My wife and I don’t have children, and the most I had ever been involved with family ministry at our church was the three-year period that we spent volunteering in the four-year-old class on Sunday morning, where our largest victory was the fact that we only lost one kid over that time period! Don’t worry, he was quickly found.

So imagine my surprise when our family pastor asked me to join him at the D6 Conference last year in Louisville.

At first it made no sense why I, the Creative Arts & Communications Pastor, would go to a family ministry conference. But one year later, I am so glad that I did!

Leading up to the conference I began to hear the heart of our family pastor about why I would be invited. He and his team had attended the D6 Conference before and had spent significant time developing the family ministry area of our church. The problem? As long as the vision of family ministry stays as a program within the family ministry department it will never permeate the rest of the church!

This was a strategic move to bring, not the family ministry staff, but key leaders from our church who would be able to take this vision beyond the walls of a department, and into our entire church culture.

At the D6 Conference last year I not only saw the vision, but I began to see that family ministry is a church culture issue, not a department program. Catching that vision has allowed me to partner with our family ministry team and leadership in ways over the last year that I hadn’t before. We have worked closely together to develop a family milestone process that is now church-wide, and we are communicating Family Ministry opportunities better than we have before.

I have seen that family ministry is not just for parents and children. It is for every person who is a member of your church family. Students, single adults, and couples without children all have a role to play in family ministry, and it is our job to cast that vision to them!

Because of my exposure to this reality at the D6 Conference last year I am more passionate than ever to see our church grasp the heart behind family ministry and step into seeing life in Christ for the next generation!