Family Ministry Resources
Articles Related to Family Issues and Family Ministry
Parents who Fight, Kids who Hurt: Responding to Kids Whose Parents are in Chronic Conflict Added: 2008-05-07
 No matter where you do youth ministry, you know kids whose parents fight, and kids whose parents fight a lot. While youth workers can’t fix all of the problems in kids’ lives, we do have a responsibility to become more aware of ways that issues like high-conflict marriages impact the daily lives of our students. This article shares insights from research and starting points for ways we can respond.
| Justice Hits Close to Home: A Roundtable Panel on Inviting Parents into Our Service Added: 2007-10-22
 In light of recent research and our commitment to the importance of parents in youth ministry, CYFM invited a handful of youth pastors and short-term missions experts to help us better understand how to invite parents to walk with their students in the justice journey.
| Family Ministry: Good Things Come in Threes Added: 2007-09-05
 When faced with the question, "How do you minister to families?" many of us balk, stutter, or change the subject. While we care deeply about the families of our youth ministries, we cannot always articulate or strategically plan for the ways we care for, equip, and encourage them. This article will help put some language around three of the most common approaches to family ministry, in addition to giving you
some tools you can use right now to assess your approach to families.
| Disconnected High School Students: Parenting Midadolescents Added: 2007-08-24
 Chap and Dee Clark recently combined their years of experience as parents with their respective expertise in youth ministry and family therapy to co-author Disconnected: Parenting Teens in a MySpace World. This brief excerpt from Disconnected highlights the emerging reality of midadolescence, along with offering faith-building strategies that can help parents move kids toward a growing faith in the midst of the midadolescent reality.
| Why Ecclesiology? Imagining a New Theology of Youth Ministry for the Church Added: 2007-08-24
 What do we really think about the church, and does it make a difference in the way we do youth ministry? Kara Powell and Brad Griffin argue here that our ecclesiology matters immensely for youth workers, and make practical suggestions for working out a new theology of youth ministry for your church.
| New Twists on Not-So-New Issues for Girls Added: 2007-06-25
 While it may seem to some that adolescence hasn’t changed much for girls in recent years, research and media trends indicate at least three areas we’ve identified as needing our renewed attention as youth workers. In this article we share ideas for responding to three “mores” that bring new twists to some perhaps-familiar issues: more sexy, more pressure, and more violence.
| Family Ministry: What Are the Issues...and Is Anybody Really Doing It? Added: 2005-12-01
Many youth workers, pastors, parents and Christian leaders are wondering aloud whether youth ministry has become an independent, unruly, and institutionally disconnected program that’s missing the heart of its mission—namely, to bring kids into vibrant, community-based relationships with God. Time for the Family Ministry movement.
| The Youth Workers’ Handbook to Family Ministry Added: 2005-01-13
Do your students talk to you about conflicts they’re having with their parents? How do we incorporate the entire family into our youth ministries? Chap Clark tackles these tough questions in his book The Youthworker’s Handbook To Family Ministry.
| Strategic Assimilation: Rethinking the Goal of Youth Ministry Added: 2004-12-01
Traditionally, senior high youth ministry has been more concerned with getting kids to make an individual decision to follow Christ than where they go from there. As noble as this goal is, in many cases it has led to a generation of youth ministry orphans.
| I’m the Minister to Youth and their Families…Now what? Added: 2004-10-05
When I moved to Nashville almost 14 years ago, my new position came with a curious title: “Associate Minister to Youth and their Families.” “I like it,” I said to the senior minister. But underneath my agreement, I wondered, how in the world am I supposed to do that?
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Audio Resources for Family Issues and Family Ministry
Do Not Hinder Them: The Imperative We Can No Longer Ignore: Fuller's Chap Clark calls the Church to reconsider what we're doing to kids and families by perpetuating "youth ministry as usual." In his inaugural professorial lecture at Fuller seminary in March 2007, Chap argues for a new model of ministering to youth by assimilating them into the life of the congregation.
Audio from the Connect For Intergenerational Ministry Conference Hosted by CYFM and Fuller
Seminary:
Additional Resources for Family Ministry:
Disconnected: Parenting Teens in a MySpace World, by Chap Clark and Dee Clark
Parents worry they don’t have the understanding or training to be able to care for their kids in a world that is increasingly superficial, politicized, and performance driven. Disconnected makes the concepts and strategies described in the bestselling Hurt: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers accessible to parents. After the overwhelming response to Hurt, authors Chap and Dee Clark here equip parents with an up-to-date, realistic parenting book that doesn’t ignore the harsh realities of adolescent life. It builds a foundation for parents by describing exactly how things have changed, takes them through the various developmental stages their children go through, and gives them workable paradigms for parenting.
www.parenteen.com
Fuller Seminary's Chap Clark seeks to bridge the gap between parents and adolescents through offering a range of seminars for churches and communities. ParenTeen Seminars equip parents to both understand and nurture their children in a constantly changing cultural environment. Tailored to the specific issues and needs of a community or hosting organization, ParenTeen Seminars are designed to help parents gain insight into their child's journey, and to develop a more authentic and effective parenting strategy throughout the teen years and beyond.
Center for Parent/Youth Understanding
"Understanding culture to impact culture," this organization intentionally studies youth culture and attempts to translate and analyze what they learn to help parents understand and engage their kids. A number of free resources on this site, in addition to a free bi-weekly e-newsletter.
Family Based Youth Ministry
A website hosted by Wild Frontier Ministries with resources to help connect youth ministries with parents. Includes research on the importance of parents in ministry, as well as a free monthly parent newsletter.
Family Ministry Article Archives
From Youth Specialties' online stash of free resources.
Understanding Today's Youth
Free pdf newsletters from Canadian Paul Robertson - a good resource to pass on to parents. Check out this issue (pdf) on his ongoing research gathering tattoo stories.
National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth
A link to information and services supporting family development, sponsored by the Family and Youth Services Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Search Institute
Search Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. This site hosts resources related to the 40 Developmental Assets, and numerous publications related to asset building in programs and communities. Also, check out their MVParents.com site, full of free resources and ideas for parents on building assets in their family.
www.mentoring.org
A great list of research and resources from the National Mentoring Partnership. Solid information for families as well as building up mentors within your church family.
www.smartmarriages.com
A resource of the Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education
Family Issues in the News
CYFM News
Fort Christian runs for compassion Students raise nearly $600 (Fort Saskatchewan Record)Fort Saskatchewan Christian School students ran for compassion last Friday, raising nearly $600 to sponsor two children overseas in their first “Run for Compassion.”
Parents take immersion fight into the courts (Telegraph-Journal)Parents are facing an uphill battle in their application for a judicial review of the province's decision to scrap early French immersion, legal experts say.
City Council rejects Lighthouse Christian's plans for outdoor lighting, sound system (The Times-News)As of now, Lighthouse Christian Fellowship's new school has a stadium that can't be used at night.
Maconaquah's Farris to play college volleyball (The Peru Tribune)Maconaquah's Taylor Farris signs to play volleyball at Cincinnati Christian University on Thursday. Looking on are (from left), parents Scott and Jayme Farris, Cincinnati Christian coach Rick Kerkhoff and Maconaquah coach Faith Hatcher.
Inspired by the Bible Christian allegory used throughout "Narnia" stories (Abilene Reporter-News)In C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" book series, good triumphs over evil, Christian allegory is woven throughout the narrative, and the Pevensie children become kings and saviors of a fantasy world.
A dose of reality (The Times of Northwest Indiana)WHEATFIELD | Eighth graders at Kankakee Valley Middle and DeMotte Christian schools got a real taste of what their parents face and what lies ahead when they attended The Reality Store.
Christian couple believe court ruling goes against God's plan (Los Angeles Times)They are among the majority of voters who decided eight years ago to ban gay marriages in California. Besides her faith, family is at the center of Cathi Unruh's life.
Bahamas Christian Council chief speaks out on violence (The Nassau Guardian)The Reverend Patrick Paul, newly-elected Bahamas Christian Council president says society must not accept the violence in our schools and in our country, as the country recorded its 27th murder on Monday, May 11.
2 students in graduating class of Saginaw County high school (WOOD TV 8 Grand Rapids) KOCHVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- The Victory Christian School Class of 2008 will graduate on June 22. All two of them. Josh Haley and Jordan Salvi will become the fourth and...
School Shooting Training At Abilene Christian University (KRBC/KTAB TV Abilene)A gunman was found on the Abilene Christian University campus today, but no one was injured. Law enforcement officials were training for an active shooter on the ACU campus.
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