Jonathan Edwards’ Ministry to Youth in Northampton

I would like to suggest that the method of youth ministry practiced in the church of Jonathan Edwards was more closely aligned with the Biblical commands and patterns than is our current age segregated model. The church in Northampton was age integrated and completely free of the programmatic, age-segregated model which is widely used today...

Read more to see Dr. Morecraft's conference messages.

What have we learned from this controversy over “Family of Families”? 

The missionary George Whitefield said that “critics are the unpaid guardians of the soul,” and so we are grateful for both dialog and diatribe. It has shown us that we see through “a glass darkly.” It has demonstrated that in our attempt to explain heavenly things, we often struggle to find human language that meets both the heavenly and the earthly standard.

Come join us for a night to remember as the new and controversial film, The Mysterious Islands comes to Durham, NC for a special premiere screening! Meet the film’s executive producer and cast in person and get a behind the scenes experience you will never forget...

Does individual church membership dissolve family relationships?

In many modern churches, the family is barely acknowledged. The result is neglect. This creates a brand of church life where the family is not encouraged or nourished to be what it is meant to be. The resulting damage to the church is breathtaking. This direct relationship between church and family is the reason why it can be appropriate to use the term “family of families” in the same way that Swindoll, Baucham, Kostenberger, and the NCFIC have.

Read more to see titles and descriptions of Kevin Swanson's conference messages

Read more to see titles and descriptions of Geoff Botkin's conference messages

By saying, ‘the church is a family of families,” are we confusing the church and the family?

When Andreas Kostenberger used the phrase "family of families” to describe the church in his excellent book God, Marriage and Family,¹ I doubt anyone accused him of trying to redefine the church...

Pastor Bryan Pollock, of Pilgrim Bible Church, breathed his last yesterday. He was a faithful, bible saturated, gospel preaching, and happiness promoting pastor, who held up the light of God's word in his community. One Sunday morning last year, I had the joyful privilege of sitting under his preaching where my soul was fed, comforted, and confronted. Johnathan Langford, one of the NCFIC interns, who came from Pilgrim Bible, had this to say: "I loved Pastor Pollock. He was faithful in preaching and... 

Three words, "family of families" are often lifted bleeding and screaming from their context from our original Biblical Confession for Uniting Church and Family¹.  They have received lots of airtime in various discussion venues. A Reformed Baptist Blog² has focused several lengthy posts on this subject. A couple of associations of churches have made similar claims, and personal blogs³ have also made commentary on the statement. But what did we mean?

It has been claimed that I have written that the Puritans had a "family of families ecclesiology." This author cited my article, "My Top Four Favorite Family-Integrated Church Pastors," and used it to back up this assertion. However, if you read the article, you will notice that I never said the Puritans like Bunyan and Edwards had a “family of families” ecclesiology as the author maintains.

It is possible that we are entering into a period where it is "hip" to be age integrated. Even Christianity Today has reported this phenomena--see their recent article, “Is the Era of Age Segregation Over? A researcher argues that the future of youth ministry will require bringing the generations together.” There is a significant groundswell of church leaders who are implementing initiatives and programs that hearken to the principle of age integrated discipleship. Now, perhaps, age-integration is going to be the new "latest thing." This is both good news and bad news.

 Read more to see titles and descriptions of Dr. Davis' conference messages

What we mean by "the church is a family of families"

It is a falsehood to say that the National Center for Family Integrated Churches advocates a “family of families” ecclesiology. In fact, our understanding of the nature of the church is consistent with the historic doctrinal statements of the faith including the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Catechism, and many other orthodox statements on the church. It is the same understanding I received as a young man when I was in seminary. We do not advocate a “family of families” ecclesiology. Rather, our ecclesiology is as rich and clear as the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 and the Westminster confession.

When we were writing the NCFIC Confession for Uniting Church and Family our intent was to explain the complementary roles of church and family. We wanted to reflect a biblical understanding of the way that church and family operate in a symbiotic manner. We also hoped it would help church leaders think more biblically about church and family life. In short, the “confession” tries to state the biblical case for the ways the church can be a blessing to the family and the family to the church. It also identifies various departures from biblical church and family life and calls for biblical clarity on these matters.