Unsung Heroes of Home School America Attend National Conference for Uniting Church and Family
by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., August 18, 2004
The Church of Jesus Christ is the center piece of history. How do you know the health of the Church? Look to the Families in the church! How do you know the health of the families? Look to the vision of the fathers. Look to relationships between husbands and wives. Look to the spirit of the children within the homes that make up the Church.
Yes, the centerpiece of history is the Church. And the most encouraging work within the American Church at this moment in history is the great revival of biblical fatherhood, virtuous womanhood, blessed family life, and patriarchal multi-generational vision, most beautifully found within the home school movement of America.
Across the nation today are thousands of precious families who are part of this great revival. From among their ranks have sprung remarkable Gospel ministries. Each family with its own vision for outreach and encouragement. Sometimes these ministries are aimed at the body of Christ itself. Other times they seek to reach a lost world with Gospel hope.
Often these are quiet works.
Some families have ministries dedicated to encouraging women to be virtuous. Others seek to build up men in patriarchal vision, to speak to the issues of the day, or to train the next generation to reach the lost with an uncompromising message. Many of these works are in the direct line of fire from “Christian” critics who have not turned their heart to holiness and home, and thus do not understand.
Nonetheless, these families have turned their hearts to Christ, to their children, and to a very unpopular message which declares that Christians must set their priorities in order no matter how difficult and unpopular it may be to do so.
Some of these families attended the 2004 Uniting Church and Family Conference, sponsored by Vision Forum Ministries and the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. One of the great unsung heroes of the home school movement in attendance with us last week was Steve and Carmon Freidrich. Mr. and Mrs. Freidrich (pictured above) are delightful writers whose musings have been a source of encouragement to home school families seeking to lead simple and separate lives of maximum impact on the world. Mrs. Freidrich has a tremendous website where home schooling ladies (affectionately termed “prairie muffins”) can turn for daily encouragement. Click here to read her latest blog.
Another family of “unsung heroes” in attendance was the Michael Thomas family. Mr. Thomas is a shepherd in a Christ-centered, family integrated assembly in New England. The Thomas sons and daughters seek to honor the mission given to them by their mother and father, by serving the Lord in ministry with their parents, including working together to hold conferences for Christian couples. Vision Forum is currently considering doing one with them on Cape Cod in the Fall of 2005.
One of my favorite unsung heroes of the home school movement in attendance this last week is Kevin Swanson, pictured above with his wife Brenda. Kevin is a man of many talents. He serves as a pastor in a family-integrated assembly which is part of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), the host of a radio show called “Generations,” and the leader of one of the most influential home school organizations in America, the Christian Home Educators of Colorado. Kevin is simply off-the-charts fantastic. A man of tremendous creative energy, indefatigable optimism and passion for biblical patriarchy, he and the outstanding men and women of CHEC are helping to craft one of the most influential and Christ-honoring state home school movements in America.