Family Zone

Beginning in September, we will be starting a new era for our Sunday morning Bible class time. We will be bringing kids back together with their parents and helping parents to be the spiritual leaders of their kids. For so long, families arrived at our church and went their seperate ways. Bible classes for each age, and children's church or "Big" church and they met back up on the way to the car and to eat.

I read recently that about 10% of parents do anything spiritual with their kids during the week. I think we are seeing some of the results of this as more and more kids "check-out" of church as they get older. I ask you, what can we accomplish with forty mintues of Bible stories and maybe another hour between children's church and Wednesday nights if they don't get anything reinforced at home or worse, they see parents modeling behavior that goes against what an acquaintence has said is important in class once a week.

Now please, don't hear me saying Bible class, church or teachers are not important and don't make valuable impacts on children, but it's parents that are the biggest influencer on children. How many commercials do we see telling parents to have conversations with their children about drinking, smoking or drugs? All of them. I've never seen one for school teachers, preachers, or policemen. It's parents that make the impact by what they say and what they do.

Children's ministers have been challenged for the last few years to give this role back to parents and be a resource not a substitute.

So what's our goal? I think it's found in the mission of the class: Family Zone is a quality experience for the whole family on Sunday morning that equips parents to teach their children all week long.

That's our goal. For parents to have spiritual discussions with their kids throughout the week. We will use drama as an introduction to the topic, a host of multi-media tools to teach a solid Bible lesson and then conduct a time for families to apply this to their lives in multi-sensory activities, learn together memory verses, books of the Bible and other important Bible knowledge and finally, end the time together with families praying.

Each month will focus on a Godly virtue, drawing from the rich teaching of the Bible for demonstration and application.

We will then provide resources at church and online for families to use through out the week to futher apply and put into practice what they've learned. We will also provide opportunities for families to serve together.

This is Family Zone. It's our prayer that God helps us use this time to model and equip parents to be the spiritual leaders in their famliy. Mainly because that was God's plan.

"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." Deut 6:6-9 NIV