HeritageBuilders

We contribute directly to the legacy the next generations will receive. The love, nurture and
instruction we give our children now will extend far beyond their lives, influencing those born decades
later. (Psalm 78:1-8) Our culture provides us with living examples such as: many times child abusers
raise child abusers, or often children of alcoholics raise alcoholics. Of course there is a positive side:
responsible loving parents tend to instill the same qualities in their offspring, and they in others, and
so on. The good is passed from generation to generation.

However, there is a crisis of faith today because there is a crisis of spiritual leadership in the home -
Barna research found that only 4% of 13 year olds are classified as evangelicals and there is little
faith difference between those exiting (13) childhood years and adult hood. He goes on to conclude in
his book, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions that, Parents must invest in the moral and
spiritual growth of their children with great concern, care and conscientiousness. Unfortunately, no
matter how hard a church tries, it is incapable of bringing a child to compete spiritual maturity - that
is the job of the family. Why, because other statistics show that parents have 2-3 times the impact
of any church program.

In another Barna study he found that: Parents are not so much unwilling to provide more substantive
training to their children as they are ill-equipped to do such work. According to the research, parents
typically have no plan for the spiritual development of their children, do not consider it a priority,
have little or no training in how to nurture a child's faith, have no related standards or goals that they
are seeking to satisfy, and experience no accountability for their efforts

The family is the primary means by which God intended the faith to be passed to the next generation.
It was Martin Luther who said: "Most certainly father and mother are apostles, bishops and priests to
their children, for it is they who make them acquainted with the gospel."

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association found that: 65% of the "Builder's" generation (54+) are born
again while only 35% of the "Boomer" generation (36-53), 15% of the "Buster" generation (24-35),
and 5% of the "Bridger" generation (6-23) are born again. This suggests that we are not effective
today in passing the faith to the next generations through the family.

God's Word gives a directive to parents in Deuteronomy 6:4-7: "Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the
Lord is one. Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength. These commandments that I give you (parents) today are to be upon your hearts. Impress
them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,
when you lie down and when you get up." (NIV)

Therefore, parents must become intentional and take back their responsibility of passing the faith to
the next generation, because the faith is not effectively being passed outside the family. This is why
Heritage Builders exists, to help provide parents with a biblically based plan enabling them to be
successful in passing the faith to their children.