of questions.  He was casting some doubt on the effectiveness of what we had been doing; in his case particularly in terms of student ministry.  In essence, he communicated in an article that we have more youth conferences, more youth camps, more youth pastors, more sophisticated buildings, more dedicated space, more Christian music, more Christian books, more Christian concerts, and more Christian radio stations, so why aren’t we more effective in the discipleship of our youth and our children? Even if we don’t agree on the exact numbers, most of the research does show that we just aren’t doing a very good job.

What we need to do is create an ethos, a way of life in the church; a climate in the church, where families are brought together and not fragmented, dads are encouraged to lead, where parents bear the primary responsibility of discipling their children, where hearts of children are turned toward their mothers and fathers, the hearts of mothers and fathers are turned toward their children, where teenagers who come without their parents have a place, and where single moms and broken families can be a part of the broader family of God where the gospel is brought to bear on every aspect of life.

This type of climate in your church starts with you, the leader.  Are you equipped to do this?  Do you have the training to be able to lead your own home and then call others to this noble task?

At Southern Seminary, we know that this is not about programs but a biblically-grounded, local-church tested, family-centered strategy and plan for effectively training up future generations of gospel-saturated churches and homes. We have a clear vision for connecting church and home and a faculty with the passion and resources to show you how.

Contact us at www.sbts.edu/admissions to find out about our Master and Doctoral degrees we offer in Family Discipleship that you can earn without leaving your current place of ministry.

Randy Stinson
Dean, School of Church Ministries
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary