do home Conversations Guide

1. Introduction

The survey process, including disclosures of key survey findings at strategic places of the church calendar, is very effective in generating the interest of the whole church in ways how the families could be further strengthened.

The church leadership should prepare well for this by identifying and seizing opportunities to rally the church to intentionally talk about the importance of family discipleship, what this is, and how the church could develop such a culture in the midst. 

2. Conversation Resources

a. Booklet 1 (Whys). The Family in Crisis: An Urgent Appeal to the Global Church

The main focus of this booklet is on why the church needs to give priority to discipleship of the home.

There are 4 topics:

  1. Families are suffering.
  2. Families are under attack.
  3. Justice and safety depend on strong families.
  4. God created families to advance the gospel.
Dowload Booklet

b. Booklet 2 (Whats). What is Family Ministry? Uniting Churches and Families for the Gospel

Not everyone has the same idea about ministry to the families in the church. This booklet challenges us to explore such ideas.

There are 5 topics:

  1. What is the family?
  2. What is family ministry?
  3. Pillars of strength for healthy families.
  4. Family discipleship in action.
  5. Family ministry: getting started.
Dowload Booklet

c. Booklet 3 (Hows). How We Build: Process in Establishing the Family Discipleship Culture

  1. Consider the culture
  2. Cultivate a sense of urgency
  3. Build a biblical base
  4. Practice what you preach
  5. Take small steps
  6. Be patient and keep praying
 
 
 
Dowload Booklet

3. The Conversation Process

The church leadership has the freedom to choose which booklet of the three to use in starting the churchwide conversation process. If your church has not paid much attention to building family discipleship as a culture, we suggest you follow the sequence of the booklets by their numbers.

How you will use the booklets will depend on what you believe are the most effective ways to use these to involve the whole church in the conversations on family discipleship. Some would use them through the small group meetings. Some use them at the corporate meetings (such as Sunday worship service, Bible classes, etc).

Because the culture you attempt to cultivate is likely to involve major changes to the existing church culture, it is vital that you establish the ‘whys’ (the beliefs and values) of the shift to the family discipleship strongly. This is going to be the foundation upon which you will stand for further conversations about the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the new culture.

4. Administration

If you are thinking of involving the network of churches that you are a part of in this project, we could reorganise the booklet presentation to give the network-wide feel in the following ways:

  • To include a welcome message from a senior network leader in the booklets.
  • To invite network leaders to be Contributors and list their names below the Global Contributors under the ‘Introduction and Invitation’ section of the booklet.
  • To insert worthy quotes of the network Contributors at various points in the booklet.
  • To add additional questions under the heading ‘Additional Questions’ that the network wishes to include.

You may want to use soft copies of the three booklets or print them for distribution. Soft copies are provided free of charge on request.