Spiritual Formation in the Home

I recently came across this article from ACSI which I thought was worth sharing with our school parent community.  I hope you find it of encouragement as you continue to bring your children up in the ways of our Lord, and partner with us as a Christian school.

J. Gresham Machen, a seminary professor until his death in 1937, once said of his mother, “I did not get my knowledge of the Bible from Sunday School or from any other school, but I got it on Sunday afternoons with my mother at home”—high praise from a man who was educated in elite private schools, as well as Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University.

His experience, one we daresay is shared by many others, illustrates that a great deal of children’s spiritual formation takes place in the home.

Many Christian educators articulate this view. We’ve asked about a biblical philosophy of Christian education in a few different contexts and consistently gotten the same response: teachers, administrators, and parents most commonly believe that a biblical philosophy of Christian education is a partnership with parents.

Those holding to this view may turn to the Mosaic command in Deuteronomy 6 to teach these words “diligently to your children” (Deuteronomy 6:7), to the responsibility given to parents in Psalm 78 to “teach to their children that the next generation might know” (Psalm 78:5-6), or to countless examples of parents training their children in the ways of their faith (e.g., Joshua 24:15; Job 1:5; 2 Timothy 1:5, 3:15-17; etc.). Parents superintend this divine responsibility by asking Christian schools to come alongside them in partnership to train up their children. 

Empirical research generally supports the claim that parents have tremendous influence over their children’s religious convictions. One sobering study concluded that when both parents attend worship at least monthly, the likelihood of intergenerational transmission of faith was around 46 percent; the likelihood was cut in half when only one parent attends monthly. 

Given that parents play such an important role in spiritual formation, what are Christian schools doing to strengthen and support parents in this responsibility? And what can parents do to nurture the faith of their children? 

To answer these questions, we used data from ACSI’s Flourishing Faith Index, which asked parents about their family devotions practices and the nature of their relationships with their children. Family devotions—which we define as the regular and intentional spiritual discipline practiced in the home that incorporates Bible reading, prayer, and other devotional materials—was once a ubiquitous practice among American Evangelicals and has largely disappeared since World War II.

When parents engage their children in family devotions, they are significantly more likely to have conversations about faith with their children. 

We asked parents how strongly they agreed with the following statement: “My child knows they can always talk to me about faith.” Our estimates strongly suggest that family devotions, particularly prayer and Bible reading, are important means of spiritual formation in the home.

For families, we hope this work is an encouragement to you and the important role you play in your children’s lives. In the busyness of our everyday lives, it is inevitable that we will be thrown off our daily rhythms and neglect to engage our children in family devotions. Of greatest importance is not to achieve this task perfectly, but to persist in it over time, despite daily failings, with a “never stop starting” attitude. 

By Matthew H. Lee, PhD., is a Senior Fellow at ACSI, and Rian R. Djita, PhD., ACSI’s Director of Research.

 

Character – Excellence – Service: For the Glory of God