7 Family Ministry Essentials: A Strategy for Culture Change in Children's and Student Ministries

by Michelle Anthony, Megan Marshman

With decades of ministry experience, Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman capture the guiding essentials of life-changing family ministry. These seven essentials for children and student leaders 1. Empowering families to take spiritual leadership in the home 2. Forming lifetime faith that transcends childhood beliefs 3. Teaching Scripture as the ultimate authority of truth 4. Understanding the role of the Holy Spirit to teach and transform 5. Engaging every generation in the gospel of God’s redemptive story 6. Making God central in every biblical narrative and daily living 7. Participating in community with like-minded ministry leaders 7 Family Ministry Essentials will energize and equip you with the practical steps, inspirational stories, and biblical foundation you need as you lead those in your ministry.Dr. Michelle Anthony is the vice president and publisher of learning resources at David C Cook and a popular speaker in the area of family ministry. She is the author of Spiritual Parenting, The Big God Story, and Becoming a Spiritually Healthy Family. Michelle has graduate degrees in Christian education, Bible and theology as well as over twenty-five years of family ministry experience. Michelle and her husband, Michael are the parents of two adult children and live in Colorado.  Megan Marshman is the director of student resources and production for David C Cook and has led and challenged thousands of students in their faith at Hume Lake Christian Camps. With a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Azusa Pacific University, Megan speaks nationally at churches, conferences, and university chapels. She and her husband, Randy, live in Long Beach, California.

Genres: Christian, Parenting, Family, Nonfiction

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2015

About the author

Michelle Anthony, M.A., Ph.D. is a child development researcher and educator. She is a co-founder of Wide-Eyed Learning, LLC, which teaches parents and educators the Signing Smart approach to using ASL signs with hearing babies and toddlers. She lives with her husband and signing children in Centennial, Colorado.

Reviews

[Kate Montague · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a lot of ideas for children/family ministries. It has been really helpful as I begin to lead our kids ministry at church. I like that it stresses the importance of parents being the primary disciplers of their children but it gives ways for ministry leaders to encourage and inspire parents to do so. I think this book could have been condensed a little bit more and had some things left out, but I liked the ministry assessments at the end of every chapter. Overall I liked the book and it was helpful for me.

[Nathan Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of an introductory level book on family ministry, 7 Essentials provides a big picture perspective of what it means to partner with parents. Anthony and Marshman quote other authorities in family ministry and synthesize their material to explain the position. They do, however, take the priority of family ministry to another level and explain why it has to be primary - which seems to be more of the biblical model. There's a difference between giving mere lip service to family ministry and actually equipping families to be gospel outposts, which is highlighted throughout the book. Easy read.

[Caleb Purdy · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I disagreed with many of the methods that are recommended in this book, I found the 7 essentials to be helpful. These can be good guideposts for a family ministry that is seeking to be faithful and effective.

The 7 Family Ministry Essentials that they give are:
1. Empowering Family as Primary
2. Spiritual Formation for Lifetime Faith
3. Scripture is Our Authority
4. The Holy Spirit Teaches
5. God's Grand Redemptive Narrative
6. God is Central
7. A Community of Ministry Support

Thinking through each of these with Scripture as your base will be the most effective way to engage with this book.

[Andrew Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book! I’m impressed by both of the authors’ insights and how inspiring their vision of family ministry is. Each of the 7 Essentials is helpful for creating, as they put it, “environments to create a culture,” and the ministry assessments at the end of each chapter proved helpful not just in forming my thoughts but also in taking concrete steps to integrate their vision into our congregation’s.

Very happy with this book, an excited to read other materials made by Dr. Anthony in particular.

[Bek's · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book for youth and children's pastors.
Practical takeaways, great quotes. Fully developed and thought-out.
Wasn't a huge fan of the first person switching and all that.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely worth the read, Anthony and Marshman share rich experience in ministry with children, teenagers, and their families as they challenge us to focus our ministry more on allowing children to encounter Jesus rather than merely hear about him. The book is arguably less a family ministry book than a book about children's ministry with an occasional nod to implications for family ministry. And many pages are invested in recounting for us the story of Scripture or a good understanding of the Gospel. And while these are needed for effective children's ministry, they create the feeling in the reader that the authors have lost focus and are merely sharing their thoughts rather than guiding us into a strategy for richer ministry. Still, I found many ideas that led to deeper ministry reflection and I suspect most ministers will have similar experiences with the book.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the past, Children and youth ministry has been directed entirely at what the church can do for your kids when you aren't there. We have shunted children off to a Sunday School room and overload youth with fun activities among their peer group. A handful of ministry practitioners have helped us enlarge our vision of what family ministry could be. Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman are two such people.

Together they challenge us to a more holistic vision, identifying the 7 Family Ministry Essentials:

Empowering families to take spiritual leadership in the home.
Forming lifetime faith that transcends childhood beliefs.
Teaching Scripture as the ultimate authority of truth.
Understanding the role of the Holy Spirit's power to teach and transform.
Engaging every generation in the gospel of God's redemptive story.
Making God central in daily living and every biblical narrative.
Working with the community to further God's will.
While many of these seem like they should be no-brainers for any Christian ministry leader, Anthony and Marshman challenge us to think beyond concepts to how these 'essentials' shape our practice. So for example, it isn't enough to acknowledge that parent's have a real and vital role to play in their children's spiritual life. If churches and ministry leaders take this seriously, they will see it as vital to their mission to empower families to lead their kid's into the truths of the faith. As a children's minister, Anthony stopped sending home summaries of what the kids learned that day and started sending home 'pre-teach resources' that allowed parents to read the Bible passage to their children and interact with them over various questions before the next Sunday (40). Similarly an investment in 'lifetime faith which transcends childhood beliefs' means more than hoisting information on kids, or settling for just teaching moral behavior. Instead it means leading children and youth into an encounter with Jesus and allowing them to be spiritually formed (73).

Each of these essentials points to ways that the general practice of family ministries ought to be redefined. The chapters end with a 'ministry assessment' designed to help ministry leaders engage the book and make practical changes in their ministry to students. I highly recommend this resource for anyone involved in children's or student ministry (i.e. Pastors, teachers, children's directors, lay leaders, etc). I give it five stars.

Notice of material connection: I received this book via LitFuse Publicity Group and DavidCCook in exchange for my honest review.

[Sarah]

I am not in the ministry but I do have a longing to reach children and their families and bring them to Christ, with a living and life long relationship. Most churches prefer to have families separated the moment they walk through the door – we don’t want babies to cry and distract us, we don’t want a bored child coloring on a piece of paper and we don’t want a teen who hasn’t been taught to be present in church falling asleep. What if it could look different with families engaged with one another and also engaged in Christ and being fully present together? Our churches would become more powerful and better equipped to reach those in our communities and our world if all are equipped and able to give a sound reason for their faith.

Now, I know that I’m in a unique position, in that I home-school so almost all our curricula is centered on Christ as the focal point – He is the focal point of our family, and at times we fail – but being the sole educator for my three children gives me the chance to really teach about Christ, both in action and words. Our history text weaves in Biblical history with what was and is going on in the world at the same time – it puts it all together, not like Sunday School curricula where children can’t and don’t see how history lines up with Daniel in the Lion’s Den or Christ’s birth. We need to start giving out more than just milk and expect the parents to do it at home without any direction. Even I wasn’t prepared and it’s taken years for me to become comfortable with teaching my children Biblical truths, so how much harder for those families that have to overcome public school mentality or who have never been to church?

This book isn’t just about ministry in the church but about making it in the home as well – there were several ideas that I’d like to implement in our home. One is writing prayer requests and hanging them for all to see and then as prayers are answered listing those praises. The church needs to recognize that they will be stronger when the family, as a whole, is included in the worship of our Lord and the learning about Him and His Word. I’d highly recommend this book to those who work with youth, whether in a youth program that seeks to lift up the Lord, those who work in their ministries at church and even just those who desire to create a more worshipful environment at home, this book has something for everyone so that the whole family can learn to love and serve the Lord and have a HUGE impact!

** I was provided a copy of this book from Litfuse Publicity, in exchange for my honest opinion, no other compensation was provided.

[Rebecca Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been volunteering in the children’s ministry at our church for several years. I’ve taught in AWANAs, in Sunday school, worked in VBS, volunteered in Junior Church and spent time in preschool classes. However, the more time I’ve spent working in these classes, the more discouraged I’ve been about how often children don’t seem to be absorbing anything or experiencing God in their lives. So, it was with much interest that I began reading 7 Family Ministry Essentials: A Strategy for Culture Change in Children’s and Student Ministries by Michelle Anthony & Megan Marshman.

In this wonderful book, Anthony and Marshman outline seven key components of effective children and students’ ministry. These are:

Empowering families to take spiritual leadership in the home
Forming lifetime faith that transcends childhood beliefs
Teaching Scriptures as the ultimate authority of truth
Understanding the role of the Holy Spirit’s power to teach and transform
Engaging every generation in the gospel of God’s redemptive story
Making God central in daily living and every biblical narrative
Working with the community to further God’s will.
This book is a book that writes down so many of the ideas that I intuitively feel after spending time volunteering in children’s ministry. It was nice to see that my ideas were similar to ideas that others had been having. I enjoyed seeing how their efforts played out in practical real-life examples in their various ministries.

I especially loved hearing the ways that they had attempted to invite response to God into their ministry. One of these ladies had taken out the video game consoles in their student ministry and replaced them with a prayer wall for students and parents to come and pray and to write down their prayer requests. I love this. I love seeing that space is made for exercising a personal response to God and their attempts to equip the parents in their ministries for more effective discipleship of their children.

This is a book that is valuable for helping your children and students’ teams in equipping parents to disciple their children, listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit and teaching the Bible as a continuous story of God’s redemptive plan. This is a book that I’m going to directly give to my husband for his feedback and recommend to the children’s ministers I know.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Litfuse Publicity Group. I was not required to write a positive review.

[Ted Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I currently work at a summer camp who has “& Family Ministries” attached to their name, I figured that it would only be right for me to sit down and read a book titled “7 Ministry Essentials” and that it might provide some ideas in the work environment.

Michelle and Megan lay out the seven points that they are going to talk about in their book.

Empowering families to take spiritual leadership in the home
Forming lifetime faith that transcends childhood beliefs
Teaching Scripture as the ultimate authority of truth
Understanding the role of the Holy Spirit to teach and transform
Engaging every generation in the gospel of God’s redemptive story
Making God central in every biblical narrative and daily living
Participating in community with like-minded ministry leaders

The thing that took me off guard is that I originally thought that this would be all about providing the church the necessary tools to cater to families. However this book challenges parents to be as involved in the spiritual development inside of the church just as much as the church leadership. Not to mention the entire book has a very scripturally based progression that is incredibly easy to follow and understand.

In my time at summer camp I have seen good and bad ways to teach faith to children. One of the best is when children are encouraged in their walk with Christ. In that sense this book does a good job of encouraging the parents to be involved first hand with the faith formation of their children within the church.

Overall this book has a very scripture based take on building up your family while not totally relying on the church to do all the work for you. Just like point 6 states; “Making God central in every biblical narrative and daily living” and this book does a great job of that. While still not being a parent, I found this very informative and useful for children’s ministries and even schools where teachers are allowed to take a faith based approach to learning.



I received a copy of this book from author, publisher, distributor, publicist, or agent with no requirement to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

[Create With Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today there is a movement within the church to transform how we approach family ministry. Instead of solely focusing on creating traditional programs, activities and curriculum within the church, there is a call to create programs that minister to families outside the walls of the church.

There's also a call to allow families to be active developers and participants in these ministries so that children not only gain an intellectual understanding of what faith is, but they see it in action within their families, and they live out their faith experientially by serving others within the context of their families of origin as well as their church families.

The book 7 Family Ministry Essentials - A Strategy For Culture Change To Children's And Student Ministries by Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman provide families, ministry leaders, and church leaders with the guidelines they need to make these changes possible.

Billed as "the ultimate resource for family ministry leaders", 7 Family Ministry Essentials emphasizes 7 essential principles that will prepare you for ministry and:

* Empower families to take spiritual leadership in the home.
* Form lifetime faith that transcends childhood beliefs.
* Teach Scripture as the ultimate authority of truth.
* Understand the role of the Holy Spirit to teach and transform.
* Engage every generation in the gospel of God's redemptive story.
* Make God central in every biblical narrative and daily living.
* Participate in community with like-minded ministry leaders.

7 Family Ministry Essentials is a rich book that will not only help you to transform the way you approach ministry, but will also help you evaluate your ministry at each step of the way.

To read this review in its entirety, visit Create With Joy.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. However, the opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

[Renn Shearin · Rating 4 out of 5]

With decades of ministry experience, Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman capture the guiding essentials of life-changing family ministry. These seven essentials for children and student leaders emphasize:

1. Empowering families to take spiritual leadership in the home

2. Forming lifetime faith that transcends childhood beliefs

3. Teaching Scripture as the ultimate authority of truth

4. Understanding the role of the Holy Spirit to teach and transform

5. Engaging every generation in the gospel of God’s redemptive story

6. Making God central in every biblical narrative and daily living

7. Participating in community with like-minded ministry leaders

7 Family Ministry Essentials will energize and equip you with the practical steps, inspirational stories, and biblical foundation you need as you lead those in your ministry.

I thought that 7 Family Ministry Essentials was an excellent resource for those who are involved in a student or young teen ministry, or simply for parents in the home with young children or teens. There were great applications points at the end of each chapter to help incorporate the principles into ministry at home or elsewhere. There are nine chapters in this book. The first chapter discusses the intricacies of the family ministry movement and how to become involved. The second through eighth chapter go through the seven essentials listed above. The ninth chapter goes over how to be spiritually healthy leader in this current generation. I liked how this book puts together important aspects of family ministry into one concise collection, using essential topics, some of which are pretty 'simple' in theory, but are certainly important to use and to keep in mind. Overall, I thought this book was a great resource and highly useful in a home or greater student ministry setting.

I received this book from Litfuse in exchange for an honest review.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite chapter would be, “The Holy Spirit Teaches” because this one discussed the importance of listening to the Holy Spirit and His ultimate guidance. We receive the Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and repent for our sins. The author shared countless passages about who the Holy Spirit is. In Ephesians 14, we learned He is a counselor, comforter, and teacher. In this chapter, they also covered how beneficial worshiping God truly is and the different ways people worship God. Michelle also shared in this chapter that they felt it was time to remove the video games her church allowed the children to play and instead create a worship center filled with a prayer wall. I liked how she revealed how it impacted a small boy and how he was so excited to share how much closer to God he felt. I also liked how the authors included at the end of this chapter ideas on how to create a prayer wall in your home and theses are really creative to encourage your family and church to pray for others.

I would recommend this wonderful book to anyone who is seeking a resource to improve and transform their family ministry. I strongly believe if church leaders would apply these seven principles to both their home life and their church we would dramatically reach more people for Christ and they would have a deeper relationship with their Creator. I liked how each chapter included a ministry assignment and had tons of questions to assist readers into comprehending the material. If you’re looking for an excellent book on refining your ministry and growing deeper in your walk with God, then read this book!

“I received a review copy of 7 Family Ministry Essentials from Litfuse for this review.”

[Jalynn Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

About the Book:
With decades of ministry experience, Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman capture the guiding essentials of life-changing family ministry. These seven essentials for children and student leaders emphasize:

1. Empowering families to take spiritual leadership in the home
2. Forming lifetime faith that transcends childhood beliefs
3. Teaching Scripture as the ultimate authority of truth
4. Understanding the role of the Holy Spirit to teach and transform
5. Engaging every generation in the gospel of God’s redemptive story
6. Making God central in every biblical narrative and daily living
7. Participating in community with like-minded ministry leaders

7 Family Ministry Essentials will energize and equip you with the practical steps, inspirational stories, and biblical foundation you need as you lead those in your ministry.

My Review:
Church is hard enough but a ministry and throw a family in the mix and if you are not careful it can turn into a train wreck real quick. Those of us trying to lead our family and participate in a ministry are having a hard time keeping everything focus driven. That's why it is good to have books like these to help us along. The authors have provided 7 essential steps to get you on the right track so that you don't feel you are trying to balance plates on your forehead.

The authors were careful to provide not only strategy but also assessments to help with this process. The elements listed therein are very clear and concise. They provide ways for you to get involved locally as well as globally. As well as how to do it as a family.

**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from Litfuse.

[Angela Sangalang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman combine their years of ministry experience to boil down the 7 Family Ministry essentials. They give a lot of insight and inspiration with each essential, as well as practical application ideas. There are also Ministry Assessments as the end of the chapters to help ministry leaders evaluate their ministry and take time to listen from God. I like the strong emphasis they place on giving the Holy Spirit room to lead the children. Often times, we can get caught up in making sure lessons, programs, or activities are done that we miss out on actual God-moments that would minister to the children. This is a must-read book for anyone who wants to start a Family Ministry in their church.

[Edythe · Rating 3 out of 5]

7 Family Ministry Essentials is for Leaders of Family Ministry in church settings and contributes to the planning and in-depth look at what needs to be brought to the forefront in teaching lessons. There are nine chapters starting with a quote from renowned ministers, spiritual and motivational leaders such as Les Brown, Francis Chan, Edward Everett Hale, and John H. Westerhoff (who went from United in Christ minister to an Episcopalian Priest).

Each topic chapter includes at least six or more sub-headings (The Temptation: Moral Formation; Worship Beyond Sunday; Discerning His Voice; Prayer Fixes Our Focus) for discussion in Ministry Leaders meetings. The chapters conclude with a Ministry Assessment containing Listen, So What?, and Now What? Questions and thought prompters to aid in leading people to faith transformation. Jake’s Story on page 120 reveals how “Jake has abandoned church—worse, he has abandoned his faith in Christ” and why Jake’s perspective was askew.

7 Family Ministry Essentials may be used as a tool for Ministry Leaders looking to add to their skills in teaching fundamental faith strengthening to people of faith and bringing people of non-faith closer to God.

I received this book from David C. Cook Publishing through the Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for an honest opinion in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission Guidelines.

[Crystal Carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found "7 Family Ministry Essentials: A Strategy for Culture Change in Children's and Student Ministries" to be a greatly beneficial book to anyone involved with student or children's ministry. I feel that Michelle & Megan really did their research for this book.

I really liked that the chapters end with a Ministry Assessment which include ways to challenge and motivate your family ministry leaders.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking a resource to improve or transform their family ministry.

*Disclaimer*
I received this book for free from Litfuse in exchange for my honest opinion. I am not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

[Charity Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book and the point they are bringing across. It seems like it would be a book about ministry ideas to do with children and youth. However, it is more about ministering to them AWAY from church. If we make and live our lives completely in love with God, instead of sequestering God at church, we are well on our way to raising children that live their lives that way too.

There are, as the title would indicate, 7 different areas to focus on. There are some really great thoughts and ideas in here about how we can raise children that love God by living life together, worshiping Him, and making everything about Him. Pick up a copy and read it!

Thank you, Litfuse, for this awesome title! As always, this is my honest opinion. Here's to many more!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My thoughts:

Guys. This book. I’d say I love it but that wouldn’t be the truth. This book is a wonderful resource. It confirms what my husband and I believe about our family and how to spiritually teach our children. This book just gives you more ideas and ways to do that. It also gives you some information to use should someone not agree with your choices. Let’s all be honest. We don’t always have the best comebacks or answers sometimes when people ask us the difficult questions. I’ve found some wonderful answers here!

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Dawn Gentry]

excellent synopsis of new approaches to children's/teens/family ministry with good questions for evaluation and specific steps to take for changes