Pastor Timothy Pauls, then Editor of Higher Things, guest teacher for Bible Class, Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Marshall, MI, 5 October 2008.
Just a couple excerpts.
You are, as parents, the greatest influence over your kids. And I am surprised at the number of parents who say, ‘Well, we leave the catechesis of our children in the hands of our pastor at church.’ … I take my kids to the dentist, but we still make sure they brush every day, because that’s not the dentist’s job. God gave our kids to us.
Luther very wisely wrote the Small Catechism not for pastors to teach teenagers, but as the head of the household should teach to his family from a very early age. … He also writes about the father of the house as the Hausvater, the ‘house father,’ teaching the kids, teaching the family … to train up a child in the way he should go, from the earliest of ages.”