here - The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

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(58). What Fox demonstrates throughout his eighth
chapter is that programs in a church should exist to
serve a specific purpose and will most-likely tarry for
only a season (56). The purpose will be for the needs of
the people in the church. His critique of age-organized
church programs is that they too often drive the church
when it should be the people driving the church (52).
Again, in certain contradiction to NCFIC, Fox does
not suggest that “any church that offers a Sunday school
program is outside the will of God and therefore disobedient”
(55). He does offer, though, that too many
churches are deceiving themselves thinking that these
programs are the best way to reach the children of the
congregation (55).
The collection of illustrations and philosophical discourses
do not tell how to establish a family-integrated
church model in an existing church or in a church plant.
Readers should keep in mind that Fox’s book is descriptive
and not prescriptive. Fox shares his experience, and
that of Antioch Community Church, as an example
of what God can do when the hearts of the people are
aligned and unified (138). As with any text, readers
should be cautioned against reading this treatise as a
handbook for planting a family-integrated church and
rather identify the key components that allowed the
leadership of the church to best meet the needs of the
congregation and apply certain practices accordingly.
Church leaders will need to consider differences in context,
demographics, and resources before presenting
Antioch’s journey as the means to transition and grow
their church.
Fox’s book is saturated with Scripture references.
Eighteen of the twenty chapters of his book provide reference
to Scripture in some way. Fox’s presentation of
direct scriptural support for a family-integrated church,
however, could have been stronger. Scriptural support for
worshipping together as a family would have strengthened
the text and would have made the text more useful
for pastors and church leaders seeking the same type of
changes Antioch Community Church experienced.
Lorrie Francis, Ph.D.
Adjunct Instructor, Lancaster Bible College
with W. Ryan Steenburg, Ph.D.