Comments on: Do you drink pop? - part 2

By: Norma Osborn

Norma Osborn — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:55:24 +0000

I’m late getting in on this (just catching up after a busy summer). All the posts hit home. In my church the term “family ministry” seems to scare people off of being on a committee. Or, we get people who have all talk but no walk. I guess I need to get Holmen’s book and start from scratch.

By: Dale

Dale — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:39:10 +0000

Thanks for the excellent post! I have found that most attempts at providing support for family ministry seems to be narrow minded. It assumes that the family is made up of a loving Dad, Mom with eager support from both. I may be out of the box a bit but this is not the case with 40 percent of our familes. We come from broken families, or part of the family is in a different country (refugee) or one of the parents is not supportive. I believe that it is our goal to have functional families surving God together however if we are not relevant to the situations at hand how effective can we be.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:40:48 +0000

I also agree with Miss C. We have to talk about family ministry in words and ways that make sense to those around us. We have to ask the right questions to find out where people are at and then inspire them to the next step. What do you call a family serving together in the preschool department? What do you call an elderly couple spending the day with a young family? A weekend camp for families? Pop? Soda? Diet? Regular? I know that I am addicted both to coke (as we californians call it) and families transforming into Christ followers together.

By: Jason Douglass

Jason Douglass — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:38:26 +0000

Heather I started to read a book called Take it Home by Mark Holmen. It’s basally a book on how to start family ministries.

By: Glen Woods

Glen Woods — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:53:21 +0000

Great post and followup comments. This is the very thing I am wrestling with this year as I try to help my local church move forward in ministry effectiveness to our parishioners and our culture.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:52:53 +0000

I know this will probably be cleared up in the article, but I have a “can of worms” question… How can we have “age-appropriate” teaching as well as provide ample time and resources for “family ministry”? I think it really comes back to what parents are spiritually teaching in the home. So then the question becomes, how do we inspire that? There’s gotta be a book on that somewhere (haha, there’s always a book!). For the record: I like pop a lot, and I absolutely love people! hj.

By: Em

Em — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:07:49 +0000

What bothers me about “Family Ministry” is that it usually falls under Children’s Ministry. Just because the family includes children, it’s automatically up to the Children’s Ministry to run a family ministry. A family is also made up of adults, teenagers, grandparents etc and therefore should be a church-wide ministry and goal. Family Mnistry doesn’t need to be a seperate ministry or something run by the children’s ministry. It should be something that all of the ministries of the church work together to provide.

By: Miss C

Miss C — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:28:52 +0000

If you asked this question to anyone here in New York…they would give you a blank stare…and then ask…”What is pop?” It’s soda here on the east coast.
Family Ministry in our Long Island church hasn’t caught up to ministry across the country. You would think in one of the most progressive cities in the world, NY would be at the top of the game. Not necessarily so. From my vantage point, the churches have been in a time warp, or so it seems. The old church mentality is slowly fading and the “world mentality” has crept in. Life is lived at a very fast pace and usually there is no time for church related functions…or, if parents can use them as “free babysitting”, their kids will be there!
Our challenge is to create, with God’s help, a desire to grow, to know God, to have passion for the things of God and to basically…get a bible and start to read it. This has been my greatest challenge in the past 2 years.
Many within our congregation have not grown up in the church or have come from the strict Italian or Spanish church background. Family is everything but not to be associated with the church. That is something they do for a short amount of time once a week. We have muslim, hindu and jewish children rubbing shoulders with our kids in public schools every day. We are looking for ways to reach these families with what attracts them.
So, where do you start? This is a mission field on a completely different plain. Building relationships and trust with kids and their parents has been a first step.

By: gordon

gordon — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:39:32 +0000

i enjoy reading the articles for new insight, to the different challenges in the ministries, the family ministries in our church is to get our kids to take the gospel to their parents aswell to other kids. we have a large number of kids who come to whorship, but are not supported by their families. the family support has die died in many communities and needs rebuilt , especially with christ in our lives.

By: Dawn Verbrugge

Dawn Verbrugge — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:20:34 +0000

Thanks for the great analogy, Ryan! I just spoke on Family Ministry at a LIQUID gathering and could have used your pop illustration. Our definition of Family Ministry is “encouraging and equiping parents to raise their children to be followers of Jesus, committed to a life long pursuit of loving God and loving people.” We say nothing about the method, although we have one, because each local church culture is unique. Our philosphy of Family Ministry was developed through a lot of research, including Mark Holmen’s writings. There is no one size fits all Children’s Ministry, so why should there be a one size fits all Family Ministry? I’d encourage anyone who is looking into Family Ministry to do their homework - beginning with prayer - before launching anything. Thanks for contributing to the conversation!