Vision Forum Ministries has been a source of great encouragement for my wife and I and our boys over the past eight years. Their resources continue to equip us as husband and wife and as parents as we endeavor to serve the Lord in large part by recognizing that our true legacy is the legacy of faithfulness that we pass on to our children and grandchildren. We have a great debt of gratitude to VF staff, board of directors, and to Doug Philips for their truly pro-active and visionary work.
As a member of the generation that has benefited greatly from the ministry of VF and as a first generation (at least in recent memory) homeschooling parent, my wife, Liz, and I were quite saddened by the fall of Doug Philips and the decision to shutter VF indefinitely.
This is a wake-up call to all fathers who consider themselves the spiritual head of their families and endeavor to serve the Lord by serving in this very challenging and rewarding position. We must constantly be in repentance, submit willingly to the Lord’s humbling, and be on guard against the sinful desires of our own heart. We must put our wives and our children before our public ministries. We must safeguard our families by setting wise boundaries for ourselves and our families.
This is not a call to over-protection. This is a call to wise protection, fathers: of yourselves and of your families.
Secondly, first and second generation homeschoolers, and homeschooling supporters, we need to pick up this torch and move on. It has been dropped. I am not suggesting that there is only one torch bearer. There are other very important ministries encouraging and equipping Christian homeschooling parents today.
How can you pick up this torch?
1) Pray for wisdom, get it, and implement it in your home.
(Proverbs 4: 7-9)
2) Support and get your homeschooling materials from other God-glorifying ministries, presses, and curriculum producers and ask them to provide those formerly provided by Vision Forum. One of the most pro-active strategies VF implemented was a continual search for family equipping and God-glorifying books of the past. Ask your other favorite ministries (or try a new one) to make this a priority.
3) Do a bit of research and find out if there are any current legislative efforts that may alter your state’s homeschooling laws. Support efforts that increase homeschooling freedoms and work against efforts that diminish them.
4) Support HSLDA.
5) Respond to this post with your own ideas, favorite ministries, or resources that have been essential to you as a homeschooling parent.
Just in case you think that we are sliding into a period of tranquility in the homeschooling movement, take a look at the latest twisted attempt to paint homeschooling and homeschoolers as abusive across the board, see Kathryn Joyce’s Homeschool Apostates. This article is not for the faint of heart.
Kevin Swanson, of Generations with Vision, with a detailed response.
