The Family Concept

By Courtney Henry

The Bible is our guidebook for successful living, so it stands to reason that the Word of God contains principles that can be applied to every part of our lives, including how to cultivate and maintain successful family relationships. The Family Concept is an exploration of the Bible's many family relationship principles and how they apply to our lives. A concept is an idea of what something is intended to be. It is the construct for what the inventor intends to design. God created the family according to grand design and purpose. To accomplish his purpose, God left nothing to chance. His Word gives us the principles that lead to the satisfaction of his purpose and the abundant goodness of God to appear in our lives. The Family Concept identifies those principles, gives understanding as to how they work, and highlights the benefits that are derived from their application. Is love more than emotions? Where does sacrifice fit into a successful relationship? What is my obligation to you if we are in a relationship? What does submission really mean, and does it work both ways? The Family Concept addresses those questions and provides many positive insights that will enhance our relationships when applied.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098065645

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The Family Concept

Courtney Henry

Copyright © 2020 by Courtney Henry

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Family Concept

The Power of Knowledge

The Concept of Love

The Power of Sacrifice

Relationship Responsibilities

Marriage Concepts Part 1

Marriage Concepts Part 2

Authority and Order

Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage

The Parental Imperative

Acknowledgments

Someone once said that no man is an island. The premise behind the statement is, nobody is self-sufficient. Nobody achieves success of any kind totally on their own. This is my first book, and I would not have been able to accomplish this feat without the love, support, encouragement, and inspiration of others. I will be remiss if I do not recognize those wonderful people.

Pride of place goes to the love of my life—my wife, Margaret. We met when we were both teenagers attending the Bibleway Tabernacle Church in London, England, and we have been together ever since we started dating in 1978. We have been married for thirty-six years. Every man needs somebody to believe in him. Margaret not only loves me; she also believes in me. I am all the better for having her in my life, and it was Margaret along with our daughter, Monique, who first planted the seed in my mind that I should write a book on family relationships. Margaret’s encouragement has helped to propel me on this journey.

Our daughter, Monique, whom I refer to as the greatest daughter in the world, also played her part in spurring me on to write this book. If I had a fan club, Monique would be the self-appointed president. But she is more than a cheerleader. She makes herself available to help me do what I am assigned to do. She has often taken charge of my car keys to drive me home after a speaking engagement. She too suggested I write a family relationship book, and Monique soon teamed up with her mother to encourage me to push forward with the project. For all that you do, Monique, you are the greatest daughter in the world!

God blessed Margaret and me with one girl and one boy. Our son, Christian, in his own way, has played his part in aiding this work. Both as a child and a man, he has helped me to see that whatever else I might be or achieve, the most important thing I am to him is his dad.

I thank God for my parents, Anthony and Doris Bryan, who are both happy to take pastoral instruction from their son. Time and space preclude me from detailing all the ways that they have shown their love and support over the years. So one special thing about each of them. I recall an occasion when bad news knocked me off balance, and I could not muster a prayer at that moment. Mum stepped in, and when she finished praying, I had the strength to face the challenge. As for Dad, you will have noticed his last name is not Henry. He came into my life when I was a teenager when he married my mother. Although he is not my biological father, he has never ever made me feel like a stepson. Mum and Dad, thank you for being awesome parents.

I thank God for my spiritual parents, Apostle Huie L. Rogers and Mother Doris Rogers. I am blessed to have learned at the feet of a true Apostolic-Pentecostal legend. I acknowledged my calling to the ministry while under his direction at the Greater Bibleway Temple in Brooklyn, New York. Everything I know about ministry, I learned from Apostle Rogers. I thank God for Apostle Rogers teaching me in both word and deed.

Mother Rogers deserves her own special mention. Mother Rogers is a mother indeed, and she took Margaret and me under her wing in the early years of our marriage. Margaret’s mother passed away before we got married, and Mother Rogers embraced her as a daughter and poured so much into her. But Mother took the time to deposit many nuggets into my consciousness too. Mother Rogers taught me things about how to be a good husband and father that I never heard from anyone else, and those lessons have stayed with me until this day.

My final mention relates to someone who went home to be with the Lord a few years ago. He was an anointed man of God whom I was privileged to have as a friend. That man was Pastor David Fairley. We shared a passion for family ministry, and Pastor Fairley was particularly gifted in mentoring young men. If he were here to hold this book in his hands, I know he would have smiled, said something uproariously funny, and laughed heartily.

I thank God for His goodness, power, and inspiration. And I thank Him for putting so many influential people in my life. Most assuredly, I have not been an island.

Introduction

I am privileged to have spent the formative years of my ministry under the tutelage and guidance of a Pentecostal legend, Apostle Huie L. Rogers. Apostle Rogers is the senior pastor of the Greater Bible Way Temple in Brooklyn, New York, and the chief apostle of the Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ World Wide, Inc. He is a man of God whose ministry has had a profound impact on people all over the world. Those who are familiar with his ministry will testify to the fact that he is the embodiment of the five-fold ministry: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. An expert teacher, Apostle Rogers successfully conveyed spiritual principles not just in formal settings such as seminars. He also taught by example and taught when he did even realize he was teaching.

One of the spiritual nuggets I learned from Apostle Rogers was how to know when the Lord is directing you to take on a task. One of the things I observed about my pastor was, if a member approached him with an idea to enhance the ministry or came to him, having identified a need, that person would often be given the responsibility of directing the project. What I gleaned from Apostle Rogers’s penchant for placing responsibility upon the person who brought him the idea was that if the Lord allowed you to see the problem or the issue, then he is directing you to address the matter. I share this story because that is how I came to write this book. It is how I came to emphasize on family ministry. I kept seeing things about family issues, and over time, I came to realize that God was nudging me in the direction of family ministry.

I would find myself reading newspaper and magazine articles that were not overtly about family dynamics. But I often found myself noticing the facets that pertained to family relationships. I watched movies where the synopsis did not mention any family issue as being central to the plot. Yet I would see how the father’s treatment of his son was actually at the root of why the son acted the way that he did or how a mother’s neglect led to tragedy. On occasion, I would hear somebody comment, and the comment would tell me something about the level of importance they placed on their family relationships. However, in addition to these instances, it took another set of scenarios to convince me to study the subject of family relationships.

After only being married a few years, I began to discover that some who knew me who seemed to be giving me credit for knowing something that I had not realized I knew. Acquaintances would ask me questions or say things to me that suggested they felt I knew the answer. Whether it was a friend suggesting that I do a seminar to teach the young Christian brothers how to treat young Christian sisters or another friend suggesting that my wife and I do