Q&A with Steve Wright

While I was at the Connecting Church & Home Conference in Louisville, Ky. this past weekend, I was privileged to conduct a Q&A with Steve Wright. Steve is the Pastor of Family Discipleship at Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC. He is currently working on his PhD in philosophy of family ministry at Southern Seminary. Steve is the author of ReThink and ApParent Privilege.

He has overseen the development of Treasuring Christ Curriculum. We will begin using this resource this Sunday at Grace Church of Tallahassee during our Sunday-school hour.

Here are the highlights from or conversation (my comments are in bold);

Q. Could you define your role as the Pastor of Family Discipleship at your local church?

It is a role that began out of a conviction that parents are the primary disciplers of their children. During my role as Student Pastor, I often talked about this dynamic to the parents. We (Providence Baptist Church) began to realize that this was a message that needed to be emphasized to parents before their children were 13 years old. So my role seeks to come alongside the parents of children age birth - 18 within our congregation and equip them for their essential responsibility.

Q. Could you briefly explain what you mean when you speak of the role of parents as “primary disciplers”?

If you start in Genesis and begin to turn page by page, who in Scripture do we see God’s Word pointing to as the primary witness to the next generation? Rarely does anyone ever miss the answer: Parents. Think how the faith of Israel continued. It was clearly through the home. Throughout the New Testament and in the life of the early church, you see this obvious parental role.

Please share with us how the Treasuring Christ curriculum came about.

Looking back, there are several events that brought this project to life.

1) Four years ago I received an announcement from the publishing house,who at the time was our curriculum provider. The announcement communicated why they had chosen to remove the crucifixion from the Easter Sunday curriculum. This was a problem!

2) We also began to notice that within the curriculum we were using, the moral of the story often missed the point. The hero of the story was rarely Christ. For instance, regarding the feeding of the 5.000, rather than exalting in Christ’s Deity on display, the emphasis was on sharing.

3) The other moment happened on a mission trip to Ukraine. During my time there, I had a real burden to provide Gospel-Centered resources to the nations.

There are certainly curriculums that are out there that are biblically solid options. Our church decided to produce another gospel-centered, biblically-faithful curriculum that would encourage the parental involvement in the home, and be something that could be made available to the nations.

Q. How is this curriculum different?

Our strategy for Treasuring Christ is as follows;

In order to display God’s great glory; we will: (Isaiah 42.1-9)
• Produce a gospel-centered curriculum which allows every child, birth through high school, to study the same Scripture passage each week (Colossians 3:16; Romans 5:.6-11) We call this “unified”, we are all on the same page, same game plan.
• Produce a gospel-centered curriculum that will equip parents to thrive in their God-given roles as their child’s primary disciple, thereby, connecting the church and the home (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 78:1-7). We provide a weekly take home resource that encourages parents to help their children prepare for the upcoming week’s lesson.
• Produce a gospel-centered curriculum to share with the nations that will help churches reach and exhort the next generation and to make Christ’s name great around the globe (Romans 1:16; Psalm 108.1-5

Q. Outside of TC curriculum, could you share with us a few ways that your church intentionally seeks to cultivate a connection between the church and the family?

In everything we do at Providence, we hold to the R.T.I. principle with our parents.
- R – Resource – books, articles, sermons, etc.
- T – Train – Instruction related to family-discipleship
- I – Involve – Encourage Parental Involvement in all our youth activities

One or more of these three components exist at everything that takes place within our family ministries.

Q. What books would you recommend for Parents? Pastors? Youth?

There are lots of good resources, I would start with Gospel-Powered Parenting – William Farley. Others would be Give them Grace – Elyse Fitzpatrick and Age of Opportunity – Paul Tripp.

Proverbs: Day 30

Proverbs 30

[8] Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
[9] lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the LORD?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.
(Proverbs 30:8-9 ESV)

This is a very helpful verse on our view of money. Our trust is to be in God alone and not wealth. He prays that he would not be poor or wealthy in that both positions bring about a temptation to trust in something other than God.

Proverbs: Day 29

Proverbs 29

An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous,
but one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked.
(Proverbs 29:27 ESV)

This is an interesting reality. Just as oil and water do not mix, so to righteousness and evil. Jesus taught on this truth. In Jn. 15 he says that those who are not of the world will be hated by the world. John the apostle said not to be surprised when the world hates you, 1 Jn 3.

The righteous are offended by the unrighteousness of the wicked, and the wicked are repulsed by the righteous. There are only two ways to live.

Fridays with the Heidelberg

The general outline of the Heidelberg Catechism is broken down into three sections; the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer. We begin that second section with today’s reading;

Lord’s Day 34

92. Q. WHAT DOES THE LORD SAY IN HIS LAW?
A. [The Catechism quotes from Exodus 20:1-17, reciting the giving of the Ten Commandments]

93. Q. HOW ARE THESE COMMANDMENTS DIVIDED?
A. Into two tables. The first has four commandments, teaching us what our relation to God should be. The second has six commandments, teaching us what we owe our neighbor.

94. Q. WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE IN THE FIRST COMMANDMENT?
A. That I, not wanting to endanger my very salvation, avoid and shun all idolatry, magic, superstitious rites, and prayer to saints or to other creatures. That I sincerely acknowledge the only true God, trust Him, alone, look to Him for every good thing humbly and patiently, love him, fear Him, and honor Him with all my heart. In short, that I give up anything rather than go against His will in any way.

95. Q. WHAT IS IDOLATRY?
A. Idolatry is having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God, who has revealed Himself in His Word.

I find the definition of idolatry very helpful. It points to the reality that we cannot serve two masters. “Idolatry is having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God, who has revealed Himself in His Word.” We might not be able to identify with the carved images or the Asherim that the Israelites struggled with, but “trusting in something in place of or alongside of the only true God” is part of our human nature. Calvin described our hearts as “idol factories.”

May today’s reading remind us of what the Lord requires and motivate us to acknowledge, trust, worship, fear, love, and honor Him alone.

Proverbs: Day 26

Proverbs 26

[18] Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death
[19] is the man who deceives his neighbor
and says, “I am only joking!”
(Proverbs 26:18-19 ESV)

These two verses came up this summer during our Sunday School lesson on friendships. I find it to be a great reminder of the authority, truth and relevance of the Word of God. It is descriptive of the very comments that are made on a daily basis in our surroundings. It is as if the writer sneaked a peek at my facebook status.

We are deceived into thinking that we can carelessly say deceptive, hurtful, condescending, unnecessary comments to others and then finish the sentence with "just kidding." Deceived into thinking that such concluding remarks will defuse the destructiveness and evil of our ungodly speech. Not So, says the Proverbs!

Proverbs: Day 25

Proverbs 25

In chapter 16, we were told that someone who is under control is like a mighty warrior (32). Today, we read of the antithesis.

[28] A man without self-control
is like a city broken into and left without walls.
(Proverbs 25:28 ESV)

Just as walls provided security and protection for these ancient cities, so too are we protected from harm when we control our tongue, guard our heart and discipline our lives.

Interestingly, James 3:8 states; [8] but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. This directs our attention for our need for Christ. We cannot do this on our own. A man who is not under self-control is like a city without protection. Apart from Christ, no man can control his tongue. We need Christ. We need Wisdom Incarnate.

Proverbs: Day 24

Proverbs 24

[30] I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
[31] and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
[32] Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
[33] A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
[34] and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.
(Proverbs 24:30-34 ESV)

We do well to learn from the folly of others. This is a mark of wisdom. Upon observation of the sluggard, the wise man considers the folly of the lazy and receives instruction (v. 32).
Well, I gotta go, I need to go mow my yard!