If We Want To Leave A Legacy of Faith, We Need A New Way Of Thinking

Parents. We worry about the health of our kids. We lose sleep when they’re up all night coughing. We rush them to the ER when they can’t breathe. We move hell and high water to ensure they have the best medical care when they need it. We willingly experience debilitating fear, frustration, and failure when we have to stand by and watch them suffer because they need to know we are there.

We worry about their education. We push them, we nag their teachers, fight for their needs, and we will spare no expense to ensure they are provided every advantage. Grades matter, SAT scores matter, college of choice matters, and the career path they choose. We want—no, check that—we need them to be successful. Because we believe that if they are successful, then so are we.

We prioritize athletics and activities. For many of our kids, this is their gateway into a better world. The scholarship and the self-confidence they need to experience the success we know they deserve. So we not only cheer them on, push their limits, and drain our bank accounts. Some of us even pick up our entire lives and move just to give them that one shot—the shot we never had.

If you even remotely identify with any of what I have described above, then you undoubtedly love our kids. I applaud you for it. Because the tiny humans we are raising matter. They matter more than anything we could ever do.

But I forgot something.

Parents. We want our kids to know and love Jesus.

We want them to make a massive difference in this world, love people as Jesus did, and build an ongoing generational bond of Jesus-followers who faithfully serve their church and community. We want our legacy faith to carry on to our grandkids and beyond. We want our kids to own their faith and live as effective missionaries wherever God takes them.

But while we have a plan and process for raising our kids to be financially, relationally, and professionally successful, I don’t believe we have much of a plan for how we raise them to be spiritually successful. We don’t hope our kids will be smart—we fight for it. We don’t hope our kids will find a spouse—we get them ready for it. Yet, we stand by, hoping our kids will live a life of faith in Jesus. That’s it. Just hope.

Why?

Because we are really good at making Jesus a part of our lives. Not the center.

We faithfully send our kids to Sunday School, youth groups, retreats, and mission trips. But how do all those activities translate into putting Jesus at the center? Who knows. We just hope it works. We might teach our kids a lot about Jesus, but I’m not sure we genuinely teach them what following Jesus looks like in the real world.

It’s a question I have asked myself countless times. I’ve lost sleep over it, wrote about it, preached about it, thought about it—I even designed programs that I sincerely believed would solve the problem. But I kept getting it wrong.

We don’t need another program. We don’t need another devotional. And we certainly don’t need any more reasons to find ourselves involved in another church program that eats away more time in our already busy schedules.

What we need is a shift in thinking. Or better yet, a new way of thinking.

This is what The Discipleship Project is. A new way of thinking. Not another program, Bible study, or sermon series. It’s a movement of parents who believe deeply that our kids are designed and destined to do incredible things for the Kingdom of God. It’s a movement of people who actively decide to elevate their expectations of the time spent at home, who want to experiment, learn, and grow together, taking the everyday mundane parts of parenting and turning them into profound, life-changing discipleship moments.

We believe that discipleship doesn’t happen in the church, through a Bible study, or even in a devotional. These are all great tools to take advantage of, yes, but, discipleship that changes a person and consequently changes the world is done within relationships—primarily the relationships built inside our families. God has given each parent the awesome responsibility of raising His children to know and love him.

How are you raising them to make that happen?

Let’s get started.