Almost a year and a half ago in September of 2009 I was honored to be asked if my lecture related to the family-integrated church movement might be posted on a blog. Consequently, I allowed the brothers who run the Reformed Baptist Fellowship blog to post a lecture on the relation of church and family which I gave in my doctrine of the church class at MCTS. I gave that lecture to the best of my recollection in the spring of 2006. In that lecture I attempted to scour the websites of this movement so that I might fairly and biblically evaluate their statements in light of the biblical view of the relation of church and family.
I was not prepared for what happened. The roof fell in. There were many responses to the Reformed Baptist Fellowship blog (both positive and negative). There were also emails to me which in tones both hurt and indignant called me to repent. As a result of reading those responses, I sent an open letter to Voddie Baucham which he posted on his blog. In that open letter I made clear an issue which I thought I had made clear in my original lecture, but to my surprise had not. That issue was that I distinguished in my own mind between more extreme and less extreme advocates of family-integrated views and classed as more moderate men like Doug Phillips, Scott Brown and the organization with the acronym, NCFIC.
One of the things for which I was criticized at that time was misrepresenting family-integrated views because I had not read their blogs and books. A sense of fairness requires me to say in my defense that when I originally wrote my lecture the leaders of this movement had not published a great deal. That has changed since 2006. On my desk are three books related to the family-integrated movement. Each of these books I have read over the last year in a desire to be current on this hot topic and not be guilty of misrepresenting these brothers.
What are these three books? In the order in which I read them (and also in the order in which they were published) they are Voddie Baucham’s Family Driven Faith (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007); Paul Renfro’s contribution to the three views’ book entitled, Perspectives on Family Ministry: 3 Views (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2009); and Scott Brown’s A Weed in the Church (Wake Forest, NC: The National Center for Family-Integrated Churches, 2010). I want to interact with these books in coming blogs.
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
