…I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls…
2 Corinthians 12:14-15
BEGINNINGS
On Thanksgiving Day 2006, Dad presented a vision to the family to radically change the Parish family’s direction, motivated in part by Arnold Pent’s presentations at Vision Forum’s 2006 Entrepreneurial Bootcamp. Mr. Pent shared the story of the way in which William Tyndale, his brother, and others worked together in a strategic partnership; William’s translation efforts being made possible through means of successful wool production and merchandising businesses. This included not only financial support to sustain William’s translation work, but also used shipments of goods to and from the European continent to smuggle translated manuscripts out and printed Bibles and other books back in to England. The impact of this collective effort reaches down to this very day.
The idea of familial teamwork to reach a common goal opened up new horizons of what might be possible if we came together as a family to support Max in the pursuit of his call to public evangelism and apologetics. This new paradigm was then extended onto unknown future needs arising as the other young men and women in the family launch out into their own family unit.
VISION STATEMENT
The Parish family is united around the doctrines of the family set forth in the Bible. The Parish Family Vision, founded on the stable platform of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is intended to launch new free Christian families and businesses from the Parish family unit; to provide support to biblical evangelistic efforts and ministries of the family; to provide support to the body of Christ; and to provide the means to care for the poor, the widow, and the fatherless. This effort will be accomplished through a family culture of mutual interdependence, loving and gentle patriarchal oversight, and use of the gifts and callings within the family.
This vision is based on a distinctly multi-generational familial patriarchal worldview, as opposed to the individualistic egalitarian feministic worldview dominating our culture. The hope of the Parish family is that today’s activity based on careful planning, combined with trust in the sovereign providence of God and the careful use of the resources God has given us, will impact the future generations of the family for good and be a blessing to the people of God and to the world around us.
CORE FAMILY VALUES
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
The gospel is the transcendent, over-arching, and under-girding principle which directs and informs all other aspects of our lives. The gospel is the message that God has fulfilled his promise, first given to Adam and Eve, that He would send His Son to save His people from their sin. The gospel message therefore proclaims how this salvation was accomplished through the historic events of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ – the glorious truths of the propitious substitutionary effectual sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of believers and the fulfilment of the promise of renewal in the Holy Spirit through His resurrection. We are called to respond to the gospel through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This gospel, and the whole counsel of God arising out of this gospel that is expressed in the Word of God, is founded on the truths of the sufficiency and inerrancy of the Word of God. This declares that God has revealed Himself and His will in a completed written revelation which is fully adequate in both content and clarity for everything pertaining to life (salvation) and godliness (sanctification), including the ordering of the family.
The gospel is an expression of the sovereignty of God over man in salvation. We embrace and rejoice in this sovereignty, confessing our complete dependence on Him and understanding successes and failures in this light.
Love
The family can only prosper with love. This love is not the shallow and fickle emotion we commonly operate within, but it is the love of commitment, sacrifice, and forbearance to which the gospel calls us. This love is based on a sober understanding of the depravity of man and on a joyous embracing of the cross as our only hope of salvation, rejoicing in the grace of God’s unmerited favor toward each one. Forgiveness and forbearance can be offered because of the work of the gospel in each heart..
This love expresses itself in many forms, including confidentiality, humility, service, kindness, generosity, putting others first, rejoicing with each other, weeping with each other, and a heart to build up and edify rather than pulling others down.
Family
We affirm that the relationships in life are nurtured primarily through daily discipleship in everyday life, especially fathers and mothers loving each other, training their families, and living out the gospel, which includes ministry to the saints and witness to the lost. We specifically deny and reject family-fragmenting, facility-based programs which disregard the family as the building block of both church and state and which displace and replace the biblical family.
Family unity is built around commitment to the family that God has sovereignly placed us in and includes honor for the previous generations, support of the widow, the fatherless, the weak, and elderly.
The work of the gospel in the hearts of the family members will have the effect of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and turning the hearts of the children to the fathers.
Healthy families are the basis of healthy churches and healthy civil societies. It is through families that the kingdom of God is primarily advanced. It is through families that decent and orderly civil societies are built. This is done through both formal and informal teaching and daily relationships, including family worship and devotions.
Healthy families are built upon the biblical roles assigned to men and women by God, men and women honoring and serving God by honoring and serving each other.
Walking in the Light
Walking in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ exposes sin in every heart. God has promised that as we walk in the light, as Jesus Christ is in the light, that we will have fellowship with each other, while the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. This fellowship includes open communication within the family and open friendships between siblings. Open communication includes the ability to confront each another when necessary. Walking in the light includes honesty and accountability before God and each another.
Good Stewardship
A steward is someone put in trust of the affairs and goods of another. A good steward is circumspect and careful, prudently planning for the future. Good stewardship includes understanding the times and the implications of each decision across the many facets of life.
Good stewardship makes careful use of the financial, intellectual, spiritual, and human resources within the family, looking for ways to build up the family.
Right Priorities
Priorities are informed by our obligations and what we hold most valuable. When our affections are focused on Jesus Christ, our priorities will reflect that focus. Our obligations are informed by our season of life and the responsibilities God has given us. A continual refocusing on our obligations and what is truly valuable will help us understand what should be a priority in our lives. We consider that right priorities are expressed in these core values. Right priorities sacrifice immediate gratification for the long term achievement of God’s purpose.
FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES
I. We affirm that parents ought to lay up store for their children’s future. However, the children should view this provision with a sense of careful stewardship so as to use it for right and proper purposes; not to consume it on their own lusts. God calls the children to use the family resources wisely and to take up the same stewardship for the next generations. 2 Corinthians 12:14-15, Proverbs 13:22, Proverbs 20:21
II. We affirm that believers should provide for their own families, including the extended family, in order that the church should not be burdened. We deny that we should normally rely on the state to provide such care since this makes us partakers in supporting and affirming the sins so rampant in our society. To rely on the state brings us into the bondage of the state as it demands acquiescence to its worldview and beliefs in exchange for its support. 1 Timothy 5:8, 1 Timothy 5:16
III. We affirm that God has placed us in families in order that we might find fellowship, support, and power in uniting together. We also affirm that God also made the family as a vehicle to provide for the fatherless, the widow, and the poor. Ecclesiastes 4:7-13, Psalm 68:5-6, Job 29:7-17, Job 31:16-22
IV. We affirm that we do not own anything, not even our lives. We are stewards with fiduciary responsibility to God. Thus, we need to act as good stewards, including our use of time, money, material goods. As parents, we need to pursue this truth in the nurturing of our children, raising them with the future in mind. Luke 12:42-48, Luke 16:9-13, 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, 1 Corinthians 4:7
V. We affirm that vision and planning are good and necessary for us to keep proper focus and to actually implement God’s calling, while at the same time we are not to be consumed with worry or anxiety about the future. We affirm that planning to do good and right activities which are within the will of God is not a violation of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ not to worry about the future. Psalm 90:12, Proverbs 22:31, Proverbs 29:18, Luke 14:28-30, Ephesians 5:15-16, James 4:13-15
VI. We affirm that although God’s principles remain unchanged in every generation, the way in which these principles are implemented may vary across the times, cultures, and lands, bringing wonderful color and variety to the expressions of God’s glory in the lives of His people. We also affirm that God’s calling for each individual varies within the overarching call to holiness in the fear of God. Therefore, the vision for our family is a general vision, seeking to assist each individual to fulfill their own particular calling. 1 Corinthians 12:14-25
VII. We affirm that the family vision is to meet physical needs and build families, not to make profit for profit’s sake. Meeting needs and building families are more important than profit for profit’s sake. Even though profit is an integral part of financial health and vitality, to become profit oriented rather than people and need oriented will destroy the family vision. Money has the potential to destroy the family and bring a generational curse upon our heads. Exodus 22:25, Matthew 6:33, Luke 12:42-43, 1 Timothy 6:6-10
VIII. We affirm that each man should leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, thus creating a new family unit. Therefore, the family vision is not for the purpose of creating a communistic society where each puts all his earnings into a common pot and draws out what he needs to live, or a socialistic society where the resources are owned and managed by the family. The family vision should not be used to bind children to their fathers and mothers in an unhealthy way. Rather, it should be used as an instrument of freedom and liberty for each family to fulfill its own particular calling. Genesis 2:23-24, Matthew 19:5, Romans 6:22, 1 Corinthians 7:21-23
IX. We affirm that the purpose of the family vision is to provide freedom for each individual household within the family. The family vision is not to become an instrument of oppression, burden, bondage, or unrealistic expectations. Further, the financial aspects of the vision are not to be used so stingily that the blessing of giving and the rejoicing of households is never realized. Deuteronomy 12:10, Mark 14:3-7
X. We affirm that the instruction and normal pattern of the Word is that each family unit should be led by men. As regards the family as a whole, this would point to leadership provided by older men whose years of trust in God has enabled them to stand through life’s fiery trials and whose exercise in godliness has trained their senses to discern between good and evil. Exodus 18:19-21, Luke 12:42-48, Acts 6:3, 1 Timothy 3:1-13, Titus 1:6-9
XI. At the same time, the Word does not thus devalue the opinions, experience, wisdom, or activities of women. On the contrary, the Word everywhere upholds the wisdom and activity of godly women. Each man is thus responsible to include his wife in all the affairs of his household; a man would be arrogant and foolish not to do so. Proverbs 31:1-31, Titus 2:3-6, Judges 4:4-5, Judges 4:21-22, Judges 9:52, 2 Samuel 20:15-21
XII. We affirm that the financial assistance envisioned by the family vision is not defined by some perceived fairness in distribution nor is it about some egalitarian view of “equality”; rather, it is about Christian freedom from the bondage of the world. Our desire is to avoid the communistic idea that all must or should live on the same level. The abiding principle is that those who benefit must work and contribute to the whole. Ephesians 4:28, 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12
XIII. We affirm that the financial assistance envisioned by the family vision is not for the purpose of subsidizing sinful and rebellious lifestyles. However, the prayer of the family in general and the heads of household in particular should always be for the repentance and restoration of the rebellious. Within that framework, the trustees should always have a heart to do good and extend mercy. Luke 6:32-36, Galatians 6:10
XIV. We affirm that God has commanded fathers to teach their children. We affirm that such teaching ought to include wisdom for living in financial matters – all thoughts being brought into the captivity of the obedience of Jesus Christ. Proverbs 20:21, Deuteronomy 6:4-12, John 5:19-20, Eph 6:4, 2 Corinthians 10:5
XV. We affirm that the Word everywhere declares the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men. Embracing this truth, we affirm that despite our best efforts, financial loss and ruin may come and the end results may not as we had planned and hoped. Therefore, we affirm that such failures can and will be used by God to further His purpose in us and others, and in this way financial failure and loss can be accepted as a good thing. In light of this, the success of the family vision is not to be considered in financial terms, but in spiritual terms. James 4:13-17, Romans 8:28-39
XVI. We affirm that this vision requires each family member to walk in the light with all honesty. Therefore, every effort shall be made to deal in openness and honesty. Every effort shall be made to provide due process that would allow decisions to be appealed and wicked dishonest behavior and family and business practices to be exposed and condemned. Gossip and slander within the family will destroy the family and the ability of the present generations to be a positive influence on the future generations. 2 Corinthians 12:20, Galatians 5:14 1Timothy 5:13, I Timothy 6:17-19, 1Ti 5:19-20, James 3:13-18
XVII. We further affirm that the wealthy have often been oppressors of the poor and the Word everywhere condemns such heart and behavior. Therefore, we should seek to use the resources to assist the needy, not just save up resources for the future. And, if the Lord prospers us in financial and material ways, we should be on guard against losing the memory of our own experiences of being poor and becoming oppressors ourselves. James 5:1-6