Episode 007 – SPIRITUAL PARENTING
Show Notes
What you have now is millennials who really want to be involved in their children’s lives, but are ill-equipped because many of them weren’t parented spiritually themselves…
Churches need to give millennials practical resources that are not antiquated… We need to give them meaningful ways to find community… and we need to give them paths for mentorship…
I can’t tell you how many young moms and dads are asking me for mentors… for couples in their 40s and 50s who can help them…
Children’s ministry typically means a “program”; it tends to have a “child-centric” approach… in a family ministry we see the child as a byproduct of the family they are raised in… we want to look at the child in context…
When we start dealing with the broader issues and bring restoration and health to those, we bring greater ministry to that child than we could have during one hour per week…
We have to repackage how we message about the need for involvement in children’s ministry… inviting people into a journey is more compelling…
For senior leadership, we need to further the message of that journey and then make the call for people to participate in the raising of the next generation…
In Western society, we’ve become so individualistic that we only think about our own families and not our greater participation in the family of God…
To the empty-nesters: you are the most prepared you will ever be to serve in local children’s ministry, and lots of you are just sitting on the sidelines… we need to challenge them to re-engage in the life of the local church…
Questions for you and your team
1) How well is your church doing at equipping parents to minister to their children?
2) How would your ministry look if you began to shift from a child-centric to a family-centric approach?
3) What can you do to begin to create situations where organic mentorship can take place?
4) How well are you and your team doing at positioning children’s ministry participation as an invitation to be part of a compelling spiritual journey?
RESOURCES
Spiritual Parenting: An Awakening for Today’s Families by Michelle Anthony
Pursuing God’s Will Together by Ruth Haley Barton
Also, be sure to join us next year for The Gathering, a unique, 3 day event designed for you and your family ministries team!