Interview Project
My interview assignment was with my pastor and his wife concerning their success with
discipleship and their now adult children. Their only son is now our church youth minister and a
deacon, their eldest daughter is the head usher, and their youngest daughter is our church
minister of music. Sadly, their middle daughter is now deceased, but she was our youth praise
dance director.
My pastor and his wife provided three effective methods of parental discipleship: first,
they taught their children the Word of God at home. They describe this methodology as being
based on but not limited to the exhortation of Moses dealing with the first generation of the
children of Israel in Deuteronomy 6. This methodology points toward what our classroom text
published by Tripp and Tripp says about teaching our children under the section of “The
Importance of Parental Formative Instruction” and that God calls us to train our children what to
accept, how to think from sacred texts, and how to live. Thus, developmental training becomes
the development of establishing or influencing children.1
Secondly, the McCleary parents (pastor and wife) influenced their children through living
godly lives. "We tried to live what we taught them in their presence.” (Pastor McCleary). Paul
wrote in the first epistle to Timothy to train himself for godliness (1 Tim. 4:7b), urging him to
take the effort to learn sound doctrine. This mindset helps the child practice behaviors that will
assist them in this life. 2 After all, a child’s mind is like a sponge absorbing behaviors and
personalities around them, consequently shaping and forming their own personal behaviors.
1 Tripp, Tedd. Shepherding a child’s heart. Shepherd Press, 2005.
2 Thompson, Tad. Intentional parenting: Family discipleship by design. Cruciform Press, 2011.
Third, the McClearys shared with me the methodology of expressing godly love and
godly discipline though the teaching of God’s Words and by living godly lifestyles. This
approach, along with the previous conversed methodologies that the McClearys used, was also
coupled with day-to-day life. They spoke of situations when they had to rely on God and his
promise—for example, the time he and his wife both lost their jobs in the same week but
managed to pay their bills, including a mortgage payment. They believe that during that time,
prayer—coupled with staying in God’s Word and continuing to live on the foundation of God’s
promises—illustrated to their children what having faith looks like and achieves in a Christian
home.
Thompson, in his publication, writes that “In the Christian Living aisle we find a broad
category of subjects involving how we actually walk out our faith in daily life” (Thompson,
2011). What the McCleary’s experienced, played a vital part in how their adult children see God
working in their lives today and how they should disciple their children.
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