Book Review: Family Driven Faith

"Family Driven Faith" by Voddie Baucham Jr.
Doing What It Takes To Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk With God

I first heard of Voddie Baucham about a year ago while canadating for the position at my church. The Elders had recently heard Voddie speak at the Evangelism Celebration at Cedarville College and offered me a CD of that message. About nine months later I had the blessing of hearing Voddie preach at the Basics conference at Parkside Church. Having heard him in person Voddie Baucham Jr. may be one of the best speakers out there today. There are very few men who better captivate my attention. And after 2 days he had broke down II Timothy in an amazing way.

That being said you can better understand where I’m coming from when I say Voddie is a better speaker then writer. And Family Driven Faith is definitely worth a read. The basis of Family Driven Faith is that young people are leaving the church today at an alarming rate. Statistics are provided to back up this statement, like the fact that between 70 – 88% of Christian teens are leaving the church by there second year of college. On top of that 85% of "born again teens" do not believe in the existence of absolute truth.

From that point on, Voddie offers his radical solution and he takes is straight from the word of God. On page 93 Baucham says "Contrary to popular belief the home not the church, has been entrusted with the primary responsibility of teaching children the Bible". He takes this idea impart from Deuteronomy 6:6-7.

"[6] And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: [7] And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."

Baucham then spends majority of the book speaking to that idea. Starting with showing your family that there a priority in your life, to loving them, teaching them a biblical worldview, teaching them the Word of God, and practicing what you preach in the home. And in each of these areas sound advice is offered. From reading these simple teachings I personally have been convicted and forced to look at the way I was handling some areas of my family’s life. And through most of the first 9 chapters of this book we see eye to eye on most things; including a statement late in chapter 9 which said that it in the failure of parents to disciple their children in the past that has resulted in the Emerging Church of today.

However at the start of chapter 10, VB and I go our separate ways as he goes into his thoughts on the Family-Integrated Church. Within this church structure there is no nursery, no splitting apart for Sunday school, no Awana, and no VBS. All things are done all together all the time. And in this I disagree. I agree that the majority of a child’s spiritual education should take place in the home. I believe it is the responsibility of the father to train his children in the ways of the Lord. I believe that often times we can go to far in segregating the families through worship. But I do not believe we must throw out the baby with the bath water to fix this problem.

I would pose that is a child’s primary education and discipleship were being met at home that it hurts nothing for the church to come alongside in a Sunday school, or Wednesday night setting and help to affirm those teachings. On top of that what is wrong with meeting someone where they are spiritually with a class or curriculum? Does my 2 year old daughter need to sit through a theological discussion on the implications of the book of Obadiah. And on the flip side of that, does a 70 year old Elder need a bible story about Adam, Eve, and a sneaky snake. Not to mention that not all families in church are what we would refer to as classic Christian families with a believing mom and dad to disciple the children.

Voddie also goes as far as to say it may be unbiblical in separating the teens on Wednesday night in that the older women will not be available to mentor the younger women, and the older men the younger men. But isn’t that exactly what the 35 year old youth leader and his wife doing every week when they meet. It’s not as if we are having kid’s disciple kids, (and if we are we may have a problem).

All in all, although I don’t necessarily believe in the ultimate solution of this book, the critique is still important; we are missing the boat when it comes to the youth of today. And I think Voddie hits the nail on the head when he says that many parents have stepped back, and simply looked to the church to "Christinize" their children. In the end I believe this book is worth a read. As a matter of fact I would go as far as to say that young parents should read this book. But remember as a former pastor of mine once said; "Most Christian books are like watermelon. We take in the good part, but have to spit out the seeds".

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