What Makes a Good Church a Good Family Church?

by Reba Collins

Church searching Christian parents always ask me: “What makes a good family church?” For a long time, I didn’t have a very good answer for those parents. Until now.

After two years of visiting, questioning, conferencing, and researching church ministry and church culture, I’ve concluded that the answer is really quite simple:

“A good family church is any church that helps parents to BE THE CHURCH AT HOME.”

That’s why I am a big fan of family ministry strategies like Orange. Orange’s basic premise combines the two most powerful influences in a young person’s faith – the church and the family. But, unlike some curricula, Orange recognizes that families are the most influential because parents spend more time with their children than their children spend with a church community. A good family church knows this basic principle and does whatever it can to help families get better at being The Church at home.

Good family churches adopt four principles of ministry. These churches:

1. Enable and equip parents to be the most influential spiritual presence in their kids’ lives;
2. Help families use the time they have with their kids to become the heart, the head, the hands, and the feet of Christ in everyday living;
3. Nurture a kid’s relationship with Christ through intentional and consistent relationships with Christ-like people;
4. Protect families’ time with a “less is more” approach to ministry.

When looking for signs of a good family church, consider the following visitor vibes: ·

• Do you feel like you’re dropping your kids off for time with friends or just for childcare?
• Are the volunteers interested in your family or only in getting your kids checked-in properly?
• Do you see the same volunteers each week, or someone different each time?
• Are you encouraged to serve in ministry based on your gifts, or required to serve in the same ministry where your kids are?
• Is follow-up communication personable, useful, enlightening, and motivating, or is it generic, mundane, boring, and information-driven?
• Are there planned “next steps” as your kids mature, or is each age-and-stage ministry a separate experience?

The bottom line is that good family churches see families as partners in being The Church, not as just another people group that their church serves.

What makes a good family church? A good family church intentionally approaches ministry from the perspective of: What is good for the family is good for the church because the family is The Church.

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Check out the Orange strategy via their website: http://whatisorange.org/

Here is a 3-minute introduction to the Orange ministry strategy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPquKfV-8Lo

Easy at-home resources include several Orange YouTube videos around such topics as gratitude, uniqueness, hope, and conviction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOYHgs6K4-s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGESwfsXxv4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdnd2aipHj0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHmvXgAYs-o