“It was obvious that parents were reflecting very much on their own spiritual walk and on how they could be better examples.”

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

Parenting is a wild ride. There are so many theories on how to “do it right”. For Christians, the challenges are even more pronounced—you are not only concerned about raising kids well, but also with raising them to know the Lord.

To help parents out, the Metropolitan Bible Church (the MET) is hosting The Disciple-Making Parent conference, featuring Chap Bettis, author of the book by the same name.

“Last year, we started going through The Disciple Making Parent with a number of our parents. We’ve had a lot of great material over the years, but this is in a class by itself,” says Ron Rudd, the MET’s family discipleship pastor. “The quality of material, the biblical wisdom shared, the way it was shared, we thought it stands way above so many others. So we started making some plans to see if we could get Chap to come here.”

“In today’s environment it’s all too easy to abdicate the responsibility of raising our children to others.”

The conference runs Saturday, October 19, from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Registration includes lunch.

One of the challenges Rudd highlights that the teaching addresses is that many parents are intentional about bringing their kids to a Christian school or church to learn about God. That’s great, but Rudd emphasises that parents are ultimately responsible for discipling their kids.

“If we take the average Christian parent and put them next to the average non-Christian in Ottawa, their goals are about the same. It is to raise kids that will be socially involved, get a good education, a good job, a family, and I get to be a grandparent. Our parents have bought into the idea that kids [need] the best education possible and that’s the only way they are going to succeed. Raising our kids to love and follow Jesus Christ needs to be our highest parenting priority.”

That’s one strength that Peter Hall saw in this program as he was teaching a class at the MET based on the book, last year.

“One thing we can do is make the Great Commission the North Star of our parenting.”

“It was obvious that parents were reflecting very much on their own spiritual walk and on how they could be better examples for their children.”

“In today’s environment it’s all too easy to abdicate the responsibility of raising our children to others,” says David Sankey, who was part of the MET’s study program. “There are many influences competing for their attention. We need to be actively working to teach our children about the God of the Bible.”

One study from the Fuller Youth Institute found that between 40 and 50 percent of young people attending a youth group in high school were not following God in university. Although those stats seem dismal, there is hope.

“One thing we can do is make the Great Commission the North Star of our parenting,” Bettis states. “I told my children many times, ‘I don’t care what you do for work, but I pray that you will love and follow Jesus Christ. I am going to do all I can to point you in that direction.’”

“Raising children is not like baking a cake, where you put in the right ingredients and out pops the perfect result.”

Bettis says this means realizing that every child is born with a heart that needs to be changed by the Gospel. It also means assessing how school opportunities and the sports or activities kids participate in are affecting their souls.

“But now we start to think about home life. The home is the first and hardest place to live out the Gospel. Our children see us for who we are. So we want to make sure we are living the Christian life at home.”

Although Bettis stresses the importance of good parenting, he is clear that parents of prodigals need to give themselves grace.

“Parents of prodigals bear a special burden. We wonder what we did wrong. We feel shame, but raising children is not like baking a cake, where you put in the right ingredients and out pops the perfect result. the Church needs to proclaim that loudly to parents of prodigals.”

Bettis clarifies that is not a call for perfect parents. “There aren’t any,” he says. But he stresses that parents need to model commitment to a healthy church and avoid hypocrisy.

“If we are play-acting and have ongoing secret sin in our homes then our children, especially our teens, see right through that. If we genuinely love Jesus and them, that will overcome all of our mistakes.”