Articles: Family

Read this mother’s account of how her child’s knowledge of Scripture encouraged his whole family during a dark period of their lives.

An excerpt from Robert Lewis's Raising a Modern-Day Knight

By Mark Hall

Growing Disciples from the Ground Up

Looking for ways to celebrate and support your church’s families?

As you minister to young children, have you also found ways to minister to their parents? Teaming up with parents can benefit the children’s spiritual growth in several ways. According to one parenting poll, 93 percent of parents expect to have a strong influence on their children’s values. Maybe that is why God gives parents the main responsibility for discipling children...

Sunday School teachers play a vital role in the lives of Christian families. They provide an important link between the church and the home and are in a key position to encourage young families in regular Sunday School attendance.

“I knew from the beginning that I was a great disappointment and trouble to my parents,” Brenda told me. I felt her pain as she said it. An infant can sense the parents' emotions. Although she spoke of them now with tenderness and understanding, she would never fully escape the effects of that first impression: Her parents were ashamed of her because she was not the perfectly formed child they had expected. She was inferior because she could not see...

The circumstances are not unusual. Attitudes change during the teen years. Expectations become unreasonably high as to what merits attention. Some feel as if they have seen and done it all. They’ve put in their youth group time, and it’s no longer relevant. Perhaps they are just busier and more discriminating with their time. Church involvement takes the brunt of many schedules.

An increasing, but often overlooked, segment of our society is the single-parent family. Recent statistics reveal that 25 percent of children under 18 years of age live in a single-parent home. During the last decade, the number of single fathers increased 33 percent; the number of single mothers,17 percent. There is no sign this trend will stop.

What can we do as church leaders and as Christian educators to minister effectively to the single parents in our society and churches?

Dave A. Goetz of Leadership magazine lists multigenerational emphasis as one of the top 10 trends in the church world. He quotes Lyle Schaller, who said of this trend, "The only agreement among generations in the church can be captured in the statement, ’I want to leave more hopeful than I came.’ Worship styles, theology, technology—all divide. Churches that do well unite around a common cause. Too often, though, to try to make everyone happy, many churches unite around, ’Let’s take care of each other.’"

by Billie Davis

A sad dark face seemed to accuse me as I opened my morning paper. "Tears rolled from the eyes of the African-American teen," the front-page story began. She had found ugly racial words scrawled on her art-class project. The article called black/white relations in the school a "racial divide," and asked, "What can we do to bridge it?"

When salespeople want you to buy machines and equipment, they use the word friendly because they know you may be afraid of new technology. Facing change is like walking into a strange country, so they tell you a computer is "user friendly."

"Fewer Families Now ’Traditional.’" This was a recent headline in my morning paper. Then in bold type I read: "Married parents with kids make up only 26 percent of households."

Most parents want help. I felt newly convinced of this as I viewed the amazing array of materials on parenting themes in a large bookstore. I counted 31 different periodicals and 875 book titles! Such a market exists because parents feel uncertain and are reaching out for advice on how to raise their children.

How to Say “NO” to Your Kids is the title of the cover story in a late September, 2004 issue of Newsweek magazine. While I was reading it my morning paper arrived. Headlining the feature section in large colored type was Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, followed by Toddlers Are the Newest Marketing Target. The article was illustrated by a picture of a child in the cart at the grocery store reaching out toward the food, begging mother to buy a certain box of cereal.

A Sunday School teacher was shocked when a first grader said this in class. The teacher had asked the children to pay special attention to some words in a chorus. The child did not speak in rebellion but simply quoted her mother.

The Sunday school can play a major role in enriching families.

"I wish we could have a seminar for parents," the pastor of a small church wrote me. "I know parents need help, but we lack both money and personnel. Larger churches can offer people many special services. What’s a small church to do? How can we meet the changing needs of today’s parents?"

War is declared. A child, with tears in his eyes and anger in his voice, screams, "You hate me! You had better not touch me! You never pick me! I’m going to tell my mom!"

Gen X is the least churched generation in America. According to George Barna, only 28 percent of Gen Xers (ages 20-37) attend church compared to 51 percent of Builders (58+). Even so, there is reason to hope that more Gen Xers will attend church soon.

This year when Pentecost is fully come, your congregation can come together in one place for a Sunday evening that will help young and old look at the birth of the Church in new ways. The following idea was developed and used at Evangel Temple in Springfield, Missouri.

Some know him as the legal counsel for the Assemblies of God. Others, as a graduate of Harvard Law School. Some know him as an expert on tax law or the author of 40 books. In Springfield, Missouri, a group of fourth-grade boys know him as their Sunday School teacher. Richard has made a long-term (read 17-year) commitment to discipling boys so they will know and live by God's Word. Each week via e-mail, Richard updates parents about their sons' Bible lesson. Enjoy this sample.

Inspirational story of Todd Beamer

By Wes Haystead

Methods for teaching and how different people learn

This four-part presentation is designed to help your members understand God's purposes for the Church, the structure and needs of the local church, and their calling to serve God by discovering their gifts and learning they can fulfill themselves through service in the local church.

a quick guide to becoming a good storyteller

What are learning centers and how do they work?

By Stefanie Reubell

Hands-on Bible learning can occur at one table or at interest centers positioned throughout a room. Teachers who want to use hands-on learning in interest centers can refer to the checklist below for possible ways to equip different centers. Resourceful teachers can equip Sunday school rooms for enjoyable hands-on Bible learning on almost any budget. The items with asterisks (*) can be brought from home or made inexpensively.

Permission Slip Template

author, former missionary, and longtime proponent of Christian education

A recent study conducted by the Barna Group provides new insights into the question, "What is the connection between childhood faith and adult religious commitment?

A program for introducing the basics of Christianity to those interested.

by L. Alton Garrison

Misconceptions hamper the future of missions in America. But there are ways church leaders can overcome them and stand together for national revival.

by Michael Ridgeway

What bait are you using to reach people with the Gospel? What does the Great Commission really call us to do? “Discipleship is an inseparable part of evangelism—it begins before and continues long after conversion.”

This year when Pentecost is fully come, your congregation can come together in one place for a Sunday evening that will help young and old look at the birth of the Church in new ways. The following idea was developed and used at Evangel Temple in Springfield, Missouri.

So often we measure people by their extraordinary moments, but the ordinary moments are what we should pay attention to.