This chapter is titled "Family-Equipping Ministry: Church and home as Cochampions." To get a littler personal here at the forefront, this was the model that my group was assigned to research and look into for a project in this class. After researching it and looking at the other models, I would have to say that the family-equipping model is one of my top, if not the top, choices for family ministry models. One of the eye-opening statements that stuck out to me in this chapter was,
"The home has the greatest impact on young lives; with few exceptions, if we fail to impact the home, we will never make a lasting impact on students." (Pg 143)
This is exactly what I felt was lacking in the other two ministry models. The family-equipping model takes serious the fact that the home is a vital asset in raising children as disciples of Jesus. Better than that, according to God's Word, parents are to be the primary educators of their children. Anyone who approaches the issues within family ministry today logically, can see this in the current state of our families today. Think about it. Where do children/youth spend the majority of their time? Home. If you think that it's the church's responsibility to be the primary disciplers of your children, then your children should be living at the church and only visit the home 1-3 times during the week. I also like this model in the sense that adults are serious about their faith and are serious about wanting to take their God-given responsibility of raising their children seriously, they wouldn't make excuses about teaching their children. Some advocates for other models have argued that for busy families, this model puts too much pressure on the parents. In actuality, I would strongly disagree. Even if a parent is busy, if he/she is a good parent, he/she is going to spend time with his/her children. A parent could use this time, beginning at a young age, to teach his/her children what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, making it quality time, and instilling a sense of anticipation and excitement in the child as he/she looks forward to the next time that he/she gets to spend time with his/her parent(s). Another important observation that I would like to point out as well, is that this model is not "doing-away" with the church's youth ministry. In fact, in the title Jay Strother says that the church and the home are cochampions. The parents are not going to be 'left out to pasture' so to speak. The church is going to be there to help. The church in this model, similar to that of the family-based and family-integrated models, serves as an extended-family. The youth minister, youth leaders, and other families within the church will be able to provide for and assist parents if they ever were to run into an issue or a roadblock. It is this type of collaboration and working together in raising children that I feel exemplifies and really shines forth the unified body of Christ.
A lot of people would ask about bad parents. How do you get them involved? The issue of good parents is a whole Church issue. All areas of ministry should be focussed toward building them up. Restructuring ministry in a family-equipping sense will overly-expose parents to models and information about being good parents.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the busy family thing should be a Church issue. We should be teaching people how to choose appropriate priorities and be focussed on Christ-centered lives. Parents are still going to have more than the 2-4 hrs a week that Youth Ministries have.
You make some great points Pat. Great quote there by Jay as well. As Jay says, the greatest impact on a child comes from the environment of the home. I believe this is one of the major reasons that the deterioration of the family is so prevalent in today's society. As divorce has increased over the years the home life and positive influence on the children has diminished it has ultimately resulted in lacking spiritual lives in the home.
ReplyDeletePat, I like how you switched the tides on the subject and stated that "If you think that it's the church's responsibility to be the primary disciplers of your children, then your children should be living at the church and only visit the home 1-3 times during the week." That's a fantastic point Pat!