ND Home School Families,
Two interesting questions came to the NDHSA office recently that I need help answering:
1. Where is the most homeschool oriented area of ND?
2. Are there any churches with only homeschool parents in ND?
Please REPLY TO THIS BLOG POST with your answers or related thoughts so that others may benefit from your perspective on these questions.
I'll be looking forward to reading your comments!
Sincerely,
Jim Bartlett
9 comments:
Who is asking this? Personally I don't think either question is anyones business.I guess I feel hopefully homeschoolers are scattered throughout the state. The other question they could go check out the churches and find out for themselves. Best thing would be to know where the questions are coming from.
I don't know that you'd find a church with only homeschool parents but there is a great little church in Pelican Rapids. Living Waters Fellowship. The pastor and his wife homeshchool their 9 children and have a heart for families.
They are a family integrated church. Here's a link.
http://www.ncfic.org/directorymodule/view_churchdetail/id/2711/src/@random49f75bdac3da5/
I don't mind not knowing where the questions are coming from. Actually I think it would be interesting to know. We haven't been in North Dakota long and I would like to hear what other areas are like. I am finding that there is a larger homeschooling community here than I had assumed. But I don't have enough info to answer correctly. I just wanted to comment that I was not upset at all that the source of the question is not stated. It is always good to share information and I don't see any threat in these questions. So thank you for asking them and I look forward to reading the answers.
I grew up in a church with primarily, but not exclusively, homeschooling families. I have often wished for that kind of support from my own church family. I have even considered changing churches to seek out families that feel as my husband and I do about our responsibility to our children and our community. I don't know who is asking this question, but maybe it is someone like me. I'm at least interested in the answer.
Since I've not seen any hard numbers as to where the highest concentration of homeschooling families are located in our state, I'll just have to guess and say wherever there is a higher population, such as Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, you'll likely find higher numbers of h.s. families; maybe that'd be incorrect though...homeschoolers aren't usually that predictable! The Air Force bases seem to have a lot of home educators. As for churches that are made up of homeschool families only, I'll give you a box of donuts if you can find one in ND! But there are certainly those with higher numbers and those that are supporters of home education. I'm also going to guess that the questions pertaining to churches may be regarding the family integrated church. There is a Baptist church in Fargo that is listed as a family integrated church, but they do offer age segregated Sunday school classes, which doesn't follow the integrated movement so much. The family integrated church is not only a supporter of home education, but also a fantastic promoter of it. My input probably didn't answer the specific questions, but that's my 2 cents worth!
Jeff H from Minot here.
I would love to see a Family Integrated Church start around Minot or even Western ND someday.. Perhaps statewide if it only met 4-6 times a year; Saturdays? Led by a few qualified homeschool Dads!
One thing that is already started and going well is the Sipp Family gatherings (2) and the NDHSA Convention in the spring. The Sips invite homeschoolers to Crystal Springs Bible Camp near Jamestown; There were 2-300 last fall. (that's two families - ha ha) They always include a few worship times over the weekend with Dads preaching. Great for kids. They also do a gathering at their large farm (near ADA Minnesota) in June. These are overnighters, which is different than a local FIC church, I know, but it is a good connecting point for encouragement.
My thought is that to pull off a successful FIC church it would take very committed men leading it, but it definitely is possible.
I really don't know where the most HS friendly area would is right now.
We can pray and ask God to guide this in light of Matthew 16:18, "Jesus said, 'I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it".
2 cents worth jeffh
Don't know of any such churches in N.D., but had opportunity to worship at just such a church several times at Covenant Family Church at Troy, Mo., par of the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly which stresses home school or private Christian education. Here's a link to the denominational info: http://www.rpcga.us/ I would love to see a church plant in N.D. for this exciting new denomination. John Gallagher, Carrington
Our family has been talking with Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States leaders (http://RPCUS.com ) about helping to start a family integrated church (or many) in the North Dakota. Email me if you want to see a draft of what we are thinking. We took ideas from exemplar churches in RPCUS, RPCGA, and CoPC. All three of those denominations use the original Westminster confession and understand the family integrated and Christian and home education details. The original Westminster is amazingly thorough with every phrase tied to specific Scripture. This is what led to America being a Christian nation, instead of polytheisic. I'll plan to call you John to learn more about RPCGA. Jim Bartlett
I am new to homeschool and I look forward to reading all the comments, because I do not know the answer to either question.
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