Adam Triplett

"What revival reveals above everything else is the sovereignty of God, and the iniquity, the helplessness, the hopelessness, of man in sin." - Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Source: Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "Revival", 1986

I have found one of the quickest ways to get there is actually through an age integrated prayer service. When older people hear young people pray it gets them excited for what God is doing. Add in fellowship meals where people are encouraged to sit with those of different ages and the train is really going down the track!

I think a winning strategy to help a church understand why kids should be able to be in service (let's argue if they should elsewhere) is by ending age segregated Sunday school/life groups. Teach older people they need/are needed by young people. Teach young people the same.

My prayer is that more pastors will stop and take the time to really consider the depth of this point. Don’t just dismiss it.

@lukedsimmons Discipling, not discipline…but also discipline. Ha!

Yeah, that’s the guy. All I was saying is that his research, among others, has found correlation between parents being spiritually disengaged and children’s abandonment of their parents and their faith later in life. And what I’m proposing (adding to that conversation) is that the church might bear some responsibility for this because we’ve professionalized children and youth discipleship to the point that parents no longer believe they are able or capable of discipline their own children. This then leads to a rude awakening in the teenage years, where children realize true Christianity is not the happy-go-lucky life often peddled in children’s ministry, but a dying-to-self real faith. That doesn’t totally negate the benefit of kids ministry or make it inherently bad. I would just argue that, in light of the simplicity of Scripture, perhaps there is a simpler way that would keep our kids in the long run.

I really don't want to pile on. I'm just saying, statistically speaking, could there be some correlation here? I believe the research would say so.

Considering the numbers, many Gen Z and Gen Alpha are still in our homes and orbits. They are not lost or gone. How should we respond? What does evangelism look like in a post-Christian world?

After a decade of pastoral ministry and raising children, I am convinced we get a lot of spiritual formation backward. So often we treat the Christian life and the spiritual disciplines as a ladder with which we climb up to God instead of wells He has already dug for us from which we can drink His grace.

At the risk of sounding reductionistic, YES. The "professionalization" of discipleship in the church has cut children off from the spiritual lives of their parents and handed them a candy-coated fun-house religion that often leads to them breaking away from their parents and the faith of their parents decades later. The research of Dr. Christian Smith, @ryanburge, Jim Davis and others have shown this.

@AdamTriplett That having a vibrant kids ministry leads to them cutting off parents two decades later?

@NamorPB @HwsEleutheroi I had forgotten they put this together. Thank you for reminding me!

@AdamTriplett Fantastic resource by @HwsEleutheroi. Have you also checked out the 100 verses for witnessing to Mormons? aomin.org/aoblog/mormoni…

Had two new Mormon missionaries over yesterday to talk and share the gospel with them. One of them is really questioning LDS doctrine and is reading James White's Trinity book. Pray that God would open his eyes to the truth, as we continue to meet.

@residentreformr @Juan70148729167 "Youth groups are the public school version of Church. It's weird." -- Brother, that is one of the best lines I've ever heard!

Exceptions to the rule do not destroy the rule. And what would be better than a youth group is what my church does. Which is everyone after age 5 is in the church. In the Bible study. Everything. We don’t segregate. Kids need to hear the gospel and see adults doing the Christian life. Youth groups are the public school version of Church. It’s weird.

Youth groups are a plague on our youth. Most youth pastors are untrained and have no idea what they’re doing. And if that guy was the youth pastor of any church we visited, it would be the last time we went there, but not before I said something to the pastor on my way out the door. Shameful.

@SpeechWrx @Falcontch Sam -- Check these out! restorefamilyworship.com/restore-family… psalms.seedbed.com

@Falcontch We're looking for ways to change or sing the psalms, got any yt playlists for that?

I and my wife did family worship for the first time yesterday We chanted a Psalm, did some of the Westminister shorter catechism, and read Ecclesiastes 3 Overall, very refreshing!

"When the saints come to see Christ as He is in heaven, then they become like Him...That perfect sight will abolish all remains of deformity...as all darkness is abolished before the full blaze of the sun’s midday light."—Jonathan Edwards, "The Beatific Vision," FGB #276.

Reason #7,983 to homeschool your kids. Keep going. Your labors will bear fruit!

Really looking forward to reading this.

@thisisfoster Haha! Brother, you know us baptists can let you off the hook that easy!

When the church is treated as a replacement for the natural family, the pastor becomes an adoptive father instead of a shepherd of souls. The congregation is taught to confuse the limits and purposes of the natural (household) and spiritual family (church).

"It was all worth it." buff.ly/WFratu1

Crash course in family leadership and household management. Excellent resources with lots of overlap but each one making its own unique and important contribution. @SBrownOnline @crwiley1962 @New_Christendom