My friend Ryan Frank wrote a post recently entitled What Bugs Me About Family Mnistry. It generated quite a discussion. I made the first response to his comments and generally agree with the thoughts he shared. From my work & interaction with churches around the country, I tend to see one of four responses when it comes to the topic of “Family Ministry”:
- Complete Disregard - these churches & leaders seem to be saying, “it’s much too difficult…we want to keep doing church like we’ve always done it.”
- Confused Paralysis- they simply don’t know how to create “family ministry” that fits within the context of their church, so they either sit on the sideline or dabble – neither of which is going to be effective.
- Categorical Change – As Ryan described, this is when a church abandons programs & ministry philosophies – even ones that have been effective – in lieu of “family ministry”, but they do so without any strategic plan.
- Calculated Application – this is when a church integrates family ministry effectively, according to a calculated plan that has been well thought out and carefully applied.
This last one is what I want to share about in this series. But let me first make sure it’s understood that I am a HUGE fan of the family ministry concept. And by “family ministry” I mean the idea of incorporating what we do in the church (be it Children’s Ministry, Student Ministry or any other area) within the context of equipping the family to be the primary spiritual formation agents with their children. The spiritual formation of children belongs in the family, to parents! I have said many, many times over the past 20 years as a Children’s Pastor that “I am not responsible for the spiritual formation of any children except my own”. BUT…I am called to serve parents and assist them in the spiritual formation process of their children by equipping them and leading program in the church compatible with a “learning faith at home” mentality.
What is happening in the church in general right now, with the discussion and struggle to give the discipleship process back to parents, is the result of the church taking the process from parents years ago. We (the church) created the problem in the first place. So we are headed in the right direction – giving the spiritual formation process back to parents – but we must be careful how we do it.
In the next several posts I’ll share what I believe to be an effective process for integrating “family ministry” into your church, thus partnering with parents effectively to equip them to claim responsibility for the spiritual formation of their own children.
[...] Part 1 [...]
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