Build your family on Solid Ground
Solid Ground - A Model for Family Discipleship is a project of the WELS Northern Wisconsin District Commission on Discipleship. This work is presented in seven presentations with five as core modules. Solid Ground equips and empowers parents to be the primary influencers in raising their children in the Lord, just as He designed. The first of these presentations, the Critical Hour which is found here, provides a glimpse at the struggles our youth and families are up against today with an eye toward the solution our Lord Jesus gives in Scripture - covered in Solid Ground's five core modules which are available to you upon registration. Best of all, this comes at no cost to you, though we always appreciate any donations to sustain and support more efforts like this. For more info on the Solid Ground content, check out the preview video below and accompanying handout which is the study guide for all the Solid Ground content.
The Critical Hour: The Stats
The stats are in and our young people are struggling. So are our families. Let's spend this hour and reflect upon the critical needs our youth and family are expressing but with the promise that Jesus can satisfy all our needs as we build our lives on Him, Solid Ground. (Page 5a, 8-18, Study Guide.)
The Critical Hour: First Disconnect
Children need belonging and worth. By God's design, families were created to supply this need in Christ and save their families from so many of the sufferings of youth today. So, what's the disconnect? The answer is in how we view our faith which has everything to do with how we approach the critical hour of worship. (Page 5b.)
The Critical Hour: Second Disconnect
Families provide belonging and infinite value to young people by filling their family culture with Christ who seeks to claim it all. One pillar essential for filling family life full of faith comes in the way we parent. Do we parent like God parents us or is our style more like that of the world? This is the second disconnect which, praise God, in Christ is solved, he who shepherds our hearts that we too might parent like Him! (Page 6a.)
The Critical Hour: Third Disconnect
The building blocks of parenting in Christ are spiritual conversations and God-centered experiences, whether mundane or monumental. Yet, again, we run into a disconnect between families and God. How many of our conversations have yet to bring God's Word into the mix? How many of our experiences as a family, though good, may yet need God as central? God's Word again helps resolve the disconnect. (Page 6b.)
The Critical Hour: Fourth Disconnect
Another pillar to support Christ's claim on family life that our families may flourish and overcome all struggles is in the model parents set. That model is to be every man as Christ and every woman as the Holy Church, especially as Christ and the Church are the ideal for every marriage. Marriage is a critical component regarding faith formation of the young for they too one day will marry (90%). Single or married, this connection to God needs attention. (Page 7a.)
The Critical Hour: Fifth Disconect
The last disconnect in faith practice between families and God is found in the practice of depending too heavily on the local church and youth programs for kids, as if kids can satisfactorily be discipled in Jesus and in large numbers. Truth be told, faith is homegrown and the local congregation serves as an essential supplement to the home, namely, parents who are primary in discipling their own children. Once again, the Lord has the solution to this disconnect. (Page 7b).
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Matthew 7:24
Resources for Facilitators
Solid Ground modules can be viewed and independently studied by parents in their homes after registering here. We believe the experience is more enriching when shared with other parents in a group setting in your local congregation. To foster such an approach, facilitators can use the resources below to promote, invite, and help families work together in Solid Ground and create follow-up plans with networked accountability.
