A Role of Growing Importance for WELS Teachers
Written by Brad Gurgel
The number of Americans who don’t practice any form of religion in their homes is growing rapidly. Today, a staggering one-third of all U.S. adults under age 30 consider themselves religiously unaffiliated (Pew Research, 2020). Premier Christianity magazine reported that only 13% of adults ages 18-35 who identify as Christian read Scripture individually or with their families at least a few days per week (Hailes, 2019).
An ever-increasing number of children from these biblically disconnected homes are showing up in Lutheran school classrooms. Many parents today fully outsource any religious instruction for their children to church leaders or Christian teachers.
It’s tempting to react to this societal shift by offering more programs where children can hear the Word of God and to find solace in such thoughts as, “Well, at least they are getting the gospel message when they are with us at school.”
Parents as Spiritual Leaders
Yet God clearly assigns the primary role of spiritual leadership to parents (Ephesians 6:4). Not surprisingly then, research supports that parents have the most impact on their children remaining faithful to their biblical beliefs (Smith & Snell, 2009). Parents cannot relinquish to others this chief responsibility of spiritual training. Parents must take this role seriously and carry it out faithfully in their homes if they want their children to see God and his Word as the most essential part of their lives (Kastens, 1992).
Since children are most strongly impacted by their parents’ faithfulness to God’s Word, fostering spiritual families must be a goal of our Lutheran schools (Family Ministry Task Force, 2021). Lutheran school teachers have an outstanding opportunity to encourage parents to carry out their role as family spiritual leaders due to how much interaction they have with students and their parents.
Unfortunately, there is little guidance for Lutheran teachers on how to effectively encourage family devotional life at home. The lack of available resources for teachers means the opportunities to encourage family devotional life are often underutilized or missed.
Empowering Our Parents to Be Spiritual Leaders
How can Lutheran teachers better empower parents in their roles as spiritual family heads? Some answers can be gleaned from my recent master’s degree project.
- A Family Devotional Plan
Develop an organization-wide devotional plan for parents to read two Bible stories with their children each week. Include all families from the church and school. The stories may come from either the Bible or from a school-provided, age-appropriate Bible story book. Interested schools may request my school’s plan from me and adapt it for their contexts.An effective plan encourages a regular number of readings each week. Teaching families to find a routine time for family devotions and sticking consistently to that routine helps build long-term Bible-reading habits (Burns, 2011). - Developmentally Appropriate Devotional Books
Providing each family with a developmentally appropriate devotion book to use along with the Bible study plan is another great way to remove the barrier for families wondering where to begin.Congregation members gave generous donations to cover the full purchase of a Bible story book (or multiple books of various levels if needed) for every family with children at our congregation and school to use in following along with the family devotion plan we began together. - Purposeful and Regular Encouragement
Kick-Off Event
We used a devotion plan “kick-off celebration” event to alert families and encourage them to participate for a full year.
At this event, we reminded parents about their God-given role of spiritual family leaders and about all the powerful blessings God gives through his Word. They heard research that clearly connects family devotional life with children remaining faithful to their beliefs for their entire lives. Families received the year-long devotional plan, Bibles, and Bible story books, and learned how to use them.
Devotion Modeling
Since it has become the norm in many American homes that neither the mother nor the father have ever experienced a home devotion (May & Stonehouse, 2011), modeling family devotions was an important part of the success of the program.To help parents see what a family devotion looks like, my family live-streamed two family devotions for our congregation and school families. On the initial livestream, my family read the first devotion of the plan from our living room and demonstrated a simple family devotion that consisted of a Bible story reading, application questions, song, and prayer. A second livestream devotion was shared later in the school year to keep the positive momentum going as families developed and gained confidence in carrying out a new devotional routine.Utilizing Parent/Teacher Conferences
At yearly parent/teacher conferences, staff asked parents how their family devotion plan was going. These parent/teacher conferences served as a great time for our teachers to answer any parents’ questions and give more encouragement as families started to develop new devotional habits.
Organization-Wide Encouragement
Because everyone in the congregation and school used the same devotional plan, opportunities to encourage one another arose naturally.
The faculty and pastors discussed plans for lesson integration and family encouragement throughout the school year. For example, teachers tied their lessons at school to the Bible stories being read each week, pastors made connections to the weekly stories in their Bible classes and sermons, and all used impromptu parking lot and hallway conversations to ask families how devotions were going at home. Knowing which Bible stories our families were reading each week allowed our staff to give parents advice about key applications, insightful facts, and important connections they could make to current events.
In a world becoming increasingly biblically disconnected, what an awesome opportunity we have on our Lutheran school campuses to help families regain an appreciation for the many blessings of being a family centered around the Word of God. May the Lord give our teachers both the wisdom and courage to continue to explore how we can more effectively encourage family spiritual leadership through our school ministries.
Bradley Gurgel (MLC ’08, MS Ed Admin-Principal ’22) serves at Mt. Calvary Lutheran School-Waukesha WI.
References
Burns, J. (2011). How to pass your faith to your kids. Lifelong Faith, 5.3(Fall 2011), 41–42.
Family Ministry Task Force. (2021). (rep.). Final report to the CECW.
Hailes, S. (2019). Only 9% of Christian millennials read the Bible daily, and we’ve only got ourselves to blame. Premier Christianity. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/only-9-of-christian-millennials-read-the-bible-daily-and-weve-only-got-ourselves-to-blame/1490.article
Kastens, G. F. (1992). Joint Metro-North Pastoral Conference and Dodge-Washington
Pastoral Conference. In a changing world . . . an unchanging challenge: God’s plan for rearing children. Manitowoc.
May, S., & Stonehouse, C. (2011). Nurturing the faith of parents. Lifelong Faith, 5.3 (Fall 2011), 26–30.
“Nones” on the rise. Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. (2020, May 30). Retrieved September 17, 2021, from https://www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/.
Smith, C., & Snell, P. (2009). Souls in transition: The religious and spiritual lives of emerging adults. Oxford University Press.