If you’ve hung around here for any length of time, you know family is important to me.

Holy cow, I love these guys.

Family is important to me because it’s important to God. He actually has quite a bit to say about the family throughout the Bible, but Deuteronomy 6:5-9 has always been my Biblical guidance for our family and home…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

One of my greatest passions is learning how to bring our family closer to God and closer together and to encourage other families to do the same, which is why I was thrilled to learn about a ministry and conference focused the same thing.

I’m talking about the D6 Conference and Family Ministry! Have you heard of D6? 

In just two short words the D6 Conference is about Generational Discipleship. When you take a look at Scripture, it’s impossible to separate discipleship from Family Ministry. As commanded in Deuteronomy 6 (D6), it is God’s “plan A” that the family becomes the center of spiritual formation (a.k.a. discipleship). The D6 Conference helps churches develop and sustain an integrated discipleship strategy that combines the relationship and influence of the church and the home.

The awesome thing is that D6 is not just about churches or just about families – their mission is to bring together these two God-given communities in order to raise the next generation to love the Lord! One of their newest resources, Connecting Church and Home by Tim Kimmel, is a fabulous look at this topic!

As far as the actual D6 Conference, it is on my short list of conferences I would LOVE to attend some day. D6 Dallas One Day, September 26, is a jam-packed day of speakers and breakouts, including Tim Kimmel himself! D6 Louisville, October 16-18, is a lengthier Family Ministry Expo, with amazing speakers such as James Dobson and Les & Leslie Parrott! If you’re interested in attending either conference, don’t hesitate to register because early bird pricing ends Monday, May 6th!

If you’re like me and don’t think you can actually make it to one of the conferences, you’ll be happy to know that you can enjoy some D6 goodness from your own home for FREE this weekend, starting today!

D6 Days is your chance to get exclusive video and audio content to encourage you as a parent and family ministry advocate! D6 has made four videos and six mp3s available to you for FREE through Sunday, May 5th! Here are the sessions…

• Videos
  • David Platt – The American Dream and the Gospel
  • Brian Haynes – What is Family Ministry?
  • Richard Ross – Reaching the Heart of the Next Generation
  • Garnett Reid – Leaving a Legacy that Matters
• Mp3s
  • Ed Stetzer – Attitudes and Practices That Lead to Robust Spiritual Formation
  • Michelle Anthony – The Transforming Power of Christ for a New Generation
  • Rob Reinow – Transforming Youth and Children’s Ministry
  • Sean McDowell – Equipping Young People With a Biblical Worldview
  • Voddie Baucham – Equipping Parents to Do Their Work
  • Beth Guckenberger – Equipping Women to Be Agents of Reconciliation

I think so many of these sound incredible, but I’m especially excited to see the David Platt and Garnett Reid videos and listen to Ed Stetzer speak! In fact, you can watch “Leaving a Legacy That Matters” with Garnett Reid RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!

If you decide to participate in D6 Days, make sure you connect with others who are doing the same on social media:

• Follow @thed6conference on Twitter
• Tweet with the hashtags #d62013 and #d6days
• Like the D6 Conference on Facebook

And I would LOVE it if you would come back to this post to tell me about any videos you watch or talks you listen to! We can make this our own little D6 Days community discussion!

If you know someone who might be interested in being a part of D6 Days, pass this on to them now so they can view the content all weekend!

Which D6 Days session sounds the most intriguing to you?