Since I am on vacation this week I conducted an interview regarding the D6 Conference with Matt Markins for your enjoyment.  Matt has over 10 years experience in publishing, short-term missions and higher education. He has worked for Thomas Nelson Publishers and Randall House as Marketing Director. Currently he serves as the Director of Marketing and Sales for Randall House. As the co-founder of the D6 Conference, Matt has a faithful passion to see fathers fulfill their leadership role in the home.  I’ve been very impressed with Matt’s work and I think you will benefit from his insight.  I hope you’ll consider attending the D6 Conference.

Jimmy – Matt what is D6 and the D6 conference?

Matt – “D6 is a term that Ron Hunter [Randall House CEO] coined a few years back in an effort to verbally and visually communicate the principles found in Deuteronomy 6:4-7.  Experts agree that nearly every passage in the Bible that speaks about parental instruction can be connected back to Deuteronomy 6 in some embryonic form.  In this passage Moses is speaking the words of God to the children of Israel.  Although the original audience in this passage was the nation of Israel, the thoughts in the passage are echoed all throughout scripture and they very much apply to us today.

The three basic truths that are communicated in this passage are first of all that we are to love God with all of our heart; everything that we have, 110%.  Secondly, it says that we need to know, treasure and love God’s word, his message to us, the Bible.  The final thing this passage commands of us is that we are to teach or impress these commands upon the hearts of our kids. Moses even goes on to tell us that we do this at home, while we are out and about, at breakfast and at bed time.  In other words, he commanded parents to be responsible for the spiritual legacy of their children. Sadly, this is not happening in most Christian homes today and there is ample research to verify this.

Over the last several decades the family has outsourced spiritual formation to the church. On the whole, moms and dads no longer take time to connect with their kids spiritually.  The results have been staggering.  Scores of Christian students each year are leaving the church after high school and during their college experience.  Couple this with much of the research that has been released in recent years about the lack of biblical knowledge that students today have in connection with the lack of a true biblical world view, and the Church has a serious problem on our hands.  If the American Church intends to exhort influence on the culture and world around us in the years to come, things have to change.

If parents want to see their kids grow up to follow Christ faithfully and passionately, than they must reclaim spiritual formation as their primary focus in life while raising their kids.  Churches must shift their plan to a model that espouses the principles of Deuteronomy 6.  This is what the D6 Conference is all about.  It’s about making the shift to reconnect parents with their kids.  It’s about ministers inspiring parents to get passionate about leaving spiritual legacy for their kids, their grandkids, and generations to come.  It’s about equipping single parents to be a spiritual leader in a challenging context.  It’s about mending broken relationships in the home so that dads and moms can share the story of grace and redemption to their own students.  The D6 Conference is the gathering place for the connecting church and home movement.