Insights
Passing Down Your Faith
Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve encouraged you to work together as a family to create a family mission statement. A family mission statement helps a family identify why they live as they do and how they agree to live as a family. A large part of the Logos Prep “why” can be found in Deuteronomy 6:7, “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.” These verses instruct parents to teach their children the things of God. When it comes to passing faith down from one generation to the next, parents are primary. In the weeks ahead, we will be discussing strategies to help parents with the important role of imparting faith values to their children.
In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, Stephen Covey asks the question, “Who’s going to raise my children - today’s alarmingly destructive culture or me?” Though the book was written in 1997, the question seems to become more pressing by the day. The good news is that according to a research discussed in the book Handing Down The Faith:How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation, “The influence of parents on children while they still live at home - including their influence on their religious identities, beliefs, and practices - is paramount, lasting for years, decades, often lifetimes.” I would add that for the Christian, that influence is eternal.
In his book Families and Faith: How Religion is Passed Down Across the Generations, Vern L. Benstson presents the Theory of Intergenerational Religious Momentum. In this theory, Benston looks at the many things that influence a child’s faith preferences. In his research, he finds connections between faith and contemporary culture, historical events, generational religious differences and religious influence of peers. Yet, he places these at the outer edge of things that have the most impact. Next, are church activities, pastors/ministers, and religious schools. These things are followed in importance by heritage and influence from grandparents. According to his research, by far, the things with the most influence on whether a child will continue in a family's faith practice is parents’ role modeling and the quality of the parent-child relationship. This research published in 2013 is supported by the findings of Handing Down the Faith, published in 2021.
“Empirical data tell us that, for intergenerational religious transmission today, the key agents are parents, not clergy or other religious professionals. The key location is the home, not religious congregations. And the key mechanisms for socialization are the formation of ordinary life practices and identities, not programs preaching, or formal rites of passage.”
In a recent study, Pew projects that by 2070, Christians will make up less than half the US population. The way to change this trajectory is for parents to press deeply into the important task of handing down their faith. For the readers among us, I recommend all of the books mentioned in this article. We look forward to spending the rest of this semester sharing a few things we’ve learned through our own studies and experiences. As always, it is a privilege to partner with you in the education of your children. We recognize that you are God’s annointed for your children and we are honored to walk beside you!
Tammy McIlvoy
Head of School
Logos Preparatory Academy
Discipleship Through Generosity
If you walk into my office, you’re greeted by an odd assortment of knick-knacks, college pennants, movie posters, vinyl records, and art made out of old oil drums. There’s also a coffee bar, and if Mr. Gutowsky was writing this, that’s what he’d focus on…but he’s not, so we won’t. The art pieces are made in Haiti by an artisan group called Papillon where they take steel oil drums and turn them into incredible works of art. Between my office and home, I probably have 15 of their pieces. Two more are currently in the mail en route to my house. I’m captivated by how they take something so mundane and turn it into something so beautiful. (There’s a sermon here, but that’s also not where we’re going with this…but we could!)
I found out about Papillon through my work with an organization called Feed My Starving Children. I serve on the Texas Council for FMSC, a group of dedicated and passionate people committed to ending world hunger. A disproportionate amount of the Henderson family finances go to FMSC, whether purchasing artisan pieces like those from Papillon, regular giving, gifts for the LP staff every Christmas, or the mini M&Ms I pass out to the high school students each October. I have coffee mugs at home that I leave out as decor and as a reminder of how blessed I am; these mugs are made (also from Papillon) out of Haitian clay…the same clay that poor families in Haiti will mix with salt, water, and oil to turn into a “cookie” so they can have something to feed their children. If that causes your breath to catch, welcome to the club. The mugs are a reminder of how people can turn despair into hope.
I don’t tell you these stories to guilt you into giving to Feed My Starving Children…although, the website is fmsc.org, items from Papillon and other artisans can be purchased at fmscmarketplace.org, and I’m more than happy to talk your ear off about it. I tell you these stories to inspire you: find something you care about, and get involved. In the book Mission Drift, the authors push us to take that even one step further and get our families involved. Declan has packed meals with me. Riley is finally old enough to pack with me, and the next opportunity, she’ll be right there. And I can’t wait to tell Connor all about it. Ultimately, it isn’t about the money (although they need the money, so again, the website is fmsc.org) but our family values. The authors put it this way: “it’s more than just…supporting causes; it’s modeling how decisions are made and what common values the family holds. It’s discipleship through the tool of generosity.” (120)
Scripture is clear, over and over again, that our actions will mirror our values. I encourage you to reflect that to your families and make a giving tradition part of your legacy…and if you’re stumped where to start, I know a place!
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-8
Jason Henderson
Secondary Education Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy
Boundary Stones
When we first moved to Houston, I was overwhelmed about the number of activities and events that took place. There seemed to be something going on all the time. There were plenty of good things to do, but I was limited by time. The question became how to determine if our family should go to an event. How do you decide between events? Family mission statements can help families live with more intentionality and help determine priorities while deciding which activities are best for the family.
In biblical times, families would set out boundary stones to mark or define a family’s territory. Mission statements can act as boundary stones for a family’s time. I think the best use of the mission statement is that it gives you permission to say, “no”. If an activity doesn’t support the family’s mission then the family doesn’t have to do the activity. You can mentally “let go” of the feeling that you should do something and any pressure to participate. If your family mission involves growing closer to God and an activity occurs during church worship times, you say no. It doesn’t support your family’s mission. Just as boundary stones set the margins of a family property, a family mission statement sets the identity of a family and helps the family shape its time and resources.
Proverbs 22:28 warns the generation not to move the boundaries. The land was the promise and the inheritance. It was wrong to move boundary stones that were set. With a mission statement for a family the precious time and resources will not be stolen, but defined. A mission statement allows for a richer life experience because it sets boundaries on what should be included in the schedule and what can be excluded.
Leah Rabb
Elementary Education Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy
Speak The Words
Did you know that the average person spends one fifth of their life talking? In fact, in just one year, most of us could fill sixty-six 800-page books with the words we say and type. Genesis tells us that the world came into being as God spoke it into existence. We see in the gospel of John that this Word, this LOGOS, is His Son, Jesus. So it would make sense to us that God has an opinion about the words that we speak. James 3, in the New Testament, discusses the power of the tongue by comparing the power of our words to a bit in a horse's mouth, which controls the whole horse, and a large ship that is set on course by a small rudder. Words are incredibly powerful and they steer our lives. James goes on to say that it only takes a small spark to start a forest fire and the tongue has the same power to set a course of destruction by a simple phrase. Without control, words can bring destruction overnight, but with control, words can build, edify and give good direction.Our words can create a world where our children are confident and brave, where they know they are valued, pursued and cherished.
In our newsletters, we have been talking about writing a family mission statement. Mrs. McIlvoy encouraged us to ask each family member, “What is the purpose of our family?” and Mr. Gutowsky spoke of being an active listener as you talk with each member about which things are important to your family. This week I want to speak about the power of words. Proverbs 18:2 says,”the power of life and death are in the tongue.” We can speak blessing or cursing and it can change a situation for better or worse depending on our choice of words. If we can catch ourselves between stimulus and response and choose words that bring life, we can create an atmosphere of wellness in our families that is both attractive and contagious.
A written family vision statement, where all members deposit words through collective thinking, will help create a world for your family that is a respite from the storm. Families need home to be a place where they want to come at the end of a hard day, a safe haven when the world has beaten them up a bit, a place where they know they will be unconditionally loved, their voice will be heard and their vote honored.
Ask your children: What words best describe our family? What words do you want to hear spoken at home? How do you feel when unkind words are spoken by family members? Is there power in the words we say? Why? What is a phrase you would like spoken to you everyday?
I wrote a proclamation that doubles as a family mission statement for the Brooks St. Campus this year since we are focusing on what it means to be part of a family. It is Biblically based, it is simple, it has motions, and it rhymes! I want to make it palatable for them to absorb. In Stephen Covey's book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, he says, “In spite of the work we do on mission statements, if we don’t internalize them in our hearts and minds and inside the culture of the family, other cultural forces will confuse and disorient us. They will stagger our sense of morality so that ‘wrong’ is defined more by getting caught than by doing wrong”. Make sure you are creating a mission statement that your family can understand and internalize. Make it traditional or make it a poem or song or rap, something that reflects the character in your family. As I taught the Brooks St. mission statement to the students with motions and rhyme, I became ever more aware of how important the words we speak are and to instill that importance in them when they are young. (You can find the proclamation in the newsletter this week)
In Joshua 30:19, it says that the Lord has set before us life and death, blessing and cursing and then He says, CHOOSE LIFE! Words can become a self fulfilling prophecy so make sure the words you speak over and to your family are words you want to see fulfilled.
Your family mission statement might take a while to craft, months even! But I encourage you to make it a fun priority in your family’s life.The words will steer your family like a rudder on a ship or bit in a horse’s mouth. The words that your family speaks to and over each other will create a world that will affect your family for generations to come.
Becky Ross
Primary Education Principal
Logos Preparatory Academy
