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Notes from the Family Ministry portion of The Gospel, Counseling, and the Church Conference

Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY recently hosted a conference called The Gospel, Counseling, and the Church.  There was also a pre-conference “family track” for leaders in children’s, student, and family ministry.  Patrick Aldridge, Pastor for Children and Youth at Redeemer Fellowship Church, St. Charles, IL, took notes for the SojournKids.com blog and here are some highlights.

Four things that need to be considered when putting together a Gospel centered ministry (Mark Prater from Covenant Fellowship)

  1. Know what you are building
    1. Start with philosophy of ministry tied into ministry of church
    2. Craft a clear simple Gospel-centered philosophy of ministry statement and community it often
    3. Write Gospel-centered objectives for the ministry
  2. Role of pastor or leader needs to be clearly defined
    1. Scripturally parents are responsible to teach and discipline their children (Deut. 6:5-7 and Eph. 6:4).  Pastors and leaders need to find ways to come along side parents and equip them for their biblical responsibility.
    2. Pastors and leaders need to be aware that they are responsible for the message they present.
    3. The role of pastors and leaders is help parents see their families in the larger community of faith and use that community to help them and their families.
  3. Choosing a curriculum., which needs
    1. To effectively teach the Gospel – the message that never changes.
    2. To help equip parents to teach the Gospel at home.
    3. A theological framework that agrees with the theological framework of the whole church
  4. Place our confidence in the Gospel

For an example, read how Sojourn keeps their children’s ministry Gospel-centered.

Also included in Patrick’s excellent notes are thoughts on youth ministry and family-equipping ministry. Check out the whole post, it’s incredibly helpful.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 10:08 am and is filed under Bible, Bible Study, Faith, Family, Parenting, The Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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