This book presents three approaches to family ministry: family-integrated, family-based, and family-equipping. In other words, should churches divide groups by age or keep everyone together? How can a church minister to families and provide them what is needed to live properly? While this book is limited by restrictions of the format (fixed number of positions, varying effectiveness of each author, etc.), a solid attempt is made to provide a well-rounded understanding of this vitally important topic.

The authors of the New Testament employed familial language that moved beyond biological bloodlines to include any individual who would place his or her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Inclusion among the people of God had nothing to do with birthright in a nuclear family and everything to do with adoption into the family of God. [80]

There is nothing inherently wrong with enlisting a twenty-something as a mentor in youth or children’s ministry. But if the bulk of workers in a ministry are within a decade of their teenaged years, something is seriously wrong. The Bible clearly couches discipleship in multigenerational terms, suggesting that a network of grandparents, empty nesters, young couples, college students, single moms, widows, and widowers provides the best context for effective discipleship outside an intact family unit. Young people desperately need to develop wisdom and biblical maturity. In family-based churches, relationships with a variety of age groupings build these qualities into the lives of children and teenagers. [109]

Any ministry immersed in the world’s culture is dangerous. Watered-down biblical teaching inevitably contributes to weak-kneed Christian students with few convictions. Students in culturally immersed churches fail to find support, encouragement, and accountability in their youth ministries. Instead, they discover new temptations, sinful habits, and unhealthy friendships with peers who model values that are antithetical to a biblical worldview. [111] 

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