Ministry Options: Families

Earlier this week I posted that, although imagination, creativity and the Holy Spirit allow for infinite possibilities, there are really only six primary roads to go down in youth ministry.

That post was inspired by thinking about ministry with families and the usual routes churches take in ministering to them.

So, again, while many options can exist, there are really only seven regularly used plans of attack...

#1 - Traditional Sunday morning Sunday School consisting of an up-the-font children's talk followed by small groups.

#2 - Do a "family friendly" service on Sunday afternoon/evening, either starting or ending with dinner, with a similar look and feel of Sunday morning.

#3 - Do a monthly "family inclusive" service on a Saturday afternoon, again involving food, along the lines of "Messy Church."

#4 - Increase face-to-face time with of the families by starting small groups, meeting weekly or fortnightly, over a meal (notice a theme?).

#5 - Put on training events and seminars that deal with issues that parent and families are interested in, providing babysitting (like talks by Steve Biddulph).

#6 - Start playgroups in order to connect with local families.

#7 -"Adopt" a local school, hopefully one where kids from your church already attend, and flood it with scripture teachers, canteen helpers, P&C members, reading helpers, open day volunteers, ect... Intentionally connecting with school families with the end point of a church plant/service on the school groups.

Or #8 - Combine any and all except the first two.

Why shouldn't the first two be run side-by-side? Find out in my next post on Saturday...