Family Ministry is currently comprised of three workable models. The Family-Integrated Ministry model is characterized by its removal of age segmented activities with all families, infants to parents, worshipping together. The Family-Based Ministry model maintains the age segmented programs and activities of most churches, yet intentionally provides curriculum, activities, and events designed to draw the generations together. The Family-Equipping Ministry model may retain youth ministry and the Sunday School hour, but every activity and function of the church is focused on championing the parents as the primary disciple-makers in the children’s lives, while at the same time the parents recognize and embrace the church as an active partner in the process. At The Journal of Family Ministry, and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, we are training ministers in the Family-Equipping Model, but we believe we can learn from other models which have similar goals.
Read more about the three models in “Perspectives on Family Ministry”.
Contributed by Brandon Shields
Dr. Brandon Shields is the teaching pastor at First Baptist Church, West Palm Beach, Florida. Dr. Shields has established himself as the spokesperson for the Family-Based model of church ministry. Read more about the Family-Based model as well as other helpful insights in “Perspectives on Family Ministry”.
Continued from previous post.
The “Family-Based” and “Family-Equipping” models have become quite popular in the last several years. As the smoke of bloated budgets, attractional programs, and drop-off youth ministry cleared, many youth pastors began to rethink the effectiveness of a philosophy that rarely penetrated the doorposts of their families’ homes.
Additionally, the realities of a struggling economy are forcing churches to invest every dollar strategically in areas with the greatest return. These factors have converged to create a new reality for family ministry, where focusing on parents is biblically/theologically, philosophically, and economically satisfying and necessary.
In response to these challenges, Family-Based ministry seeks to “keep the priority of the family at the forefront of our mission, to give families the understanding and tools they need to raise their children to grow to their legacy of faith.”[1] Rather than implementing a complete structural overhaul, the Family-Based approach is methodologically flexible and practically accessible for churches of any size: “We are not suggesting a radical change in programming. What we are suggesting is a fresh mind-set: Parents and family are crucial to faith development in every area of a ministry’s program.”[2] The Family-Based model maintains a great deal of continuity with traditional and historical youth ministry, recognizing the value of evangelistic venues targeted specifically at a youth culture that does not enjoy the luxuries of a traditional family structure.
Similarly, the Family-Equipping model attempts to reconceptualize the task of youth ministry: “Our goal? To engage our church’s leadership in a radical restructuring of priorities that would reengage parents in the spiritual lives of their youth and children.”[3] To accomplish this task, Family-Equipping churches (starting with the pastor) radically reorganize their ministry structures to reflect this parent focus, including staff, budgets, events, communication, and curriculum. The Family-Equipping model casts off many of the encumbrances of traditional youth ministry, instead choosing to promote family offerings almost exclusively.
Post 2 of 4. Read Post 01, 03, 04
Dr. Brandon Shields is the teaching pastor at First Baptist Church, West Palm Beach, Florida. Dr. Shields has established himself as the spokesperson for the Family-Based model of church ministry. Read more about the Family-Based model as well as other helpful insights in “Perspectives on Family Ministry”.
[1]Jim Burns and Mark Devries, Partnering with Parents in Youth Ministry(Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2003), 16.
[2] Ibid., 7.
[3]Renfro, Paul, Brandon Shields, Jay Strother. Perspectives on Family Ministry(Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2009), 143.
