‘My eyes have been opened to so many truths I was unaware of.’

‘D6 conference is really a Bible based conference, which helps us to focus on our family.’

‘D6 has just confirmed what’s in my heart, intentional discipleship where home and church work together raising a generation of Christ’s followers who will be faithful to the great commission.’

~Participants D6 Asia 2022

These were some of the feedback participants of the inaugural D6 (Deuteronomy 6) Asia Family Conference gave at the end of the 3 days. The conference opened on 9 June 2022 with a ‘Pastors and Ministry Leaders only’ meeting. Over 250 leaders from across Asia gathered via Zoom to learn together. Dr Ron Hunter, co-founder of D6 and CEO of Randall House, opened the conference expounding on the foundation of Deuteronomy 6.

Dr Hunter shared that the global trend now sees up to 64% of the young people in church turning away from faith by the time they grow up. Whilst about half will eventually return, one-third never do. The young people in our Asian churches may not ask many questions out loud but that doesn’t mean that they do not have any questions or doubts. At the core of his message was how it is essential for the Church and Home to work together to pass down faith.

Pastor Matthew Ling and Dr P.C. Mathew shared a Vision for the Local Church and how a well discipled family was a missional family. Bishop T. Jeyakumar spoke on what a ‘Family-Friendly Church’ looks like. The panel of three then took many questions from the participants and shared practical advice on how to build up a stronger faith-filled family.

Pastor Rob Rienow then took participants through ‘The Bible on Family Ministry’. When a larger jurisdiction usurps responsibility from a lesser jurisdiction, two things happen. Number one, the crisis will not be solved. And number two, the proper jurisdiction is robbed of motivation, time, and resources to do the job.’ Listen to his full message at: https://asiaea.org/d6asia

The next 2 days, from 10-11 June 2022, saw speakers covering practical tips for applying D6.

Kathleen Trock-Molhoek affirmed the facts that Ron shared earlier and added that of those who ‘stayed’ in church, according to Barna – ‘These resilient disciples give us insight into why they didn’t leave the church; 85% of them said “There is someone in my life who encourages me to grow spiritually.” 77% said, “When growing up, I had close personal friends who were ADULTS from my church.” An earlier study asked many of those who left the church why they left. They said there was no bridge between their youth programs and the adult community of their church.

Kathleen went on to share how we can move from individual to intergenerational discipleship and how we can teach our young ones to learn to hear God’s voice. Listen to the powerful testimonies on how families can be impacted when children learn to wait on God.

Drs Cheah Fung Fong and Chris Cheah gave practical training on ‘Intentional Parenting’ and Parenting A Skeptical Generation by Lee Wee Min had a participant credited ‘helped me a lot to understand my Gen Z daughter.’ Cassie Carstens from The World Needs A Father expounded on the critical need for all of us to deal with issues that affected us growing up and the critical role parents play in the faith development of the children.

Strengthening marriages is at the core of family disciple- ship and D6 Asia saw both the main session and work- shops speakers cover this critical area. Rev Vijayesh Lal helped couples deal with Communication & Forgiveness and participants had a meaningful time of prayer following it.

This 3-day conference was organized by AEA’s Children and Women Commissions. By God’s grace, the 600 plus participants were able to register for free because of the generous support of partners like Newton Life Church Singapore who hosted our D6 ‘studio’ and the many experienced speakers who contributed so willingly.

This was also made possible by the hard work and labour of love by so many volunteers and translators of Japanese, Thai, Khmer and Indonesian, who worked on the workshop scripts, recordings and did the live translation during the online conference. Because of all of them, our goal to see this movement spread in Asia is taking effect especially in Japan where more than 300 people registered.

Apart from the online participants who met over Zoom, churches also gathered their people to learn about D6 together in Japan and Thailand. To date we hear reports of attendees who now plan to take the message to their churches and communities and in Thailand, our D6 Asia resources are being taken into the provinces.

‘Am reminded that the church and the home need to work together to intentionally disciple our children and our youths. Will arrange session in my church for par- ents/grandparents, Church School teachers, mentors and leaders to encourage them to obey the biblical injunction to disciple in the home and to suggest practical ways to do so.’ ~Participant D6 Asia 2022

We encourage you to take up the D6 Asia mantle, to spread the vision and equip both Church & Home to disciple the next generation together. Please join us also in praying for this D6 movement, that it will impact many more churches and families – It is not surprising that the team at D6 Asia 2022 faced many spiritual battles and challenges throughout our preparation and during the conference – your prayers and support is much needed and coveted for the follow-up events in 2022 and planning of D6 Asia 2023.To be kept updated on D6 Asia 2023, simply join our mailing list today at https://asiaea.org/d6asia

By Gwen De Rozario – Executive Director, AEA Children Commission