Monday, September 29, 2008

More From Randy Stinson on the FIC Part I: Vision Forum Commonalities

Steve Wright's concept of revising and "reThinking" youth ministry outlines the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's concept of the Family Integrated Church. At least, that's what I'm told. On Wright's website entitled "Lasting Divergence," in the sidebar near the bottom, you can access Randy Stinson's message at Wright's May 2008 "reThink Conference."

In upcoming posts, I would like to point out where SBTS departs from the Vision Forum FIC concept, but in this quote, I note language that echoes the language that Vision Forum and others like Philip Lancaster have used for many, many years.

Randy Stinson's "reThink Conference" presentation
(audio download from blog sidebar):


We’re really talking about creating an ethos, a way of life in the church, a climate in the church.

A climate where as you’ve discussed all day long, where families are brought together, not fragmented. Where dads are encouraged to lead, where parents bear the primary responsibility of discipling their children, where the hearts of children are turned towards their mothers and fathers, where the hearts of mothers and fathers are turned toward their children, where teenagers who come without their parents have a place, where single moms and broken families can come and understand what real family living is all about but being part of the broader family of God. 
Because the Bible teaches that the church is a family. Or at the very least, it teaches that the church is supposed to operate like a family in its structure, in the way that members relate to one another. It’s supposed to be a family and it’s predicated on the family, and so the family is central to this and we need to pour a lot of energy into the preservation of the family because the family is the picture and the family is the paradigm for how the church is supposed to operate.

Please visit again for upcoming posts that point out some sharp contrasts between the SBTS concept and the Vision Forum concept of the FIC.

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