Cherry Street Mission

In the six-plus decades we've served the homeless, we've learned that the paths people travel to homelessness are varied, but they largely spring from a single source: the failure of parents to model and instill in their children the values and behaviors required to become productive adults.  Empirical research confirms our observations.  

This is not new information. In fact, the belief that people's most serious problems can be traced back to family/parental dysfunction has become a tenet of our culture in the past half-century. As a result, the focus of most social service agencies, schools, and courts since the mid-1960s has been on providing children with what their parents cannot or will not.

The rationale behind this child-centered approach may be well-intentioned, but, as a Christ-based organization, we know that having someone other than parents primarily responsible for instilling and modeling behaviors in children is not the Biblical expectation.  God designed parents to be the most important influence in their children's lives. He expects parents to model and instill good values and behaviors in their kids.

Jesus is the model.

The Bible tells us that there is no better parent than God.  Jesus told His disciples that, in seeing Him (Jesus), they had seen their Heavenly Father. 

So, in Jesus, we have the model for a parent—a model that Jesus Himself intended His disciples to follow and teach others: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations [i.e. people] . . . teaching them everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20). But becoming a "disciple-parent" is tough in a society that increasingly disengages parents from their God-given responsibility as their child's primary role model. 

That's why Cherry Street has developed The Philip Project: to help churches provide parents in the neighborhoods they serve with the knowledge and tools required to become disciple-parents.

The program's name was inspired by the encounter of the Apostle Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch; Philip came alongside the eunuch to help the latter understand what he was reading.  In The Philip Project, Cherry Street uses its knowledge and experience to help churches help parents understand the importance of instilling and modeling good values and behaviors in their lives—as well as the negative consequences that may occur if they fail to do so.  

The Philip Project helps churches

• Become aware of the need in our culture for parents to regain their rightful prominence in society
• Assess the status of discipleship in their congregation
• Set goals for corporate and individual discipleship growth
• Obtain curricula, training, and support services to increase the church's capacity to disciple parents in its congregation and reach out to struggling parents in the larger community.

Once The Philip Project supports are in place, each church constructs its own process of discipleship based on its doctrine, traditions, and culture.