Shawn Mathis Offers a "Pastoral Evaluation of the Family Integrated Church Movement"

Some of this blog's readers will no doubt remember that I have previously recommend articles by Shawn Mathis, Pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church in Denver, Colorado. I recommended "What Is a Family Integrated Church?" here. And I recommended "Why I Cannot Sign the Family Integrated Church Confession" here. But more recently Shawn has published an eight part series of articles entitled "Pastoral Evaluation of the Family Integrated Church Movement." Following are the links to all eight articles, together with a brief description of each one.

Part One is focused on historical matters, in which it is demonstrated that, "Far from being a relatively new innovation of the last 200 years, the Reformed churches have a long history of instructing the youth on the Lord's Day."

Part Two offers a brief history of the Family Integrated Church Movement (FICM) and the founding of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches (NCFIC) as well as a description of the beliefs of the movement as set forth by the NCFIC.

Part Three details what the major issue of the NCFIC appears to be, namely the rejection of any sort of age segregated activities or instruction in the churches.

Part Four offers an analysis and critique of the historical claims of the NCFIC and the FICM in general.

Part Five offers an analysis and critique of the theological claims of the NCFIC and the FICM in general. Here Shawn interacts with "The strongest argument against youth ministries by the NCFIC" which he correctly says "is a hermeneutical argument rooted in a misunderstanding of Sola Scriptura." It is encapsulated in what Shawn calls the “regulative principle of discipleship.”

Part Six expresses his concern for the way that the God-given authority of parents -- particularly fathers -- tends to overthrow the God-given authority of pastors and churches in the FICM. He also affirms some of the positive things we can learn from the FICM, not wishing to minimize their good concerns and contributions while dealing with their errors.

Part Seven describes some of the dangers of the FICM, both doctrinal and practical, such as a tendency to legalism and divisiveness, as well as their view that they are a part of a revival and a process of reformation of the churches that is brought about by God that ought not be resisted.

Part Eight offers advice for "working with FIC members in a non-FIC church" and discusses a few of his own personal experiences dealing with those who are a part of the movement. He also outlines where the FICM seems to be heading at present.

I think Shawn has done a very good job of describing the FICM and reacting to it in a Biblical manor, and I highly recommend reading his series, which is actually taken from his lecture notes from the Spring 2014 Presbytery of the Midwest Seminar. You can listen to the audio of this seminar, together with the audio for the question and answer session, here. I also recommend reading Shawn's recent book, Uniting Church and Family, which is primarily a digest of his many past blog posts and internet articles and which gets into much more detail.

On another note, I have recently called upon Scott Brown, the Director of the National center for Family Integrated Churches, to respond to my Biblical arguments in support of age segregated education in the churches (here). I now call upon him to respond to Shawn's work as well. Although my work comes from a Reformed Baptist perspective and Shawn's comes from a Presbyterian perspective, I think our Biblical and theological arguments overlap nicely for the most part, and I think that they warrant a response.

As I pointed out in my previous article, Scott Brown has stated that he has "heard dozens of arguments for age segregation that are not based upon the Bible, but none that are grounded upon the Bible." However, since both Shawn and I have offered such Biblically grounded arguments, I think it behooves him either to show that our arguments clearly are not Biblical or to revise his statements.