Andi Lynch

Childrens ministry in the church and home

Childrens and Family Ministry Plan
Childrens and Family Ministry

When I think of family ministry I cant help thinking of where we

all started from and that is as children. I first of all want the foundation
of our churches family and childrens ministry to start with teaching
children and growing them up to be followers of God for the rest of
their lives. Jesus gave us a great example of the importance of
children in our lives when He said in Matthew 19:14 Let the little
children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of
heaven belongs to such as these. It is starting with a good foundation
in family ministry can we hope to prepare families to be God centered.
To have the biggest faith impact on a child or youth you need to
partner with the parents and get the entire family involved in their
faith, because the family is the place where the children grow and
learn. Likewise parents are the most influential people in a childs life
and can have either a positive or negative impact on the faith of their
family. As a Director of Family Life Ministry I want to help families grow
in their faith so that all members of the family can be permanent
followers of Jesus Christ. Here is my plan to help families make the

biggest impact in their childrens lives and in turn make everyone a

devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
There are many different definitions on childrens and family
ministry out in the world today. Many of these definitions focus on
different issues and work for the churches they are in. My definition of
family ministry is accepting families where they are, in all elements
(spiritual, emotional, psychological, and financial). While equipping
them with the tools, knowledge, and skills that will empower them to
move toward a healthy family unit with Christ at the center. (This does
not mean that we provide the direct means of help at all times), but
our goal is to help families grow in the knowledge and strength of our
Lord while helping them equip themselves with the right skills, tools,
and knowledge in order to live healthy lives rooted in Christ. Now lets
unpack the definition. First of all through out Jesus ministry He went
to the people who were hurting and needing a savior. It is important in
our childrens and family ministry that we accept the families as they
come in whither they are doing well or hurting. Knowing that it is not
our ministry that provides all of the answers but God, we want to equip
families with God as their foundation so that they can live healthy lives
focused on Christ. In fact our purpose of family ministry is to grow
healthy families rooted in Christ. It is with that foundation of Christ we
can complete our mission. Our mission is to empower parents to be
the primary faith formers of their families by equipping them with the

skills, tools, and knowledge so that families (and through them

children) can live healthy lives rooted in Christ.
My vision for family ministry is that empowered through our
children and family life ministry, families will build up each other in the
faith to live active and healthy lives focused on God. Lets break this
down; first of all I want to prepare families and all individuals in that
family to aggressively follow their faith. How do families aggressively
follow their faith, by putting their faith into action. Instead of just
being taught at, whole families are participating in bible studies,
wanting to teach others, be involved in worship, serving in the
community, building intergenerational relationships with other
members of the church, and living their life in faith. Parents are able to
have a place where they have a support system for each other and
children are able to see other adults as role models. Lastly because
they are living their lives rooted in Christ as they go into the
community they will bring people in contact with Christ and increase
the kingdom of God.
My foundation for family ministry come from 5 different Biblical
pillars that give an understanding of how ministry can be effective in
the family. The Biblical pillars are role of scriptures (1 Timothy 4:1013), attitude toward children (Psalm 127:3-5a), role of parents
(Deuteronomy 6:4-9), role of the church (Mat 28:19-20, the focus of our
actions (1 Peter 4:8-11, Romans 15:5-7). My first pillar is the role of

scripture. Scripture is Gods Holy Word; it is central and applicable to

our lives as Christians and to our family life ministry. We believe that
Scripture is inerrant-meaning without error-and will be included in
every action or event we have in our family ministry. It is important as
a Christian to have the Bible in our hearts in order to go and spread the
good news of our God. The scriptural reference that I have for the role
of scripture is 1 Timothy 4:10-13. This passage is Paul talking to young
Timothy telling him that in this world we toil and strive but we have
hope because we have a living God who is the savior of all people.
Paul also tells Timothy to set an example to all believers in many
things but also to the public reading of Scripture using it to encourage
and teach. Knowing that the Bible is the Word of God and without error
we can use the Bible as a map for our lives both to encourage and to
teach. The second Biblical pillar is our attitude toward children and the
scripture for this pillar is Psalm 127:3-5a Behold, children are a
heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in
the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the
man who fills his quiver with them. This passage talks about children
being a reward or gift from the Lord. Just like how arrows in the hands
of a warrior are cared for, practiced with and cherished children are a
blessing to be cared for, taught, and cherished by the family. My third
pillar is the role of parents. The role of parents in childrens and family
ministry is the most important and influential role in their childrens

lives. It is the parents who are the primary faith shapers of their
children and the parents who spend the most time with their children
and because of that know their children the best. It is through their
parents that children will know and love God and the church will take a
secondary role in faith formation. Parent will have the opportunity to
have weekly devotion times, faith talks, and special milestones that
help the parents teach and express God to their children. The scripture
reference that I chose for the role of parents is from Deuteronomy 6:49. The scripture talks about loving the Lord with all of your heart, soul,
and might while teaching your children about the Lord at all times.
The fourth pillar is the role of the church. The role of the Church in a
childs faith formation is secondary to the parents. It is here at church
that parents will receive training to teach their children about God.
Here at the church that the family of God will come together to
encourage parents in their responsibility and to help guide children as
they grow up. Here at the church that milestones for families will be
celebrated in the church family and it is through the church, that
parents can get together and help each other raise their children to be
rooted in Christ. The church will also give children many different role
models to learn from. The scripture that was chosen for the role of the
church is Matthew 28:19-20. This is the passage of the great
commission telling us as a church to go, and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them and teaching them in the way of the Lord. This

passage talks about all nations and this includes your children. The
last pillar is about the focus of our actions. This pillar answers the
reason why we ac the way we do as Christian brothers and sisters to
everyone. The scripture for this pillar is 1 Peter 4:8-11 and Romans
15:5-7. The passages tell us to keep loving and serving one another in
order that in everything God may be glorified. To put it short in all of
our actions as a church, a ministry, and in our families God may be
glorified and shown through us.
Now that we have talked about the role of parents and the
church I would like to tell you the role that I play as a Director of Family
ministry.

The role of a DFLM in family ministry is to look at the big

picture of the ministry and help each family raise their children so that
everyone reaches their heavenly home. A DFLM helps, encourages,
and equips parents as they bring up their children, creates faith
formation events for families to participate in, helps the spiritually
orphaned find a family to help build and guide them in life, and is a
beloved member of the church family. Like the church, my impact is
minimal compared to the impact that the parents have on their
children. Because of that my primary focus in helping the parents
grow the faith in their children.
There are many different models that family ministry can fall
into, some focus on having the family together at all times, while some
add more programs into the churches calendar. The model that this

family ministry is following is called the family equipping model. In the

family equipping model we focus on taking the already existing events
and equipping parents to be the primary faith formers of their children
through those programs. This gives the power to the parents who
already have the most effect on their child. The ministry at our church
gives parents the tools and skills to be that primary faith former in the
home. While supporting those parents through other relationships with
other parents who are experiencing the same struggles. The big test
that we apply to all of our events is the TIE test, which asks three
questions. 1) Are we training our parent during this event? 2) Are we
involving our parents? 3) Are we equipping our parents through this
event? If the answer is no to any of the three questions we need to
rework our plan so that parents are trained, involved, and equipped for
their work in the home.
At home I want families to actively live out their faith in their
everyday life. I want families to be open to having faith talks in their
home, but also out of their home and into the community. I want their
faith and love for God to be the driving force in their life. I see a family
starting even before a child is born in marriage enrichment classes
discussing the different faith formation steps that they think will work
in their future family. I see family devotions in the form of a family
Bible story at night for the little ones turn into faith talks about God
and His creation at home on any given day. I see families serving the

community because of their faith and their love for God, witnessing
and taking spiritually lost children and people into their families in a
(spiritual adoption).
I hope by now I made it pretty clear that our mission in family
ministry is to help the parents develop and grow the faith of their
children, but how do you describe faith? Faith is simply taking God at
His wordthat His Son Jesus Christ saved us through His birth, life,
suffering, death, and resurrection. Faith involves entrusting that God is
trustworthy about every area of our life. Faith is knowing, loving, and
following Jesus. Faith is a gift given to us by God through the means of
grace (Word and baptism.) God creates our faith and in turn we
respond to that faith. Faith can be given to us through the sacrament
of Holy Baptism in which we are adopted into Gods family and given
the gift of faith in which the Holy Spirit becomes a part of us. Faith can
also be given by the hearing, receiving, and believing through the
Word of God, the Bible. Our response with the help of the Holy Spirit to
the gift of faith promotes growth. We are helped in our faith through
the Holy Spirit who creates a longing inside us to respond more to the
gift of faith and to be more like Jesus. It is the work of the Holy Spirit
(the third person of the Trinity) to grow and strengthen our faith in God
(The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.)
While children are being taught by their parents the church is
partnering with parents to reinforce the faith. During the service

children will begin by being in church with their families, and their will
be a childrens message during both services. During the late service
it is up to the family if they would like their children to go to childrens
church during the sermon. Once the sermon is over they will be
released back to their families during the offering. In between services
we will have Sunday school in which the 1st-5th grade will have music
time for the first 10 min. The 5th graders will be paired with at least
one 1st or 2nd grade buddy and will help them with the music and hand
motions. Afterward each age will go with their teacher to their specific
classrooms. In the classrooms there will be times for both big groups
where they learn the Bible events and small groups where the kids talk
and process those events. This kind of system of small group and
large group matches a model of teaching called the pragmatic
participatory model. This model counts a childs spiritual formation as
the knowledge that Jesus Christ is their savior and that their actions
express that belief. This model uses many different strategies in
teaching including media, playing, music, and reading from the Bible. I
think that the use of so many different strategies will give the
volunteers a chance to teach to their strengths and the children many
different chances to learn with their different learning styles. Another
great aspect of this model is that it uses both big groups and small
groups so that everyone can learn the same material and yet be active
and participate in their small group.

Helping faith in your child grow is very hard if you have no idea
how children learn. That is why we work hard to equip parents each
developmental step their child is in at a time. As a child grows up they
learn, understand, and see the world through a different lens. Because
of their differing understandings children have different needs at
specific ages. Children who are younger Intellectually understand
things in a concrete way (for example: Jesus is not a light bulb because
He is a person). It is not till they grow up that they develop the
understanding of symbolism and other points of view. That is why
younger children need more concrete or literal objects that complete a
function for understanding of symbolism (example: a light bulb lightens
up the room so you can see and know where you are going, in the
same way Jesus shines and shows us where we are going.) For young
children a teacher needs to keep in mind their attention spans, and
what is an appropriate amount of time to be listening to the teacher
before they have a chance to move around. Start with small once
sentence concepts when teaching young children about God (example:
Jesus loves me, I am His, God made me) once a child has grown they
can handle more complex thoughts (Jesus died for my sins, because of
that I dont have to earn Gods love, Gods people still sin and God still
forgives them.) When children are young their emotions are tied to
themselves and how their environment interacts with them (example:
my friend is playing with one of my toys and I must have it now!!!)

When a child grows their emotional development increases to an

understanding of how others feel (empathy) and how to help others.
As with adults, children understand and comprehend in many different
ways. Some children understand concepts better when they are
moving around and acting things out (body smart) some children
understand if they read and process (book/word smart) and some
children need time to sit quietly and process what is being taught to
them (self smart). When teaching try to include different strategies so
that everyone can process and understand in their own way.
Besides Sunday school we are including an exciting program
involving milestone moments that families can go through together.
Our new program is called Family U and is broken down into 4 major
milestones for the family to go through together as the child reaches
certain ages. The first session is a baptism class. This is where
expecting parents or new parents get to come together to participate
in a class that explains what baptism is and its importance to Gods
family. Parents are also given a faith chest (at the baptism) and learn
that their responsibility is to be the primary faith developer of their
children. The second session is called faith talks and walks. This next
milestone is a class for parents of preschoolers to learn how to do
family devotions, prayer, blessings, and faith talks. At the end of the
class parents will receive a devotion book and a prayer journal that
they can read and complete as a family. Parents through out the class

will develop relationships with fellow parents and have homework

where they get to do hands on devotions with their children and then
get support from their church family. This class will go for 4 to 5 weeks
and focus on one topic each week (ex devotions, prayer, blessings)
The third session is the 3rd grade Bible extravaganza. This is an
interactive class for 3rd graders and their parents to have devotions
with in the church and home. The third graders will receive their Bibles
during church and will have their class with their parents during the
Sunday school hour. This will be a four-week class that will include
the story line of both testaments, directions on how to look up verses,
and exploding the Bible. This gives parents and third graders the
chance to read the Bible together in a group and to learn how to
interact with Gods word so that they can continue in the home. The
last session is the 6th grade service trip. This trip is a special trip that
the 6th grader takes with at least one of their parents or another special
adult mentor in their life. On this trip they will be going to different
areas and completing different service projects, bible studies, and fun
group fellowship.
The last additions to our family ministry are the family holiday
special events. These events are meant to bring fellowship with all of
the members of our church and to invite non-members. These
outreach events happen during big holidays such as Christmas and
Easter that provide non-members with a chance to come to our church

and see what God is about and give them an opportunity to have a
relationship with God. These events include our annual Christmas
caroling event, Trunk or Treat event, Passion Journey, and summer
church camping trip. For members these events give us the
opportunity to reach out into the community that we live in. In these
events we are also giving families a chance to have an experience
together and grow.
Before I leave you I want to remind you what we are all about
Jesus. In family ministry we work on building up families in Christ so
that all people may be touched by God and someday be reunited with
God in heaven. We love families, we love children and we want
families to live happy healthy lives but that is not our focus. Our focus
in on our Savior Jesus Christ who through His life, death, and
resurrection has saved us and is preparing a place for us in His
kingdom and through our baptism has united all of us into one big
family.