A STRONG WORD FOR FATHERS TO DISCIPLE THEIR CHILDREN

On my son’s 6th birthday, March 12th, 1988; while at a Men’s Retreat in Fort Worth, with men from Shady Grove Church of Grand Prairie, I experienced what could be called a visitation from God. That morning during several hours of silence the Lord began speaking to my heart some very clear direction for my ministry as a father to the children He had blessed me with. Others received similar life changing direction that weekend. In the following are some of the things I wrote in my journal that day. (I felt God was speaking directly to me). These words have changed my life and my family for the better. I hope they will bless all those who will take the time to read them. 

Please be sure to judge these words in light of the Scriptures. 



JOURNAL: March 12, 1988 

"Alan, I have a clear word to speak to you as a father. Many have committed their lives to numerous noble pursuits but have neglected their own children and died knowing that they failed. 
My Church would not have crumbled into the Dark Ages if fathers would have been [spiritual] fathers to their natural children. 
What about the natural descendants of the Apostles? Not to mention their spiritual offspring’s descendants? What happened to them? Were they all killed off? I say, “No!” The purposes for My people were not successfully imparted from generation to generation! 
Will you lay down your life for the next generation? Are you willing to become nothing so that the next generation may shine? I am not speaking of your relationship within your own generation but of your relationship to the next generation. 
The Apostles succeeded in reaching their generation and in reaching their next generation but this impartation began to decline after several generations. Now I call you to look at your own generation. Many have fallen into sin and have unregenerate natural children because some of the former generation failed to lay down their lives for your generation. I call you to look at the next generation. Many Christians are not laying down their lives for them. They fail, because of the soon-ness of My coming, to prepare the next generation to carry on the legacy of Christ. 
If I come today or 2,000 years from now there is no excuse for not laying down your life to see the next generation serve Me and con-tinue the Dynasty of My eternal purpose. Your fathering a child is the most ideal opportunity to disciple someone that you will ever have. While you are called to disciple the nations, do not neglect your children." 

“For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all who.…..” 
ACTS 2:39a 

"If your generation reaches more people than any other generation and yet does not successfully disciple the next generation, your gen-eration will have failed. The people you reach will raise their children just like you do; you cannot impart what you are not walking in. 
Do not neglect the nations and do not neglect your children; lest the nations you reach also neglect their children. 
Alan, be a worshipper, be father, be a discipler, be a man!" 



While meditating upon these issues that same day I then thought of the potential power of a set of parents in God’s Kingdom. I thought, 

“What if, during the the 1st Century Church, 
just one set of parents successfully discipled 2 children 
and those 2 children grew up and discipled 2 children? 
That would then make 4 disciple/children.” 

Continuing with that train of thought and giving each set of pot-ential parents 40 years, (a Biblical generation), to truly disciple two children, I wondered, 
“If this trend continued from generation to generation, 
with each generation only doubling the size of the previous one, 
how many potential successfully discipled children 
would there be by the 50th generation?” 
( 2,000 years ) 

The answer is 2 to the 50th power which equals= 793,969,399,169,024 

Although this is only dealing with the ‘potential’ of child rearing one can easily see the incredible influence parents potentially wield on the earth. The hand that rocks the cradle really does rock the world! 

With these insights and others shared by the other brothers at that same Retreat, I went home with renewed vigor to really work at discipling my own children. It was never easy but it has been most rewarding. 
Thank God for a great wife and mother, Yvette, whom God gave me to help raise and disciple our children with. We are also very grateful for the many wonderful people who have helped us along the way by supplementing our parenting with their great influence and their commitment to Children and Youth Ministry. 

From that time on, I began to do everything I could to be a blessing to the Children’s Ministry of our home church in Grand Prairie; where my wife eventually joined the staff to work in Children’s Ministry full-time. Our passion was to supplement the ministry of other parents. Several years later an opportunity opened for us to also minister to children each week at a new congregation they were helping plant. 
To make a great story short, 9 months later, we were called to serve Granbury as the senior-pastor of that new church. Seventeen years later we are still having the time of our lives with some of the most wonderful people on earth. God has been good to this congregation now known as Generations Church, where Children and Youth Ministry continue to be a priority. 

Who is discipling your children? Someone is! Who is it? 
Who is discipling our children? If we won’t, someone will! 

It is high time for the Body of Christ to take this issue seriously. Our children need parents who will lay down their lives for them, in season and out of season, with love and correction, training them in the Ways of God; and our churches need more laborers in this harvest field. The reward is great!

By the way, our grown children still love God and will raise their children, one day when they have some, to do the same. Life does not get any better than that.