In a family integrated church, the whole family meets together for Sunday worship. There are no age segregated classes or youth groups. The children sing the same songs, hear the same teaching, and participate in the same worship as their parents.
This promotes family unity and strengthens the family relationships. There are many influences in our culture working to pull families apart. The church should do its part to hold families together.
We view children as a blessing, not a burden, both in the family and in the church. We wholeheartedly affirm the truth of Psalm 127:3 "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward."
In recent years God has called many families to return to a scriptural family life. Fathers and mothers have turned their hearts to their children and embraced biblical family roles. Among the results have been a rise in home schooling, a new wave of godly Christian mothers being joyful keepers at home and an increase in family size as children are welcomed as blessings from the Lord. These are good and scriptural trends.
Unfortunately, instead of welcoming this revival in godly family life, many well-meaning churches have viewed it with suspicion. Families have struggled as they have watched traditional, program-centered church life undermine family unity and the biblical headship of the father.
On the other hand, families have sometimes overreacted by becoming too inward focused and downplaying the importance of the local church.
"Uniting church and home" means to create a local church environment where the church and the family heartily support one another and where the growing revival in family life is not only accepted, but thoroughly embraced and encouraged. Since the family is the primary building block of the church, God's work in the home should be allowed to spill over in blessing to the church.
Church leadership and oversight is provided by a plurality of elders. We believe this to be the New Testament pattern of leadership.
Our Sunday meeting is patterned after the model described in 1 Corinthians 14. "When you come together everyone has a psalm ... doctrine ... revelation ... etc." The meeting includes singing hymns, Bible teaching, testimonies, prayer, and encouraging words as the Spirit leads. All words that are spoken are to be evaluated against Scripture.
The Lord's Supper is celebrated each Sunday, with each father serving his own family. (If a father is not present, one of the other fathers serves that family.) A fellowship meal is shared after the morning meeting. This is a vital part of Sunday worship as it helps build godly relationships that strengthen and edify the body. After-lunch activities vary, but focus on more informal fellowship and edification.
Heritage Family Church does not solicit funds. Each family is encouraged to give tithes and offerings as led by the Lord. A collection is not taken during the Sunday meeting, but an offering box is available for anyone wishing to give. We are committed to operating with a low financial overhead that allows the majority of resources to be used for ministry.
We believe it is the responsibility of Christian parents to provide their children with a godly education (Deut. 6:7-9). This is a critical part of raising up a godly heritage for many generations. As a consequence, most of the families attending HFC are home schoolers. However, this is not a requirement. Heritage Family Church sponsors Heritage Family Academy, a cover school serving our home schooling families.
Click here to see our Statement of Faith.