Jon and Kate

Everyone is talking about - and watching - them. Jon and Kate plus eight. I have never seen one of the TV shows (don't watch much TV). Just hear lots of jokes about them on late night and more. How hard must it be to live your life in the gigantic fishbowl that is the national media. Yikes! It is hard enough in the regular world. Such a fascination we have with "reality".

I'm saddened to hear that they seem to be heading to a divorce. I stumbled onto their own official web page and they seem to be great people. I wonder if they could have made it in the private world. I wonder how many of us would make it exposed like they were. I'm praying for them and for their kids... and for all families who have to work hard to stay together - I think that is all of us.

Who's in Charge?

Who is in Charge? An important question in any circumstance. It is critical for families... and it goes way back to Genesis in the garden. God says yes and no. We tripped up on the "No". Still do. Saying Yes to NO is a great book/program from MediaWise/Dr David Walsh.

I was thinking about how children learn about the fear of God. I think it comes from the hearing and experiencing the word 'no' - from parents in God's place. Well meaning parents (or parents who have not seen/experienced the word 'no' themselves much) don't want to stiffle their child. You don't have to watch Super Nanny many times to see that learning to say no is a big part of the solution for most hurting families (in fact the Super Nanny has her own official help site now - learn how to parent from prime time TV!). And an interesting look at saying 'no' to yourself is these videos from MediaWise called the Marshmallow Story.

More from MediaWise on the positives of hearing 'no' and having limits.

Fireproof on Nightline

Perhaps you caught it on the 5th of June. ABC News Nightline did a feature on Christian filmmaking. Fireproof was a great movie about marriage. Good to see it get some more air time. You're be able to see something online even if you missed it.

Still lots of good resources on the Fireproof movie web site.

Three Perspectives on Family Ministry

Tim Jones has a forthcoming book on family ministry. I've seen a short preview of it on another blog and like what I see. It reinforces the previous blog on fathers too.

Here is a quick look at what's in the blog:

What Needs to Change?

Every church is called to some form of family ministry. This doesn't mean just adding one more program.

Rather, family ministry is the process of intentionally and persistently realigning a congregation's proclamation and practices so that parents—and especially fathers—are acknowledged, trained, and held accountable as the persons primarily responsible for the discipling of their children.

The blog has more and gives a quick look at the three perspectives. I'm interested to check out the book.

It's the economy...

That phrase has had a life of its own since the Presidential campaign of 1992. It reminded us about what was key.
For Family Ministry it might be rephrased: "It's the father...". I've seen various statistics from various sources but they all reinforce the same thing: Dad's are critical to passing on the faith in a way that sticks.
The Swiss carried out an interesting study. A Dad active in the faith carries the day overwhelming when it comes to children who follow in their footsteps... well, when you put it that way, it works both ways. They follow them into an active faith or they follow them into an inactive faith/no faith.

Perhaps Children's Ministry should be more about Father's Ministry.

Here is a short bit from the study:

If both father and mother attend regularly, 33 percent of their children will end up as regular churchgoers, and 41 percent will end up attending irregularly. Only a quarter of their children will end up not practicing at all. If the father is irregular and mother regular, only 3 percent of the children will subsequently become regulars themselves, while a further 59 percent will become irregulars. Thirty-eight percent will be lost.

If the father is non-practicing and mother regular, only 2 percent of children will become regular worshippers, and 37 percent will attend irregularly. Over 60 percent of their children will be lost completely to the church.