Is anyone willing to give some thoughts in re:to their church and ministries? Please?

[Aimeedyan]

Thank you so much in advance! Please feel free to answer or ignore any you want... and expound as much as you feel comfortable on. the more info the better!

Does your church have any family activities/programming/emphasis?

Is your church family friendly, in your opinion? In what ways?

What could they do to become more family friendly?

In your opinion, what IS a family?

Does your church recognize diff family units, or just the traditional nuclear family?

What kind of activities do they host that include the family? Any special special events or retreats?

Do you feel your church is too age-segregated?

Is Family Ministry important when choosing a church to attend and worship at?

Do you have a minister overseeing your Family Ministry of your church (aka a Minister to Families or the like)?

What religion and/or denomination are you?

THANKS!!!!!!!!

 

[Saffron]

Wow! Interesting questions because I never really thought about family activities at our church before!

Does your church have any family activities/programming/emphasis?
No, it does not! And I never thought about it until now! We have activites for women, men, youth, children, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, but not family!

Is your church family friendly, in your opinion? In what ways?
No it's not. LOL! Wow!

What could they do to become more family friendly?
They could have more activities and outing that put an emphasis on the family, not just individuals.

In your opinion, what IS a family?
A unit of people that live together or bond together in a loving relationship.

Does your church recognize diff family units, or just the traditional nuclear family?
I think they recognize different family units as member of our church, but like I said previously, there really isn't an emphasis on families.

What kind of activities do they host that include the family? Any special special events or retreats?
The only two I can think of are our family picnic every June and our Christmas Eve family service! No retreats that I know of, but I do know we have women's, men's mother/daughter, father/son retreats!

Do you feel your church is too age-segregated?
Oh yeah, and it's been that way since I was a little girl!

Is Family Ministry important when choosing a church to attend and worship at?
I've been in the church my entire life, so I really never thought I picked my church. LOL! If I were to pick a different church, I don't think that would be important to me at this stage in my life (no children).

Do you have a minister overseeing your Family Ministry of your church (aka a Minister to Families or the like)?
No.

What religion and/or denomination are you?
Protestant - Baptist

 

[Aimeedyan]

Thanks so much, Maggie! I was getting scared no one would answer, LOL =) Appreciate it.

 

[sk!mom]

Here goes:

1. Yes, my church has many family activities. Family night once a quarter during the regular children's ministry Wed. evening. Summer swim nights and picnics every Mon. night in June. Parent's Night out the first Fri. of each month. And lots more throughout the year. More things than we could ever participate in.

2. Yes, my church is very family friendly. There are lots of family activities and lots of children and teen programs.

3. Can't think of any suggestions for becoming more family friendly.

4. To me a family is people living together in a committed, loving relationship.

5. My church recognizes anyone who chooses to attend.

6. Answered in #1

7. My church doesn't seem age segregated at all.

8. A church with lots of programs and activities for our children was the number one thing that we looked for when choosing a church. We didn't even visit any churches that didn't have lots of opportunities for the kids. (Our kids were 5 and 16 when we choose this church.)

9. Our church has 5 ministers and usually 2-4 interns including a children's minister and a youth minister. The children's minister seems to plan and be in charge of most family activities. We live in a college town and the youth minister stays busy with teen and college programs.

10. Baptist

Are you a minister?

 

[Val]

Does your church have any family activities/ programming/emphasis?
Yes....we have several active groups including the school parents club, a mom's group and a youth ministry program. Families are a critical part of our chuch. Our church, being Catholic, also has prenuptial retreats and marriage retreats, as well as teaches natural family planning (old joke about that: what do you call family planning? Vatican Roulette....who plays it? MOTHERS!)

Is your church family friendly, in your opinion? In what ways?
Yes, it's very family friendly. Children are welcome during Mass, the children's groups often sing at serivces, and we have everything from Sunday morning nursery/preschool, a preK to 8th grade school, and youth clubs for middle/high school and college age youth. Our school also has lots of sports, scouts, etc. for ANY child enrolled in the parish.

What could they do to become more family friendly?
Not too much, the sunday morning nursery is new- allows parents the opportunity for worship without chasing the litte ones!

In your opinion, what IS a family?
I'll agree with other posters: "A unit of people that live together or bond together in a loving relationship"- most often that's a traditional family, but families also take many, many forms.

Does your church recognize diff family units, or just the traditional nuclear family?
Many different families- although in all honesty, here in the conservative midwest I am not sure that alternative lifestyle families would be strongly welcomed, although they certainly would not be turned away.

What kind of activities do they host that include the family? Any special special events or retreats?
We have an all parish mass everyyear, retreats, school activities up the wazzu, pool night at the local pool, and neighborhood masses where you host a mass/dinner on a Friday night for your neighborhood families. Also moms groups, open gyms, etc., premarriage and marriage encounters, special couples and families masses, picnics, a carnival, bingo, and a great Gala/Auction every year!

Do you feel your church is too age-segregated?
No- lots of every age. Our seniors group is the "Advanced Youth Group", but I would guess that there are more "kids" oriented activities than older activities overall.

Is Family Ministry important when choosing a church to attend and worship at?
Yes. The family nature of our particular parish was a major factor in our choosing this parish.

Do you have a minister overseeing your Family Ministry of your church (aka a Minister to Families or the like)?
A lay youth minister (actually 2!) serve the middle/high school kids, but no specific family minister. In a way, families are so ingrained into the parish that EVERY minister/parish board member/teacher is a minister to families.

What religion and/or denomination are you?
Catholic (obviously)

 

[KristaTX]

Hi Aimee-

Our church is a church-within-a-church (a night-time service that is very different from the a.m. service). It is geared to the post-modern generation. Our website is www.mosaicfw.org and might give you a feel for our services. My husband is one of the leaders, and he usually wears the hat of worship coordinator. We are part of the Southern Baptist denomination, but our service is not stereotypically Baptist. You are close to us, Aimee, and you're welcome to come visit anytime .

We have probably around 50 people (including kids) on an average Sunday night. We have mostly singles and couples in their 40s and under, although we also have some teens and people in their 50s who regularly attend as well. We have a nursery and class for our kids under 5 or 6, and a class during half of the service for our older kids. The older kids also stay in the service some weeks, and parents are warned (usually ) in advance if questionable movie clips, talks, songs, etc., come up.

Since my DH and I have no kids, I'm not the best person to ask about how well the kid thing is working - okay I think but we can always use more helpers . Most of the adults rotate through the children's section every few weeks. There is no one paid to do the childcare stuff for our service, but our bigger church has a children's minister. There is no paid youth minister in the larger church, either - the parents (I think) are taking care of that.

The members of Mosaic spend many hours a week together planning our services so that all the aspects flow and make sense together. Most of us participate in the planning sometimes - it is never up to one or two people. We do other church-related things together as well, but we also do lots of just fun stuff together. My husband and I are fortunate to live near our parents, but many people have no relatives nearby. So for the core group of us, we are each other's family. We think that is what the church is supposed to be. If it was just a place I went once a week because I had to, I'd quit going. For us it is all about our relationship with God, with each other, and with the world in which we live. If it's not honest and real, then why bother?

Anyone and everyone is welcome at our services and other get-togethers.

Krista

 

[believe]

My church is small...Sunday School of about 55-60.

Does your church have any family activities/programming/emphasis? We have youth group outtings once a month and invite entire families to attend. We also have an annual picnic. Once a month we gather at someone's home to talk/socialize, children are invited. Children are invited to any activity...never excluded. Adults can come to any 'child' activity.

Is your church family friendly, in your opinion? In what ways? Yes. We don't insist that young children go to a nursery or in the back during service. This is up to the individual family to decide. We also allow younger children to stay with the parents during Sunday School if they aren't ready to attend class on their own. They can also go to a siblings class if they want. Eventually they go to their class it just takes patience and time.

What could they do to become more family friendly? Not really sure.

In your opinion, what IS a family? There are different 'families'. My faith does not agree with same sex marriage. That is probably the only exclusion that I can think of. I have my immediate family (siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, grandparents), my church family and my extended family (close friends).

Does your church recognize diff family units, or just the traditional nuclear family? Not sure what you mean by different family units.

What kind of activities do they host that include the family? Any special special events or retreats? Every event is family. Nothing were only families can attend. Our events included everyone that wants to come.

Do you feel your church is too age-segregated? No.

Is Family Ministry important when choosing a church to attend and worship at? I think you can reach families without having a group specializing in it. The young adult Sunday School class we added is very much a ministry to me. We can discuss any issue in there.

Do you have a minister overseeing your Family Ministry of your church (aka a Minister to Families or the like)?No

What religion and/or denomination are you?Southern Baptist