Frequently Asked Questions
May 9, 2006
Questions about Vision Forum Ministries and NCFIC
What is Vision Forum Ministries?
Vision Forum Ministries (VFM) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of the Christian family, the reformation of the Christian church, and the rebuilding of Christian culture for the glory of God. VFM sponsors numerous events and endeavors to further these goals including the Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy, the Faith and Freedom Tour, Father and Son Retreats, Father and Daughter Retreats, and the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches. A distinct and entirely separate organization, The Vision Forum Inc. is devoted to producing books, media, and other resources that support VFM’s goals.
What is NCFIC?
Under its parent organization Vision Forum Ministries, the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches (NCFIC) is dedicated to the reformation of the Christian church as a “family of families” through encouragement, direction, and training in uniting church and home. To this end, NCFIC provides a host of supportive resources including challenging articles, inspiring testimonies, national and regional conferences, instructive audiotapes, recommended books, pastoral training and a growing database of family-integrated churches near you.
Who are the staff at NCFIC?
NCFIC is the fruit of many men’s labors — past, present and future — not just one individual. Our present staff includes Doug Phillips as President, Scott Brown as Director, and an informal network of family-integrated church leaders across the nation. As the Lord provides, we will add more staff and more services for family-integrated churches and “seeking families.” Support...
When and how did NCFIC begin?
During the week of 9-11 (2001), a gathering of about three dozen pastors, elders, and church leaders from across America met with Vision Forum Ministries in San Antonio for the first ever “Summit on Uniting Church and Home.” At issue was the necessity of encouraging a reformation (and praying for a revival) concerning the relationship of the family to the local church. The outcome of that summit was the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches. Read more...
How does NCFIC relate to similar ministries?
NCFIC does not view itself as the “end all” solution to the culture-driven, age-segregated, peer-dominated modern church. Other similar ministries have proficiency beyond our own in various areas. So in addition to the resources we provide, it is our firm and constant goal to help these like-minded ministries succeed at what they do best. We also work with state and regional groups who wish to affiliate with us for “Uniting Church and Home” conferences and other purposes.
Questions about NCFIC’s Mission
Is NCFIC a new denomination of churches?
No, absolutely not. NCFIC is not a new denomination or confederation of churches but rather a network and resource for family-integrated churches and families seeking them. It is a ministry to America’s churches by Christian leaders who see faithful fathers and mothers struggling to find a meaningful, family-affirming relationship with their local church. All the men who work with NCFIC believe in biblical church authority and are all under the oversight of their own local churches with regard to their moral life.
What is NCFIC’s purpose?
NCFIC’s purpose is to correctly understand God’s unified vision for church and family, rightly diagnose the problems that impede this vision, and effectively communicate biblical solutions that rebuild family-affirming churches. We do not believe that family-integration is the only — or even the primary — issue in selecting or establishing a local church. But it is unquestionably a defining issue of our day as the modern church has lost the essential familistic culture that we see modeled in the New Testament. Read more...
How does NCFIC relate to existing churches?
Although NCFIC is unabashedly opposed to the non-historical, non-biblical emphasis on youth culture, pragmatic reasoning, consumer-driven marketing and feminism in the modern church, we are NOT opposed to the existing church itself. Indeed, it is our purpose and privilege to serve the established churches that are open to reconsidering the value of family integration and father participation in the meetings of the church. We exhort all Christians everywhere to give proper submission and respect to their biblically constituted churches and leaders.
How does NCFIC relate to new church plants?
Though NCFIC is not a church-planting agency, one of our goals is to encourage new church plants in two ways. First, there are many unattached Christian families without an established family-integrated church near by. Through the NCFIC Church Directory, these “seeking families” can find one another and plant new churches for the glory of God and the growth of His people. Second, we encourage growing churches to spawn sister congregations through subdivision since a local church will lose family-like intimacy and vitality when it grows too large. Statistically, church subdivision produces the greatest spiritual and numerical growth for Christ’s church.
How does NCFIC relate to individual Christians?
NCFIC relates to individual Christians in three distinct ways: First, Christians who are members of an established church, we encourage you to graciously and winsomely try to bring about change from within through respectful appeal to your leaders. This has the potential to transform many lives, the lives of some of the people you care about the most. Second, Christians who are seeking a church, we recommend you use our Church Directory to find a family-integrated church or network with other like-minded Christians to start one. Third, Christians who are “home churching” or spiritual nomads, this is non-normative at best and downright heterodox at worst. God requires His people to be in biblically constituted local churches with biblical preaching, biblical ordinances, biblical government and biblical discipline.
Questions about NCFIC’s Documents
What does NCFIC think about Christian creeds and confessions?
We agree with the historic position on the sufficiency of Scripture which views the various creeds and confessions as invaluable (though not infallible) summaries of the Word of God. A creed (meaning “I believe”) is inevitable — even the anti-creedal statement, “No creed but Christ,” is a creed! The Christian creeds and confessions affirm the authority of God’s Word and provide the hermeneutical framework (the Holy Spirit working through His whole church) to help us rightly interpret it. All the cults profess simple “belief in the Bible,” yet they reject the creeds and confessions. We recognize the Nicene Creed as a standard of basic Christian orthodoxy. Read more...
What is the NCFIC Confession?
A confession is “a statement of beliefs,” and the NCFIC Confession is specifically a statement of beliefs about God’s blueprint for unity between church and home. Based entirely upon the Word of God, this Confession calls upon us to rely on the Scriptures as fully sufficient for the ordering of church and family, to recognize the church as a spiritual “family of families,” to develop a multi-generational vision for preserving our spiritual posterity, to equip whole households for ministry through heart-level relationships rather than activity-based programs, and much more. Read more...
How was the NCFIC Confession produced?
At the historic “Summit on Uniting Church and Home,” an important decision was made to assemble a committee of church leaders to draft a confession espousing the biblical relationship between the church and the family. That committee consisted of two Presbyterian pastors and two Baptist pastors under the directorship of NCFIC. After six months of study, editing, and final review by the president of Vision Forum, the NCFIC Confession was presented at the first National Conference on Uniting Church and Home in St. Louis, August 2002.
What is NCFIC’s Statement of Faith?
Vision Forum Ministries and NCFIC are committed to affirming the historic faith of biblical Christianity including the precious doctrines of the sufficiency of Scripture, the priesthood of the believers, the historico-grammatical approach to interpretation, the sovereignty of God, and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We offer several statements and declarations, not only as representations of our faith, but as tools for the careful student of Scripture interested in understanding and communicating his faith with biblical precision. Read more...
Questions about NCFIC’s Church Directory
Is the NCFIC Church Directory a formal church organization or association?
No, the Church Directory is not a formal organization or association, but a network and resource for family-integrated churches and families seeking them. The common denominators for those registered in our database are: (1) all parties have expressed a basic, orthodox understanding of Christianity as defined by the Nicene Creed; and (2) all parties have formally testified to at least substantial agreement with the NCFIC Confession on issues of unity between church and home. These are the only known points of agreement among the churches and families in the directory.
Why did you create the NCFIC Church Directory?
As fathers turn their hearts toward home and return to the biblical culture of family life, it is only to be expected that such faithful men will desire a local church that supports rather than supplants the family. The NCFIC Church Directory has been established for the specific purpose of assisting the thousands of families and local church leaders who have contacted us expressing a desire to network with like-minded individuals and assemblies, to work for godly change within pre-existing local churches or to plant family-integrated local churches in their area.
What can I accomplish using the NCFIC Church Directory?
The NCFIC Church Directory empowers you to do two significant things: First, it allows you to REGISTER your church, group or family in the database so that “seeking families” can find you and contact you. Second, the church directory enables you to SEARCH for a family-integrated church or other like-minded families near you.
What has been the response to the NCFIC Church Directory?
Having received thousands of letters, emails and phone calls from Christians across the country seeking a family-integrated church, we were not surprised at the overwhelming response to the NCFIC Church Directory. Launched on February 14, 2003, the new directory enjoyed over 15,000 visits during its first two weeks and registrations of over 100 churches and nearly 400 seeking families. Registrations continue to climb every week, and new family-integrated churches are being formed as a result of these connections.
Do you endorse all the churches registered in the NCFIC Church Directory?
Despite our best efforts, we cannot guarantee that any or all of the churches and families in our directory are of sound theology and practice. Consequently, the inclusion of a church in this directory does not carry any endorsement from NCFIC or Vision Forum Ministries. Vision Forum and NCFIC believe that doctrinal integrity is crucial to every true church and every true believer in Jesus Christ, so we strongly recommend that you act with discernment and request additional information from the church that interests you.