Many families rely on church programs to pass down their faith, failing to realize there is a big difference between attending church and following Jesus.
Dr. Richard Blackaby, son of famed Christian author Henry Blackaby, recently joined Dr. Jessica Peck on the "Dr. Nurse Mama Show" to explain how parents can move beyond mere religious routine.
"For a lot of the parents, discipling your kids means you drag them to church every week," he observed. "You get them in the youth program ... and we're baffled when they go off to college, and they don't want to go to church anymore. You know what you did? You raised a church attender. You didn't raise a Jesus follower, and there's a world of difference between the two."
Blackaby shared that true spiritual leadership starts at home by teaching children to seek God's voice directly, rather than depending solely on parental advice.
"My dad always had the same answer. He said, 'I think you should go to God and ask Him. Don't come to me first.' What my dad was trying to do was to teach me not to follow him, but to follow Jesus," Blackaby shared. "For a lot of parents, we don't even realize we're doing that, but we're really teaching our kids to follow us."
Blackaby's new book, "Following Jesus," points out that for many Christians, following Jesus has unfortunately become a metaphor, not a daily reality. But discipleship is not a belief system; it is a relationship with a person who invites us to follow Him.
Blackaby reminds families that discipleship is not about staying safe and in control; it is about stepping out of the boat and trusting God wherever He leads.
