Screen shot 2010-02-14 at 11.54.41 PMIt seems like everyone is talking about family ministry. No really, it’s for real this time. About 6-8 years ago children’s pastors began adding “and family” to their job title, but it’s been more recently than that since there’s been a ton of energy dedicated to this idea of engaging with parents, especially in the world of curriculum. I think that right now, the knowledgeable children’s pastor who’s shopping or curriculum is looking closely at what is being offered to parents as a component of the curriculum.

I really don’t think it’s enough to simply “add on” family stuff as if it were an after thought, but it needs to be highly developed and compelling. It could be the deciding factor for many children’s pastors making their selection. Some publishing companies have started developing some strong content for families, but there’s certainly room for more. Here are a few things to consider.

  • Take home materials are dead. Most children’s pastors are trying to find creative ways to get parents to engage with take home papers, but most never make it to the home. If take home papers is a part of your family strategy, I’d seriously consider revising the strategy.
  • Synchronize your family content with the kid’s content. I recently came across so family ministry curriculum that I was every excited about. It looked so good, I even considered what it would look like to switch curriculum. Then I realized that the family curriculum didn’t line up with the kids curriculum. No thanks. If I’m going to invest in this, I’m going to hit families with the same message from multiple.
  • Make it affordable. I know, I’ll probably take some flack on this one. However, I feel that price is huge. As a church, I’ll supplement some of the cost, but if my parents aren’t leading their kids spiritually, it’s unlikely that they’ll elect to pay $15 a month for a resource to help them do something they weren’t already doing.

Anyone else have any ideas you’d like to see concerning family ministry content?