Making October "Christian History Month"

 

For the last several years, October has become a sort of "Christian History Month" around out house.  Not only do we celebrate Reformation Day on October 31st (our preference over Halloween, which we don't celebrate), but we spend more time over the whole month of October learning about other heroes in church history.  I even get into the spirit and break out Christian history books and documentaries for myself to enjoy.

I think there are alot of good reasons to give our children a focused study in Christian history, and here are a few I can think of off the top of my head.

1.  To fill in the historical blanks for our kids from the last page of the Bible until now.

If you are Protestant, especially from a denomination that doesn't officially follow a liturgical calendar, it can become really easy to get unmoored from church history.  We know about Bible history, which is very important, but sometimes we allow a large blank in that period between John on the Island of Patmos up until the missionary movement in the 1800's.  Yes, we don't have a ton of information from the Middle (Dark) Ages, but I think it's so important for our kids to know there were strong Christian leaders in that in-between period that loved the Lord, spread the gospel, and held fast to the truth against incredible unbiblical pressure.  

2.  To know how precious the Bible they hold in their hands is, and how hard so many had to work to get it there.

Our kids need to know how many came before them who had to fight for the everyday man to have access to God's word!  From Peter Waldo in France, to Wycliffe in England, to the Gutenberg printing press, there were so many who fought for the people to have the ability to read God's word for themselves, instead of restricting it to the priests or scholars.  Our children need to know how blessed they are to have the unprecedented access to the Bible that we do now, which is not a privilege that Christians through much of history enjoyed.

3.  To strengthen them for when they face times of trouble.  

When you start to read about church history...well, let's just say that it often is not a happy tale.  So many through the pages of history were martyred for standing on the word of God - they didn't falter, even as the flames licked at their feet.  These stories of how God strengthened His people to remain faithful to the horrific end are bolstering in our own times.  If they could face a hideous death for the truth of the gospel and not blink, we should be able to handle a few mean words, and by God's grace, anything worse that may come.

4. To connect them to their family tree and heritage as a believer in Christ.

As believers, we don't exist in isolation.  We have trusted in Jesus because someone showed us the gospel in some way, and someone else showed that person the gospel, etc, all the way back to the early church.  If this seems like a genealogy, it kind of is - a hidden family tree for brothers and sisters in Christ, built by the work of God through ordinary people preaching the gospel, and through heroes of the faith who made God's word available and proclaimed the Truth when it cost them everything.  These aren't random history stories we're teaching are kids - these are people they will meet in heaven one day if they repent and trust in Jesus for their salvation.  We are all part of this story.  This history is their heritage, but only if they know it themselves.

 To close out this post I want to highlight the book in these pictures.  I ordered Reformation Heroes by Diana Klein and Joel Beeke here, and the kids and I just started reading it together as we entered October.  I've already learned stories I've never heard before, and the kids and I are enjoying tracing the forerunners of the Reformation as we lead up to Reformation Day itself.  The Reformation didn't happen in a vacuum, and the gospel was't lost before Luther posted his 95 theses.  God has been working to spread His gospel of salvation, by grace through faith in Christ alone, from the beginning, even when it was badly obscured at different points in history.  The more I read about it, the more miraculous it is.  Highly recommend it if you have kids that are upper elementary and older!  Note: The only warning I'd give so far is to be prepared to give a brief overview of the Calvinist/Arminian debate, because it is mentioned in this book.  

For a bunch of other resources on church history, check out all my Reformation Day posts over the years!

So what do you say?  Do you think October is a pretty good month to declare as "Christian History Month"?  

Of course we can and should study biblical and church history any time of the year, but there is something fun about having a whole month to focus on it and be a little creative with it, especially as a homeschool family.  As far as I can tell, I don't think there is an official month for Christian history, so October it is for our family!