Seven Family Ministry Essentials

"Think about helping parents become spiritual leaders of their children. Think about how difficult it is in our culture to educate, inspire, and remain faithful to the cause. Now think about what it would look like if Christian parents barely thought about spiritually leading their families through every age and stage of their child’s development because it had become second nature. Just think, in one generation, this could change. And you could be a part of this transformation in your church’s culture."

Book: 7 Family Ministry Essentials: A Strategy for Culture Change in Children's and Student Ministries by Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman, David C. Cook, 2015

Introduction: I have built up a reputation as the CTF Devourer, the one who reads and reviews everything Christian Teen Fiction. I do also devour Christian Adult Fiction. Rarely though, do I open up a non-fiction book. However, there’s one topic I’m just passionate enough about to read non-fiction books on: Children’s Ministry. I’m a teacher by profession and a constant volunteer of anything and everything children’s ministry in my church. So when this book was presented to me for review I couldn’t resist going out of the fiction realm. And it’s worth it. I can definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the spiritual development of children. It has some good thought-provoking things to say. I’ll discuss some of them in the “notes” section below.

Genre: Non-Fiction

Target Audience: Boys and Girls 18+

Subjects: Children’s Ministry, Family Ministry, Parenting

Summary: “Family Ministry”, “Children and Families Pastor”, “Family Program”, these terms are gaining popularity. Our culture has begun to recognize that complete total segregation of ages within church is not the ideal. We’ve started to recognize that church ministry leaders who see children 2-4 hours a week can not be the primary spiritual leaders of children instead of their parents. For a few generations those of us in the church have willingly tried to do the role of the parents and the parents have willingly let us. It hasn’t worked. More and more children are walking away from the faith when they leave home. So we implement this idea of a family focused ministry. But how does that work? What does it look like? In this book, the authors lay out seven values such a ministry can latch on to and make the focus of the ministry. Some of the ideas are radical and some are just plain practical. Some are a continuance of things many churches are already doing and some are new ideas that few have tried before.

Notes: The main points the author covers are that a good “Family Ministry” needs to include the following seven values: Empowering families to take spiritual leadership in the home, forming lifetime faith that transcends childhood beliefs, teaching Scripture as the ultimate authority of truth, understanding the role of the Holy Spirit to teach and transform, engaging every generation in the gospel of God’s redemptive story (of note: one great way to help with this point is to use the What’s In The Bible DVDs – they do a great job of presenting the big picture of God’s Grand Redemptive Story all the way through the Bible), making God central in every biblical narrative and daily living, and participating in community with like-minded ministry leaders. Each of these points is explained in very great detail. In fact, there are so many sub-points it’s almost like each chapter could be it’s own book! One of my favorite aspects of the book is the end of each chapter. The authors give suggestions for specific activities to apply the lessons in the chapter. It may be a way to evaluate your current ministry and see how effectively it is meeting the needs of those in it or it may be an activity for parents to do with their children.

From what I gather as I read through this book, one thing to take note of is that the authors present a slightly charismatic approach towards children’s ministry. There are a number of references to feelings and letting the Holy Spirit lead the ministry. There is nothing in the book that is directly contrary to Scripture, it just presents a slight slant towards the charismatic.

This book could be beneficial for anyone interested in children or family ministry or parenting. It is most useful though for leaders of a children’s ministry program or family ministry program in their churches. Most of the content has to do with changing the whole direction a ministry is heading and is applicable only to the actual leaders of the ministry as opposed to one teacher or one parent who does not have a say in the decision making process. It’s benefit for others is the mindset it creates, helping everyone involved in a ministry grasp why it is important to do things in a certain way.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 - These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.