3 What is proposed in this section is the establishment of “Clinics for Sustainable Families” within Christian churches. The “Clinic” is a program of intentional epigenesis to carry forward the best practices of parenting, child reading, and family dynamics to next generations. While the program of the Clinic is secular and applicable to any altruistic organization, the predominant culture of the organization can provide an overlay to color the context of the program.
The mission of Clinics for Sustainable Families is to provide a permanent resource in each community for the enculturation of socially sustainable child rearing and parenting practices. The work of the Clinics is to support the capability of caring and nurturing parents who are interested in their children growing into socially competent, responsible, and resourceful adults. Because the mission of the Clinics is to bring about social stability and eventually social sustainability without a religious, political, cultural, or ethnic bias, the work of the Clinics could be easily adopted by any social institution, organization, or agency with the altruistic mission to uplift the social condition of individuals, families, and communities.
The social benefit of these programs will become apparent as their effectiveness becomes evident in the first generation and highly visible in subsequent generations: Parents will have happier and more contented children, parents will be more confident because they are seeing their children become happier, more contented, and socially responsible. The family wins because the dynamics of the family are functional and constructive. The community and the larger society win because their citizens provide for a more stable social existence. And lastly, society and all organizations are provided with future generations of socially functional decision-makers who are capable of devising options, choices, decisions, and courses of implementation using the seven values of our species to support families and communities more effectively.
Traditional Christian churches have largely failed to market themselves as being practically useful to individuals and families of contemporary societies. Traditional Christian church organizations have not integrated themselves into the function of contributing to the sustainability of their host communities, societies, and nations. Solely addressing the religious faith-needs, and spiritual enlightenment of their members once satisfied large populations, but not today.
Their declining membership is directly connected to their failure to link themselves to a practical, transgenerational program to address the social needs of individuals and families to resolve their daily living challenges within their families. The Clinics for Sustainable Families is such a program that teaches childrearing, parenting, and family dynamics to every new generation, using the best practices from cultures around the world. When Christian churches make this link, they will become a vital, permanent social institution in every community that has the capability of meaningful social contributions to the social stability and sustainability of those communities and societies.
To become truly sustainable, Christian churches must tie their existence to the social sustainability of the family. The social institution of the family is a never-ending producer of new generations, generations that need to be taught and trained with the skills of parenting and child rearing. Each new generation provides a new audience for enculturating the best practices of parenting, child rearing, family dynamics, social competency, and social responsibility.
3 The title and the text of this section are adaptations from my earlier paper, Epigenesis and Clinics for Sustainable Families — Catalysts for Transgenerational Culture Change, that is fully applicable to Christian Church organizations. Available as a PDF from the author, or at www.Academia.edu