Christian Living, Children & Teens, Religion & Spirituality 

Whether you want to start a family ministry from scratch (in a big or small way) or simply improve you church's existing ministry to families, you don’t have to add yet another task to your already full plate of responsibilities. All you need is a strategic, subtle yet deliberate shift in how you perceive and pursue youth ministry. Which is exactly what Chap Clark delivers in The Youth Worker's Handbook to Family Ministry--a practical, hands-on-manual for youth workers who see the need to work not just with teenagers, but with teenagers and their parents and family--in whatever large or small ways they can. Here's just some of what you'll find inside: -Family-ministry programming that works: Family activities for the whole church, family-friendly programs for junior high, workshops that work, including stepparenting classes and parent-teen topics, creative family camps, programs for connecting senior citizens and students, rites of passage, a family component to confirmation ministry. - Partnering with parents: 13 ways to involve parents in youth ministry, establishing a parent council and family ministry committee, checklist for a perfect parent meeting, the parent newsletter, gathering and creating resources for parents. - Choosing the Family-ministry model that fits your church: Three perspectives of family ministry, family ministry in five churches, what a church needs to function as a family, nine discussion questions that can direct your church's programming. - Moving your church toward family ministry: Four options for integrating youth and family ministries, questions to ask as you contemplate a move into family-friendly youth ministry, seven steps toward a family-based youth ministry, dealing with resistance, the family-friendly church calendar. - Plus reproducible handouts for adults and teenagers: A family-needs assessment, caught in the middle -- or , the fine art of step-parenting, 15 creative ways to tell you kids 'I love you,' individuation, not separation, God the parent: the model of biblical parenting, 15 creative ways to tell your parents 'I love you,' what kids need to know about dads and moms -- and about stepparents. Whether you're a youth worker, a pastor, or a CE director -- The youth Worker's handbook to Family Ministry is your reality check for intergenerational ministry. - from Amzon