Deuteronomy
6:4-9
“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 upon 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. Tie them as
symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the
doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
A Family Ministry in its
simplest definition is a partnership between the church and the family. It is a call to all of us, the church and the
family, to Love God first, to keep His commands on our hearts and to impress
these truths on the next generation – it’s about Loving God, Loving People
& Serving the World as a family.
Since
marriage was the first institution that God created it is therefore holy and
paramount in its strength and survival. We see a church that is proactive in
equipping and in caring for it. A place where marriages are built on covenant
before God and each other. We see a church investing into men to love their
families as servant leaders. A place where men and women are equipped to
nurture their children as treasures sent into the next generation to carry the
light of the gospel. A church full of parents who see themselves as their children's
primary faith trainers.
Believing
that God's heart beats for the orphan we will be a church that embraces and
celebrates the adoption of children who need a 'forever family'. A place that
allows the heart of God to influence and define it rather than the culture
around it. A church where children, students, singles, single parents, young
marrieds to empty nesters, blended families, widows & widowers all have a
place at the table. A table that forgets all those labels except for that of
brothers and sisters in Christ. A church that is truly a family of God. A
family whose loving Father cannot be ignored any longer in the community around
it.
