We are thinking about making changes to how we support family discipleship as a church from mid term 3, but we want to hear from you.
For the past couple of years we have worked hard in kids and youth ministry to produce a weekly Family Discipleship Guide (FDG) to equip parents in using deliberate time in the Bible and prayer. This was sparked by COVID and not being able to meet as a church family. Since we have been free to meet again face to face we have continued to create a weekly FDG, and then adapt the content in this each week for our Kids Church and Youth Growth Group times. However we not seen a wide take up of this resource by families in our church. The major use of the FDG gets each week is by our kids church leaders and youth leaders. On the other hand we believe there are families still doing family discipleship, but using other means and resources – which is great. For these reasons we are proposing a shift to our focus at Living Church.
On the family discipleship front we are planning to put together a list of possible ways that families can do family discipleship time at home. These will range from ways of reading the Bible together through to specific published resources. This list will be updated each term, and families can use or adapt any of these to their own family as the grow and change through the years.
With kids and youth ministry we will use the time and margin we have gained to again create resources and curriculum that will be more tailored to more effectively equip our leaders. As we produce this we will remain conscious of helping our kids and youth leaders work in partnership with parents as parents will remain the primary provider of discipleship.
The proposed plan is to keep doing the FDG for the first half of term 3 while we are still looking at John, but then make these changes for the second half of term 3 when we look at the Rhythms of Church Life mini-series. We want to continue to have family discipleship as a priority at Living Church, but also be wise about how we invest our time and energy.
We Want To Hear From You
In all of this we want to hear from parents. With Tom Fittell on long service leave please direct any feedback to Chris Pine – chrispine@livingchurch.org.au
Family Discipleship – An Ongoing Commitment.
At Living Church we remain committed to equipping families to disciple their children and raise them to know and love Jesus. Family discipleship will always be the vitally important yet mostly ordinary spiritual leadership of your family.
Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7
This speaks of a whole of life discipleship of your children. MODELLING a life shaped by Jesus in all things. Setting aside deliberate TIME in God’s word and prayer. Speaking into the ad-hoc gospel MOMENTS as they happen in your family’s life. Making and marking MILESTONES in your family with a gospel focus.
