Name: Church and Family Dynamics
Availability: InStock

What This Free Course Covers

Church and Family Dynamics is a short free course built around practical questions about Christian relationships, church life, and family responsibilities. The lessons consider how believers can remain friends when they disagree, especially when the disagreement is not over foundational doctrines such as the deity of Christ, the resurrection, judgment to come, or the incarnation.

The course also looks at the relationship between strong churches and strong families, arguing that these are not opposing concerns but should strengthen one another. One lesson works carefully through 1 Corinthians 7:14, asking what Paul means when he says an unbelieving spouse is sanctified by the believing spouse and the children are holy. The final lesson addresses good and bad reasons for leaving a conservative Anabaptist church for a more kingdom-focused church.

Together, these lessons encourage careful discernment, humility, love, and faithfulness within the church and the home.

Christian friendship Disagreement and humility Love of God and neighbor Church and family order Church loyalty Mixed-belief marriage 1 Corinthians 7:14 Children and holiness Changing churches Kingdom-focused church life

What You Will Study

How to remain friends with Christians who disagree on important but non-foundational issues
Why humility matters when working through disputed practices and convictions
How love for God and neighbor should shape theological disagreement
How strong churches and strong families can support rather than compete with one another
Why family loyalty should not replace commitment to the church
How 1 Corinthians 7:14 addresses marriage to an unbelieving spouse
How the holiness of children is discussed in relation to a believing parent
How to distinguish good and bad motives for changing churches

Questions This Course Helps Answer

How can I stay friends with someone I disagree with?
Which disagreements should affect fellowship, and which should not?
Why is it important to admit that I could be wrong on some issues?
How should love compare with doctrinal accuracy in Christian relationships?
Do strong churches create strong families, or do strong families create strong churches?
What happens when the family becomes the main loyalty over the church?
What does 1 Corinthians 7:14 mean when it says an unbelieving spouse is sanctified?
Does an unbelieving spouse share in the believer’s holiness in a saving way?
Does marriage to an unbeliever make the believing spouse unclean?
What does Paul mean when he says the children are holy?
What is a good reason to leave a conservative Anabaptist church?
What is a bad reason to leave a church for another church group?

Lesson-by-Lesson Guide

How Do You Stay Friends with People You Disagree With?

This lesson encourages humility in disagreement, especially on issues where Scripture and early Christian practice may not show a uniform position. It distinguishes such matters from foundational Christian doctrines and emphasizes love for God and neighbor as central to fellowship.

How can Christians remain friends while disagreeing?
What kinds of disagreements are not the same as rejecting foundational Christian doctrines?
Why should I remember that I may be wrong on some issues?
How does love shape the way Christians handle disagreement?

How Do We Reconcile the Views That Strong Churches Create Strong Families and That Strong Families Create Strong Churches?

This lesson argues that strong churches and strong families are not opposing priorities. A biblical church nurtures godly homes, while godly families help form the building blocks of a strong church, but family loyalty should not weaken submission to the church.

Do strong churches create strong families, or do strong families create strong churches?
How do churches help nurture godly homes?
How do godly families strengthen a church?
What danger arises when family loyalty becomes stronger than church loyalty?

How Do You Interpret 1 Corinthians 7:14 in the King James Version? Does it Mean That the Unbelieving Spouse Somehow Shares in Your Holiness?

This lesson examines 1 Corinthians 7:12-14 and the question of whether an unbelieving spouse shares in a believer’s holiness. Drawing on John Chrysostom’s explanation, it presents the passage as reassurance that the believer is not made unclean by the marriage and that the children are not treated as unclean.

What does 1 Corinthians 7:14 mean by an unbelieving spouse being sanctified?
Does this sanctification mean the unbelieving spouse is saved by the marriage?
Does marriage to an unbeliever make the believing spouse unclean?
What does it mean that the children are holy?

What Are Good and Bad Reasons for Leaving a Conservative Anabaptist Church for a More Kingdom-focused Church?

This brief lesson says that wanting to be in a church that tries to follow biblical principles and the teachings of Jesus is an excellent reason to consider leaving. It warns that fleeing church discipline or avoiding unresolved spiritual issues would be a bad reason.

What is a good reason to leave a conservative Anabaptist church?
What is a bad reason to change churches?
How should motives be considered before moving to another church?
Why should spiritual issues be addressed before leaving?

Church and Family Dynamics

Course Content

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