This chapter is titled "Family-Based Ministry: Separated Contexts, Shared Focus". This chapter was written by Brandon Shields about his model of family ministry that he uses at his church, family-based ministry. This model was originally pioneered by a guy named Mark DeVries (should sound familiar from the earlier blogs). The family-based ministry model looks a little like this.
"Family-based churches retain separate, age-segmented ministry structures. The difference between family-based models and typical programmatic models is that family-based churches intentionally include intergenerational and family-focused events in each ministry." (pg 100)
This is one of the three models that are presented in this book that I would claim being a fan of. I have seen this model used more and more in the many different churches that I have visited. The cool thing about this ministry model for churches today, is that it does not take as much work to implement this getting from the traditional programmatic model. By creating opportunities for families to be together at church opens the door for even more possibilities. You would still give the youth the chance to have their own place where they could come to and be with people their age and talk about things without their parents being there. Now though, you would have the chance to add to that with creating opportunities for families to be together at church, reenforcing the idea that being a family and growing in your faith are important and go hand in hand.
You make some great points Pat. It seems to me as well that this model is going to be the easiest to implement. Of course that doesn't mean it won't be difficult and time consuming (as Mark DeVries says it takes years to get it really going). It definitely seems as though it would be less work of the three. Sounds simple to me, really: add a bunch of adults to your youth ministry and provide events for families. Sounds fairly simple to me!
ReplyDeleteIt is the easiest, I would think. Again, I think it is only the foundational steps for Equipping ministry. First you must establish the expectation for parents and families, then you must help them. Help them have excuses to be together, train them, and provide resources and materials for families to enable discipleship.
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