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The Christian faith
rightly places significant value on the Creation Story. The Genesis story is
instructive when considering issues of marriage and family. In fact, the
Creation Story records the ordering of three primary and indispensable
institutions that are essential for civilization. The Creator mandated and
blessed marriage (Genesis 2), family (Genesis 4), and households (Genesis 6).
Jesus later established the church as a broader concept for households (Matthew
16). Protestantism, like Catholicism, holds these institutions in high regard.
Generally speaking,
sociologists view the family as the cornerstone of society. Psychologists view
the family as formative in the developmental experience of the human.
Economists view the family in terms of the incalculable value of human capital.
Theologians view the family in terms of its co-creational and progenitor of the
faith roles. The Protestant faith, therefore, declares and nurtures the human,
moral, and social capital inherent in the family. In this way, Protestants are
actively engaged in what Alan Carlson has designated the three features of
competition in the battle for the natural family: the moral; the mental; and
the material.
This Protestant
perspective is no where more evidenced than in Pentecostalism. The
Spirit-filled tradition, which includes Pentecostal and Charismatic believers,
is quickly approaching three-quarters of a billion adherents. It is a branch of
the Protestant faith, within the Christian church, that believes the Bible to be
the inspired word of God. Pentecostal faith attempts to follow the model of the
church presented in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. It is a “full gospel”
church that teaches its followers that experiencing the Word of God will have
transformative influence in both private and public life. This is especially
true of home life.
Marriage, family,
and the church are the primary crucibles in which faith and spirituality, and
character and citizenship are formed. Pentecostals, like other conservative
Protestants, deeply value the sanctity of human life, respond to the mandate of
procreation, seek to serve and protect human and nonhuman creation, and are
serious about their spousal and parental responsibilities.
While a case could
be made that other branches of Protestantism have been historically more
involved in “social activism,” it is none-the-less true that Pentecostals,
through their polity and practice, have been proactive on issues that directly
impinge on marriage and family. For the most part, Pentecostal adherents eschew
the social vices of alcohol and drugs, gambling, abortion, euthanasia, sexual
perversion, spousal and child abuse, human trafficking, divorce, and any form
of human degradation, including embryonic stem cell research. They uphold the
worth and equality of all persons as creatures of God, protect marriage and
family as special formations designed for covenantal relationships, and view the
church as a divine safety net in which all people have a place. As such, they
are pro-life, pro-marriage, and pro-family.
Pentecostals
attempt to balance the three purposes of truth in the essential love
relationships with God, self, and others which is the Great Commandment (Matthew
22:37-40). Because of such theological conviction, they understand one must
believe right, behave right, and relate right (2 Timothy 3:16). It is upon the
hook of love that all else “hangs,” Jesus said (Matthew 22:40).
Such faith
commitments demand response in terms of ministry and resource in the life of the
church. For example, my office is responsible for assisting local pastors in
the care and training of families. Our “family-centered, church supported”
paradigm is actualized in three ways.
Family Ministries exists to serve the church by equipping families through:
Education, which fosters biblical principles of relationship;
Nurture, which heals and helps all people as connected to a family; and
Discipleship, which informs and protects the family as a divinely ordained
institution.
Through a variety of written,
audio, and video resources, local churches have the capacity to offer marriage,
family, parenting, care giving, and leadership enrichment/training seminars.
Other resources are offered online, some at no cost to the user. Intervention
retreats designed to help struggling couples and/or families, including singles,
are also offered. Our vision includes intergenerational ministry. The newest
approach is to offer a series to the local church so that everyone, from
children to adults, is studying the same lessons at the same time. This series,
Transforming Love, is complemented with sermons and home devotionals so
that parents interact with their own children as a form of discipleship.
The pastoral call to equip the saints for the work of ministry
(Ephesians 4), the parental call to teach the Word, ways, and will of God to
their own children (Deuteronomy), the spousal call to honor the marital covenant
(Malachi 2), and the ecclesiastical call to demonstrate the mystery of the love
of God for His church (Ephesians 5) is answered in the Pentecostal tradition
with intention. Thereby, Pentecostalism as a movement within the Protestant arm
of Christendom is committed to serving and protecting the creational
institutions of marriage, family, and church for the good of society and the
glory of God.
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