Customer Reviews

Uniting Church and Home, A Blueprint for Rebuilding Church Community

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In this book, Eric Wallace challenges the tendency
* to be programme-centric, and especially to promote programmes that pull households apart into separate directions, and
* to barrage individuals with teaching and activities that are so disjointed they can't be effectively acted on.
Western culture has largely torn apart the household and treats each person as an autonomous individual, to our collective loss; this book challenges the church to put that sociological trend in reverse.

There are many excellent ideas, and interesting and helpful suggestions, in this guide. Wallace seeks to develop relationships that build people, whatever their status: for example, children should be an integrated part of ministry, rather than someone to just entertain until they can grow up and contribute.

The ideas presented in this book are largely sociological, rather than theological; and are based on anecdotal rather than systematic interpretation of scripture (a frequent too malaise of popular books!). Wallace tends to simply state premises as facts (e.g., "the primary means of evangelism in the early church was in the household"), without giving a scriptural defence of their truth.

Wallace emphasizes the idea that the church is the collection of people who believe in Jesus Christ, wherever we are, rather than a building -- a very correct idea. This is valuable if considered as a contribution on one topic within a balanced Christian worldview. The risk I fear is our trend to make such ideas The Big Thing, and give them much more of a place of centrality, much more prominence, than they deserve. I fear that Wallace pushes the pendulum too far on this in two ways:
* He focuses so much on household relationships that he downplays corporate worship (and ignores many other aspects of Christian living). Certainly the New Testament vision of the church is its people joined through the Holy Spirit, not a set of buildings; but at the same time, it emphasises word and sacrament of the joint covenant people in a way that Wallace barely acknowledges. (See D. A. Carson et al, "Worship by the Book", and Gordon Fee, "Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God" for excellent discussions of corporate worship and the importance of the unity of the covenant people).
* Wallace overplays the analogy of family and church: while there is a relationship (pun intended?) in the Bible, there is also a distinction; and to be a father is not to be a priest among the people of the new covenant any more than it was in the old.

I commend this book to the reader to prayerfully consider Wallace's ideas, to test each one of them -- is there a solid scriptural backing for it? does it apply an analogy reasonably or to an extreme? -- and select a set of the excellent ones to put into practice. By all means let our churches synergistically build up our households and use the household's strength to build up the church, rather than promote programmes that pull us apart.

Uniting Church and Home presents an old and honorable formula for today's families and churches to learn anew--truly structuring the modern-day church to strengthen families instead of undermining them. Eric Wallace lays the groundwork for understanding what paradigm shift needs to be made and how to do it. I recommend that all pastors read this. I also recommend that every family looking for answers to why "church" seems to be more of a hindrance than a help read this book. Be prepared to have your thinking challenged. Having come from a church that has made the blueprint work, I know that it can make a wonderful difference in the life of church and family.

I bought this book b/c I'm looking to start a Sunday School class for parents that would equip them to lead their household rather than use the church as a crutch (see Voddie Baucham's excellent book "Family-Driven Faith"). As one reviewer said, there are a lot of anecdotal stories but not much scriptural analysis. But the real fault is how he states his principle that relationships through age-integrated church & classes, not programs, bring about life change...by just beating this dead horse for 12 chapters! I was amazed how many different ways an author can restate his position.

When I finally got to Chapter 13 (the supposed application of this principle), I got a few one-paragraph examples of churches who went age-integrated but no specifics on how it was carried out. There was one example of father-child projects in a S.S. class but that was about it.

I like the principles Eric describes, but the book is a mile wide but only an inch deep. Get the book if you need to be convinced the age-integrated church model is better than the program-centric church model; skip the book if you already agree with that philosophy and are looking for specifics.

Eric Wallace has hit upon a deep heart-desire of many Christian families to be a part of a real functioning body of fellow believers who value the family as a unit rather than divide it into component parts. In this day of fractured families, Eric has pointed the way clearly for the church and families to be united in their life and mission. This is a vital message for all Christians! The next generation depends upon it! Must reading!

What a blessing to find a book that verbalizes the very things we have been feeling for so many years! The household approach to worship, teaching and ministery is exactly what is needed to bring our families back to living out their faith together in a manner that witnesses to the world.

It was with such relief that we read this book. Churches need to support the role of the families, and families in turn need to support the church. When these two are working to build each other up, a beautiful relationship that doesn't pull the family away from each other, but toward each other will result.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any family, household and pastor that senses a need for a different kind of balance between church and home, one that brings the family together AND stimulates the life of their church, all while eliminating segregation between the ages and encourages biblical roles and responsibilities.

Over the past few years, my husband and I have been growing in our uncomfortableness with the way our church and most churches have organized themselves. Without understanding why, or what it was we were sensing, we began to discover that what we were growing to want and believe in, was something very different than what contemporary churches were offering. We treasure our family, and wanted to find a way to worship, learn and grow together, not just at home, but in our church as well.

The segration of ages was disturbing to us because of what we were seeing happen. We couldn't put a finger on it, but something didn't feel right.

After reading this book, we were so encouraged! Most people didn't understand what we tried to explain to them because they had never felt like anything was wrong with the current way of doing things. And unfortunately, most still don't.

This book clearly lays out the very things we had been trying to understand, and gives great biblical insight into why we need to become churches that are uniting families, and not pulling them away from each other.

I could never even begin to explain how much reading this book meant to us, or how much it taught us. Our prayer now, is that someone, somewhere in our community will be receptive to the ideas in the book, and desire to become a church that doesn't segregate, but joins families together in worship and learning.

Eric Wallace has written a tremendous book that I hope you will read!

This book is an appeal to consider whether the modern church's age segregated model for doing ministry is effective or biblical and to turn to an age integrated model that stresses discipleship of whole households together.

Wallace begins by offering anecdotes to demonstrate that the current model is badly broken. Normally anecdotal arguments are not very effective, but the anecdotes he offers are so paradigmatic of American church life that most readers will recognise and identify strongly with them. He then suggests a return to the historical (pre-19th century) alternative - children should be discipled by their fathers with their mothers assisting. Contra conventional wisdom, Wallace suggests that quantity time is just as important as quality time. Teachable moments can occur any time, and it makes sense to provide the opportunity for them to occur. He also suggests that integrated families participating in ministry together are a powerfully attractive in outreach.

Two problems have to be overcome to move in this direction: a lack of parental confidence and ability to disciple, and the lack of opportunity due to crowded schedules (including crowded church activity schedules). Wallace suggests (in broad strokes) measures to overcome both of those.

Finally, he gives a chapter discussing the proper way to move your church in this direction. He describes how a layman should appeal to the church leadership and vice versa how the leadership should appeal to the laity in order to minimise the friction inherent in change.

My only frustration is that the book is short on specifics about how to accomplish this change. This is due, in part, to Wallace's recognition that there are many different ways to go about transforming ministry. It would have been nice three or four complete case studies describing different types of churches that have successfully moved to an age integrated model.

This is a very practical, to the point, why and how-to book about building the local church ministry around God's plan for the family. Wallace writes "Strong households are the core of strongs churches, and strong churches are the foundation for outreach to others." He lays out a plan for raising your children in the faith that truly passes on the rich heritage of Christianity. In a generation that has gone crazy trying to make the church run like a business rather than a community of the redeemed in covenant relationship to Christ and each other, this book is a breath of fresh air. Wallace lays out a four-part vision for building families in the context of the church as family. Rejecting age-segregated, individualized Christianity, If you like this book, check out R. C. Sproul Jr.'s book Family Practice, where he argues for a similar idea but more clearly covenantal. After you have read these then get a copy of Douglas Wilson's Mother Kirk.

This book was so needed as I continue to search for a simpler, more biblical approach to church life.

Eric, may God bless your continued efforts to bring reformation to the secular structure of the 21st century church. I highly recommend your book to every Christian homeschooling family, especially those suffering persecution in their church.