Community -

I read an interesting article which contained the quote below regarding Christian community. If you are interested in reading the rest of this article or other good writing from this author, see the link at the bottom of the quote.

"When our children are part of a vital extended spiritual family they have a multitude of opportunities for having reinforced those things they experience at home: teaching, example, encouragement, challenge, accountability, love, service. Each Christian family needs to be part of a community which will give the children a larger Christian identity and will provide an extension of the teaching and discipleship that the parents provide. Ideally this community becomes the larger social environment in which the children live, so that their world is a substantially Christian world, and their own faith becomes thereby more substantial.

One of the most important things we fathers can do to help preserve the faith of our children is to situate our families in the midst of a healthy church... What we should search for is a church that teaches biblical truth and practices biblical body life; that is, the members interact meaningfully with one another day by day."

Phil Lancaster, from his website "Patriarch" (LINK)