Two of my pastors wrote this book about the importance of home.

I'm thrilled to announce It Starts at Home, a recent book by author Kurt Bruner and my pastor, Steve Stroope. I've asked them some questions that I think will relate well to you and your needs. Enjoy!

What is the best thing a parent can do to help their kids fall in love with Jesus? 


Show them a great marriage.  According to Ephesians 5 every marriage is intended to be a masterpiece reflecting THE marriage between Christ and His bride.  When we nurture a committed, passionate, self-sacrificial relationship with a spouse we turn “the Word” into a flesh-and-blood reality rather than remote concepts.   

What specific ways can Jesus-loving families reach out to kids who come from broken homes? 
 
Simple – invite them to stay for family dinner once in a while.  Every child needs routine exposure to the nurturing soil of a God-honoring home.  If they don’t experience it in their own family they can receive “free samples” from the wider body of Christ.      

In what ways does a parent’s past affect they way she/he parents today? How can she/he overcome a difficult upbringing? 


Home is the primary context of our spiritual formation, for better or worse.  The experiences we had growing up heavily influence the patterns we adopt as parents.  As we say in the book:  “If you’ve ever been part of a loving, healthy family you have smelled the sweet aroma of heaven.  If you’ve ever lived in a troubled, broken home you have breathed the foul stench of hell.”  

Those experiences form our identity, expectations and obstacles.  So we get honest about past hurts – not to heal ourselves, but to identify areas needing intentionality.  Like Soldiers storming Normandy for the sake of others, we heroically give our children something better than we received in order to break the generational cycle.  Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said we find our lives by losing it.