See How to Create Effective Family Ministry Part 1 & Part 2 for further details on this series, including:
Step One: Do Your Homework, and…
Step Two: Understand You Context
Steps 1 & 2 are, essentially, gathering information. You are understanding what other churches are doing, learning options and grasping what your church has been and is all about in the area of family ministry.
Steps 3 & 4 are, essentially, about taking what you learned and defining the options for your own church.
Step Three: Formalize Your Ideals
You’ve done your homework and understand your own context. So what might Family Ministry look like in your church? Will one of the models – Orange, Faith At Home, D6, Shift – work easily for you? Are there pieces of each that might work? Do you need to create a unique model based on what you discovered in steps 1 & 2? A few parts included in this step would be:
- Defining what your real goals are in creating family ministry. If there is one sentence to describe what it is you want to see happen, what would that sentence be?
- Take time to think and pray through everything that you’ve learned and begin putting your thoughts and ideas down on paper. Pretty much everything that “might” work should be put on the list. Include your core leaders in this discussion. Options might include creating a family worship service, integrating kids into current programs, creating milestone ceremonies outside of regular service times, equipping parents through classes or resources, or any number of other options.
- Begin thinking through the “how” questions: How will this impact what we’re doing now? How will we resource this (time, talent & treasure)? How will this be aligned with the vision of the church as set by the Senior Pastor (and/or Elders, etc., depending on how your church is structured)? How will all the components fit together in a unified movement with current ministry, including what’s happening in other departments?
The point of this step is to understand your goal and get all the options that “might” be effective on the table. In your thinking, what would be “ideal” family ministry in your church?
Step Four: Begin the Conversation
To this point, you and your core group of leaders are the ones who have been doing the research, dreaming, and understanding what the possibilities might be for family ministry in your church. Now it’s time to start the conversation with others. Now hopefully there is at least some indication that Senior leadership and other staff members/departments are on board with the idea of “partnering with parents to guide kids toward a HEART for God” in a very real and practical way. The reality is that this point in the process is very different in each church, so you will need to judge how open those around you are to talking about the creation of a more family-centric church, but here are a few pointers for the conversation:
- Come prepared. If you have done a thorough job in steps 1 through 3, then you should be prepared with an understanding of what’s out there, what might work and not work in your context and why, and what you would like to introduce as possibilities.
- Lead with vision. Paint a picture of what you believe can be accomplished through what you are introducing. Don’t lead by telling the youth pastor that the youth program has to move because you want to do a family service! You believe the church as a whole can provide ministry for a deeper transformation in the lives of families. You believe that family ministry opens the doors for deeper impact, more effective ministry, and a more biblical model of parents taking responsibility for their children’s spiritual formation. These are the kinds of “vision” statements you need to share.
- Be ready to offer solutions. In any process like this some very real issues might be brought up. Be ready with solutions, or at least be ready to find solutions. Be flexible and adaptable in your response, especially to Senior leadership, and understand that you might not have the corner on seeing the big picture.
- Understand that the conversation takes time. Depending on your context, you might be introducing the idea of family ministry for the very first time. Or it might be you are just tweaking what already exists just a little bit. These types of variables will go far in determining how long the process might take. New ideas take time to understand, to accept and to own. Again, depending on where your church is at, this might mean the process takes months or even longer. That’s OK!
As I write this I realize I’m providing just a thumb-nail sketch of the process. Each church environment is unique, with a different set of priorities, history and circumstances. But each of these steps – perhaps modified to fit your situation – is essential to creating effective family ministry (or any other ministry for that matter). We’ll address the final four steps – moving from laying the foundation to building the structure of family ministry – in upcoming posts. If we can be of further service in this process, please Contact us and let us know how we can serve you.
