My phone is raising my kids. How do I stop?
Start with your own phone. Children smell a double standard in one afternoon.

Anton Brown • Senior Pastor
August 25, 2026

3 Minute Read

You already know. The glow is on at breakfast. The show is on in the back seat. You check one more message while they talk. They learned that from you. So did I, in my own house. Exhausted parents in 2026 reach for the screen because the day has more in it than the body can hold. Shame will not fix this, but a simpler plan might.

God never handed your children to a device. He handed them to you.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, ESV)

Sit. Walk. Lie down. Rise. Those are ordinary hours. The phone stole those hours because it is always in the hand. You cannot talk of the Lord's words while both of you stare down.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4, ESV)

Provoking them can look like a sudden crackdown after months of no limit. Instruction looks like a rule you will keep with them.

The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Article XVIII, says parents lead by consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline. The Second London Confession, 22.6, says each family should worship God daily, and each person should do so privately. A family that never lifts its eyes from a screen will not do that. You do not need a long program. You need the phone out of the way long enough to hear a verse and pray.

Start with your own phone. Children smell a double standard in one afternoon. Charge it in the kitchen after a set hour. Leave it in another room for dinner. If work texts cannot wait, say so out loud, then put it down again. Ask their forgiveness when you fail. That sentence teaches more than a lecture.

Then set the house. No phones in bedrooms overnight if you can help it. One charging basket. Screens off for the first stretch of the morning. Sunday morning is not a second inbox in the pew. If they already have a device, you still own the password, the app list, and the time. If they do not have one yet, you are allowed to wait. Many parents around here feel the press from school group chats and sports. Waiting is still a choice you can make.

Expect pushback. A quiet house feels loud at first. Keep the meal. Keep a short reading. Keep your voice kind and the rule firm.

Aim at a child who can hear the Word. A clean look can wait. Chapter 14 of the 1689 says faith is ordinarily produced by the ministry of the Word. A feed will not do that work.

One next step

Pick one hour in the next twenty-four. Dinner is enough. Phones in a basket. Read Deuteronomy 6:6-7. Ask one child one real question. Pray for Jesus to have that hour tomorrow too. If the phone has already run past you into porn, cruelty, or a secret life, do not handle it alone. Come to biblical counseling. If you need a simple next step toward life with this church, just take the next step.


We will help you put the basket on the table.

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From this Collection: Help & Hope
August 26, 2026 • 4 Minute Read
What if my teenager will not come to church?
The car is ready. One bedroom door is not. You have asked. You have reasoned. You have used the tone you swore you would not use. They will not come. That ache is real. You have not failed the whole calling because this Sunday is a fight. You also have not been released from the calling. The church gathering is not a hobby you outgrow at fourteen. The 1689 Confession, 22.6, says more formal worship in public assemblies must not be carelessly or deliberately neglected when God calls us to them. Parents still set the house. As long as this child lives under your roof and eats your food, church on the Lord's Day remains the family's plan. Softening that into a maybe teaches them the assembly is optional when they are tired of it. Hold the line without turning the driveway into a courtroom. Say what is true. This family belongs to Jesus. We gather with his people. You are coming with us. Then keep your voice even. A slammed door and a shouted verse will not make them a worshiper. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4, ESV) Provoking them looks like mockery, surprise punishments, or a sudden rule you will not keep next week. Instruction looks like the same expectation, the same ride, the same pew, and a parent who is actually glad to be there. Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6, ESV) Stay at it. Do not treat the verse as a contract that buys their faith on your timetable. Here is the hard mercy: You cannot raise them from the dead. The 1689, chapter 10, says God effectually calls by his Word and Spirit. Chapter 14 says the grace of faith is the Spirit's work, ordinarily through the ministry of the Word. Your job is to keep them near that Word. His job is the new heart. So you keep bringing them. You keep reading a little at home. You keep praying when they can hear you and when they cannot. You refuse both despair and the sales pitch. If they sit in the service with earbuds in their pocket and a stone face, you still brought them. If they will sing nothing, you sing. Afterward, ask one honest question in the car. Do not grade the answer. Eat together. Let the rest of the week show that Christ is not a Sunday costume. Some refusals have a story under them. A wound at church. A secret sin. A friend who mocked belief. Hypocrisy they clocked at home. Ask. If you find your own sin in the pile, confess it to them without making them your priest. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Article XVIII, says parents demonstrate God's pattern and lead by example. A teenager can smell a parent who wants church for the child and not for himself. If they are already eighteen and gone from the house, you cannot drive them into the building. You can invite. You can keep your own place in the assembly. You can ask to talk. You can refuse to pretend unbelief is a small thing. You can keep the door of the home warm. Jesus is not done because a teenager is loud this month. Faith may be weak. Chapter 14 says even weak faith is still a different kind of thing than a show of religion. Pray toward that. Point them to Christ, not to your reputation as a parent. One next step This week, tell your teenager the plan in one calm sentence, a day before Sunday. Then pray, where they can hear you, that Jesus would make them alive. Keep your seat in the gathering either way. If you have never settled the gospel yourself, read the gospel. If baptism has been sitting there as unfinished obedience, see Baptism. If the fight in the house is bigger than Sunday morning, ask for help from our biblical counselors. Come talk with us. We have sat with parents in this exact chair. We will walk with you while you wait on the Lord.

Anton Brown

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August 25, 2026 • 3 Minute Read
My phone is raising my kids. How do I stop?
You already know. The glow is on at breakfast. The show is on in the back seat. You check one more message while they talk. They learned that from you. So did I, in my own house. Exhausted parents in 2026 reach for the screen because the day has more in it than the body can hold. Shame will not fix this, but a simpler plan might. God never handed your children to a device. He handed them to you. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, ESV) Sit. Walk. Lie down. Rise. Those are ordinary hours. The phone stole those hours because it is always in the hand. You cannot talk of the Lord's words while both of you stare down. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4, ESV) Provoking them can look like a sudden crackdown after months of no limit. Instruction looks like a rule you will keep with them. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Article XVIII, says parents lead by consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline. The Second London Confession, 22.6, says each family should worship God daily, and each person should do so privately. A family that never lifts its eyes from a screen will not do that. You do not need a long program. You need the phone out of the way long enough to hear a verse and pray. Start with your own phone. Children smell a double standard in one afternoon. Charge it in the kitchen after a set hour. Leave it in another room for dinner. If work texts cannot wait, say so out loud, then put it down again. Ask their forgiveness when you fail. That sentence teaches more than a lecture. Then set the house. No phones in bedrooms overnight if you can help it. One charging basket. Screens off for the first stretch of the morning. Sunday morning is not a second inbox in the pew. If they already have a device, you still own the password, the app list, and the time. If they do not have one yet, you are allowed to wait. Many parents around here feel the press from school group chats and sports. Waiting is still a choice you can make. Expect pushback. A quiet house feels loud at first. Keep the meal. Keep a short reading. Keep your voice kind and the rule firm. Aim at a child who can hear the Word. A clean look can wait. Chapter 14 of the 1689 says faith is ordinarily produced by the ministry of the Word. A feed will not do that work. One next step Pick one hour in the next twenty-four. Dinner is enough. Phones in a basket. Read Deuteronomy 6:6-7. Ask one child one real question. Pray for Jesus to have that hour tomorrow too. If the phone has already run past you into porn, cruelty, or a secret life, do not handle it alone. Come to biblical counseling. If you need a simple next step toward life with this church, just take the next step. We will help you put the basket on the table.

Anton Brown

Senior Pastor

August 25, 2026 • 4 Minute Read
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Anton Brown

Senior Pastor

August 24, 2026 • 3 Minute Read
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Anton Brown

Senior Pastor

August 24, 2026 • 3 Minute Read
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Anton Brown

Senior Pastor

August 24, 2026 • 3 Minute Read
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Anton Brown

Senior Pastor

August 24, 2026 • 3 Minute Read
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You want a home. You want someone who stays. In 2026 the state will print the certificate. Friends will throw the party. A church that says no can sound cruel, like we are taking your future and calling it holiness. We will not mock you. Loneliness is real. Wanting a household is real. Many people our age build a life on a phone, then try to make that life official. The question is not whether you feel love. The question is what God made marriage to be. He made it one man and one woman. Jesus did not treat that as a custom you can update. He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." Matthew 19:4-6 (ESV) Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24 (ESV) The 1689 Confession, chapter 25, opens with the line we still hold: "Marriage is to be between one man and one woman. A man must not have more than one wife nor a woman more than one husband at the same time." The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Article XVIII, says, "Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime." We do not bless as marriage what God has not joined. We will not pretend a same-sex union is that covenant. That is not a hobbyhorse. It is the same confession that tells us why any of us need mercy. The 1689, chapter 6, says we are "conceived in sin" and that "all actual transgressions arise from this first corruption." Desire is not the judge. God is. Same-sex desire is one of the places the fall shows up. So is porn. So is a man who uses a woman and never vows anything. None of us get a pass. Mayflower will not pick a fight with you on the sidewalk. We will tell you the truth and stay in the room. Jesus is not a mascot for a side. He is Lord. He died for sinners. He does not leave you as he found you. One next step with Jesus: come to him before you come to a wedding argument. The BFM, Article IV, says there is "no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord," and that repentance is "a genuine turning from sin toward God." Bring the desire. Bring the anger at the church. Bring the fear of being alone. Ask him to save you and to define love for you. Talk with us. Start at the gospel. If you want a path, see next steps and baptism. If the weight is heavy, ask for biblical counseling.

Anton Brown

Senior Pastor