The vision
Revolutionary Parents!
Revolutionary Parents is a term taken from George Barna’s book, Revolutionary Parenting. (www.george.barna.com) Read below to discover the research about parents with similar parenting styles who were able to raise their children to be SPIRITUAL CHAMPIONS, ones who became passionate adults for God.
What the interviews of the young adults & their parents uncovered showing what revolutionary parents had in common:
1) These parents used the Bible as their guide for measuring the impact of their parenting style rather than adopting acceptable cultural norms or adopting trial and error parenting.
2) Had family faith experiences, had a Biblical world view, ie as things came up, they looked up scripture and prayed together to address these issues.
3) They took seriously the Jewish mindset and lifestyle found in Deut 6:4-9 loving God, teaching His truths diligently to their children incorporating this into every aspect of their lives, taking every opportunity to teach and train Biblical principles (when you rise up, sit, walk, lie down etc)– doing nothing less.
4) These parents recognized their parenting job was their most important work with other jobs being secondary, opposite of Western culture – parenting usually works around jobs.
5) These parents had 1 parent stay at home, fighting cultural norms, very difficult.
6) They felt that they were the dominant spiritual mentor to their children, seeing the church as secondary.
7) Spent 90-120 minutes of individual time with their children daily, taking time to build relationships (typical family spends 15 minutes).
8) 100% were highly concerned with developing Godly character, for example, prioritizing the showing of love rather than just winning or what you can accomplish.
9) Felt praying daily together was important as well as reading the Word, doing so at least 2x a week (reading verses or Bible studies), worshipped regularly at home together & part of a local church…. (only 1 in 10 Christian parents pray with their children daily).
10) Parents worked hard personally to grow spiritually, which young adults reported impacted their spiritual walk with the Lord.
11) 83% set tangible and measurable goals for their children, holding them accountable, being their coach.
13) Prayed diligently for their children, especially for their salvation and any decisions related to them.
14) Began when children were a very young age.
15) They took all of this seriously, recognized that there are no guarantees, but they believed doing less can produce failure.
So as a parent or guardian, if you
are challenged by any of these principles, I encourage you to incorporate any or all for your family. If you are unable to incorporate some due to time & finances, just do your best, even one change can make a difference. There are no guarantees, but according to Barna, doing nothing will certainly not help your child to be strong and leave them vulnerable to the world.