Thoughts on the Family Integrated Church Movement

I have recently run into several ministries and people who come from churches that identify themselves as "Family Integrated Churches". Like everything else, I have an opinion about it and my blog is my outlet for expressing that opinion and educating others. So, first of all what is a FIC (Family Integrated Church)?  

According to one Family Integrated Site they state what they are: 

We believe that the biblical partnership between church and home, which is offered in what is commonly called the Family-Integrated Church model, affords a greater potential for a more effective implementation of the Great Commission ... The Church and the Home are to be in partnership with one another, and act in complementary roles to fulfill the Great Commission through both discipleship and evangelism.  

Well, what's wrong with that? Nothing. I agree totally. The family and the church are two divine institutions that God ordained that are inseparable from each other. The desires of those in this movement are good and I believe biblical. But when I read a statement like the one above, I have to ask...why do you need to start a movement, create a directory and wear a new label for something that church is supposed to be anyways?  I come from the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement where the churches in this movement wear the IFB label with pride. The FIC movement reminds me of the IFB movement and makes me cringe. Here's why... For those who identify themselves with the IFB movement, it's not enough to be Independent in your church's polity. It's not enough to believe in the Fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith and it's not enough to be a Baptist. There are other criterion that accompany this label that you must adhere to if you want to have IFB credibility and be recognized by other IFB churches and institutions. Such as: Hairstyles, cannot listen to or play CCM music, must only use a KJV Bible, must have loyalties to a Fundamentalist Bible college as well as many other things I could name. These distinctives have nothing to do with being Independent, Fundamental or Baptist, but to those in the movement, they're probably more important. 

What does this have to do with the FIC movement? Well, I see the same kinds of trappings and extra-biblical requirements that make the IFB movement so distinct. For example, what I hear from people who come from FIC churches is that there is no nursery, Sunday School classes, children's programs or youth groups. Not because they don't have the resources, but because they look down upon such programs and practices. All the kids sit in the entire service with their parents from beginning to end, even the ones who dirty their diaper and the folks sitting next to them have to smell it. Some other distinctions are that the families are adamantly against any kind of birth control and have a strictly "home-school only" philosophy of education. 

DISCLAIMER!  Let me make something clear - I am not against the kids sitting in church with dad and mom. I remember growing up most of my life sitting in church with dad and mom through the entire service. I even got saved in an adult service as a  four year old little child! I am not against home-schooling and I'm not against having as many kids as your body will allow you to crank out!  We have all those kinds of people in our church and their birth control convictions are between them and God! Their choices on how to educate their kids are between them and God. They will answer to Him about those choices. And if they choose to teach their kids to sit in the adult service from beginning to end, they are free to do that too. 

What rubs me the wrong way is that the FIC churches are making some of these practices as their primary distinctive identity. If you are in the FIC movement, just because you have all the kids in the service doesn't really mean you are accomplishing your stated purpose. A church with a youth group and an age divided Sunday School may be doing a better job at partnering with one another to act in complementary roles in fulfilling the Great Commission through both discipleship and evangelism. If you balk at that, then you're just as arrogant as the IFB church who thinks that nobody else is as pure as they are for all of their myriads of rules, standards and taboos! 

Like the IFB movement, I think that this new FIC movement is reactionary. They look at the typical shallowness of the evangelical seeker church model and realize that even with all of their programs and beautiful buildings, their families are just as fragmented, immoral and corrupt as the world. So, you're going to blame age-divided classes for this? That's about as naive as the IFB's blaming the new Bible versions for the moral decline in our country.  Reactionary movements eventually fizzle out and die as a passing fad or they morph and retard into a weird separate subculture within the greater body of Christ like an ingrown toenail. The obvious difficulties that I see in the FIC church are these:

1. By eliminating classes for kids, there will be an elitism that is created as a result. The poor parents who are not skilled enough to teach their two year old to sit still and listen to the preaching will eventually feel out of place and leave...or out of peer pressure, they will try to please everyone else by sternly treating their two-year-old like a little soldier in boot camp so the parents can appear as spiritually skilled in parenting like all the other good families. Before you know it, your ideal of little kids in the church service soon becomes a legalistic requirement and measure of spirituality. 

2. Eventually, the children who grow up in this environment may resent it, react against it and leave the FIC church in favor of the pragmatic, program-driven church which is what they were trying to avoid in the first place. Don't believe me? Just look at where most of the IFB kids end up after growing up in that environment. Either totally out of church, or in the worldly, shallow seeker churches. The majority of the ones who don't buy in to their philosophy end up swinging the pendulum to the extreme opposite side of what the IFB church and family were trying so hard to prevent.  

3. The next problem will be the inability to grow. These churches will stunt their own growth because they will only be able to grow by reaching other like-minded FIC people. Oh, they will say that they are all about evangelism, but when un-churched Joe and Jill show up with their infant, toddler, and 3rd grader, either they will have to cave into the pressure to buy in to the FIC cultural anomalies (as well as all the stuff in the Bible that's hard enough for people to swallow) or they will not stay in your church. 

4. In trying to integrate the family and the church together so closely in services and activities, there will be no place for singles to find a place to belong. One of the cultural distinctions that I see in FIC churches is that they are encouraged to have huge families. If you're a college aged kid walking into a church full of married people and little tykes, you might feel a little out of your element. All the pretty girls are already married and pregnant. The church with a college and carrier group will appeal to them. So, off they go and your FIC church won't get the chance to minister to them. 

5. This model will actually inhibit spiritual growth by taking away opportunities for others to develop and use their teaching skills. A lady who would usually teach the teenage girls in a Sunday School class will not get to use her gifts as well as she could with a Sunday School Class or some kind of ladies Bible study. 

Look, I sympathize with the FIC's disillusionment with the program driven churches. I personally think that the less programs a church has the better. We are not supposed to be a religious Wal-Mart for people to shop at. At the same time, a church that is striving to be Biblical can still do so with age-graded classes. There should be a balance. I encourage our parents who have kids that are 10 and up to stay and listen to the sermon. Kids are smarter than you think! They can understand an exposition of scripture if the pastor is doing his job correctly. Same for teenagers. They ought to be in the service with everyone else singing, taking the sacraments and listening to the sermon! There's no need for "teen church" but at the same time, there's nothing wrong with a youth group Sunday School class or for teens to get together with their own age group to play miniature golf either! 
Maybe the problem is not necessarily with these classes or groups, but rather the worldliness that is involved in them. Maybe the problem is the watered down easy believism that creates false converts, not youth groups.