An excerpt from my recent book, co-edited with Dr. John David Trentham, Practical Family Ministry
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Family Ministry: Training to Launch Your Church’s Family Ministry
Have you ever wondered how to promote a family ministry model in your church? Perhaps you’re just curious about what family ministry is all about. Whether you’re ready to dive in or just testing the waters, RightNow Media and I have partnered together to provide a practical online course to help those who might […]
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Family Ministry: How Pastors Can Care for Their Children
Chap Bettis, executive director of The Apollos Project, previously wrote on ways in which church members can participate in the task of helping pastors shepherd their children. In a recent post, he directly engages pastors and offers practical ways to help them guard their children from church burnout and instill in them a love for the gospel […]
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Family Ministry: Family Discipleship in the Middle Ages and Reformation
With the dawning of imperial favor in the early fourth century and the crumbling of the Roman Empire in the fifth, the primary locus of Christian practice drifted from homes to dedicated institutional structures. Especially in the early Middle Ages, there appears to have been a loss of the ancient model for discipleship in families. […]
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Family Ministry: An Ancient Christian Perspective on Family Ministry
This model for family ministry not only began before Paul’s generation but also persisted far beyond the lifetimes of the first followers of Jesus. Didache and Letter of Barnabas provide summaries of Christian practices that date to the first and second centuries A.D. Both of these writings include an identical command for parents—a command […]
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Family Ministry: Building a Biblical Model for Your Church’s Family Ministry
So what does it mean to build a family ministry model for your church? And how can we be certain our model is biblical? Taking a moment to consider the meaning of a “model” in other fields of study may be helpful here. In other fields of study, a model must meet three criteria: (1) […]
[Read More...]Family Ministry: Two-Day Intensive Training in Family-Equipping Ministry
Do you have a desire to implement family ministry practices in your church? Are you looking to be trained in the ways of family ministry? Do you have two days to spare? Join me in January on the tree-lined campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY for a training event which will […]
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Family Ministry: A Blessed Necessity for Christian Marriages
Are children necessary in a Christian family? In a recent article Dr. David Schrock, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Seymour, Indiana says, “In truth, the Great Commission must begin with our own families. In Christ, be fruitful and multiply takes on greater significance—we are to make disciples of those outside our families and we are to have […]
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