Be Care Full!

It’s become quite the trend in churches all over the country. For several years now churches have been going through a bit of a structural change in their children’s and youth ministries where the silos of ministry are brought under the umbrella of one umbrella ministry called “Family Ministry.” Though not a new concept, family ministry has taken on a new life and seems to be on a roll.   For many churches, it’s become the new model by which the church has systematically filtered its ministry planning, curriculum, staffing and preaching around.

The church I attend is in the beginning stages of a similar transformation and as a Children’s Pastor I’m knee deep in the middle of it. My wife and ministry partner has been working tirelessly to research and build out what a family ministry model would look like at our church. Through her research of other church models, professionally developed family ministry programs and simply asking families at the church what they would like to see in a family ministry, here is some of what we’ve discovered:

• Families need more interaction with each other
• Families need more interaction with other families in the church
• Families need a plan to help them grow stronger in their faith
• Families need parents who have strong Christ-Centered marriages
• Families need a church to help disciple them

I could go on but I hope you get the picture. The question here is how does the church help the family meet these needs?

I suggest that a good family ministry might want to build out a ministry model that includes the following:

• A cohesive ministry plan that starts at the nursery (birth) and goes through 12^th
• A strategic spiritual growth plan for parents as they raise their children.
• A culture of partnership between the church and parents in the spiritual development of their children.
• An ongoing initiative of creating opportunities for families to connect with other families in the church and community.
• Ongoing Marriage and Parenting training and development.

While there are numerous other things that family ministry could develop into, I believe that ultimately the family ministry needs to have an end goal of helping each family member become fully committed, life-long Disciples of Christ.

Lots to say about this subject and still lots to learn!

Brian