Family ministry

Several years ago I heard Bill Gothard make a statement that made a major impact on my ministry. He said "We have become a weak nation because we have weak churches. We have weak churches because we have weak families. We have weak families because we have weak fathers, and we have weak fathers because no one has ever taught them how to be the men God created them to be." I immediately saw the truth in what he was saying and began to work on how that could be addressed in our church.

In my opinion the number one task of every church is to help persons come to a relationship with Jesus and then become a fully-devoted disciple of Him. The second task for the church is to help our families be the healthy families God intended. Certainly, there is no one else given the task of leading people to faith in Christ other than the church, and who else is doing anything positive to assist the family but the church and faith-based organizations such as Focus on the Family? The church may be involved in many good tasks, but these two, in my opinion, must be at the forefront of all we do.

One of the things I did for many years at Hebron was to preach a series of sermons every year on the family between Mother's Day and Father's Day. These messages would address various aspects of family life and the relationships that exist in the family. The Bible contains a wealth of information on family life, and it was never difficult to develop a series of messages on this topic.

I also believe it is important to focus on the men of the family. In too many of our churches the men are missing, and I am convinced they are the key to reaching the family. When Promise Keepers began we arranged to take a group of men every year to a nearby stadium for their gathering. It was always a high point for me, and I believe it was for our men as well. We began a Saturday morning breakfast twice a month. After breakfast and chitchat we would study the book Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes. We spent months discussing that book.

I am convinced there are few things you can do that will have a bigger impact on your church than getting men involved in Bible study and helping them address the issues that men face. It will take some intentional work on your part to make that happen, but the return will be well worth it. I would also encourage you to intentionally focus on how to improve your ministry to the family. Virtually everything in today's society attacks the traditional family, and our families need help in order to survive in today's environment. Your church may be the only hope they have in your community.

As you begin thinking about your fall and winter programming, let me encourage you to consider how your church can better minister to the men and families in your church and community.