Customer Reviews

Collaborate: Family + Church

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When reading a book I am not only looking through the eyes of someone who is passionate about children's ministry, but also as a mom of three boys. You see I am not only looking to apply new and innovative ideas at our church, but I also want to bring them into our home. That is the beauty of Collaborate - it is all about connecting the family and church.

There were two chapters that impacted me on both levels so greatly that I am still thinking, praying, and talking about them and more importantly making changes because of them.

The first chapter was written by Carey Nieuwhof as a senior Pastor's view on family ministry. He wrote about how most parents have lost sleep wondering if their children would be alright. Most parents are searching for partners from the time they find out they are pregnant. These two questions he asked are disturbing me still.

- What would it take for the average unchurched family in your community to
look to you as a potential partner?

- What if you leveraged all that God has given you and embraced family ministry
to the point where those families no longer have to wonder?


The second chapter was written by Jim Wideman on developing a biblical worldview in your children. He wrote on how important it is for both the family and the church to foster a love for the Lord and His Word. How both working together can help our children grow up to become doers of the Word. He stated that children can't live what they can't remember, and they can't remember what they don't understand. That makes our tasks as parents and teachers even more important. His "Top Ten List" is invaluable to all and I have printed a copy to hang as a reminder to me.

It all goes back to these verses for me which resonate through the chapters in this book.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7

I highly recommend Collaborate to...well basically EVERYONE! Parents, teachers, pastors, worship leaders, volunteers, etc. can all learn so much from the wealth of information contained in this wonderful book that was written and now read through the eyes of love.

Thirty five different authors giving a glimpse of their thought or experience is a bit like going to Baskin Robbins for ice cream and having an incredible tasting session with those little pink spoons. Each one gives you an instant feeling or "mmm, I want more", "not bad" or "ooo, don't need any more of that". WIth 35 different views (tastes) I was able to find a few of each.

Each time I read a book, I can always find a few take aways. Here are mine:

The church can help the family by just giving them an opportunity to be together with no hidden agenda. With family members torn in different directions with busy schedules they need a reason to just "be" together in a shared experience. Nothing wrong with a good ole' game night just for fun!

The church would do well to take every opportunity to equip parents to be involved in milestone events (like baptism) rather than pull their children away into the hands of the "professionals". Provide parents the tools, resources, training and encouragement they need, not do it for them.

Parents of teens need all the encouragement they can get. Don't beat them up with guilt, judgment or comparison. The church would do better to build a culture of compassion, compatriots and mentors for both the teen and the parent.

Provide a shared experience for the entire family for the family to rally around. A weekend service where everyone is hearing the same topic/story/scripture is one Big Idea. Perhaps a shared experience around a service project or event that provides both the family and church to encourage one another.

Collaborate is a good book to get an introduction to the many varied ideas that are being used around the world to bring the family and church together.

Collaborate: Family + Church is a 188-page collection of ideas on family ministry by 35 contributing authors. Each chapter is about 6 pages long and highlights either the author's particular passion for family ministry, their personal experience with family ministry, or the conference that they are trying to sell. Few of the chapters are "deep," but there are smatterings of ideas, websites, and other resources that can be used for pastors trying to integrate family life with spiritual formation. As such, it lives up to its descriptions of providing "ideas on how you can connect family + church," but the content depth falls short of the depth one might expect from names like Chanley, Joiner, and Wideman.

In fairness, the purpose of this book is quite different than something like Think Orange. It is not building a philosophy of ministry; it assumes that in the reader. Rather, it is an attempt to generate ideas by gathering Christian leaders who share similar (but not the same) passions. Some of the chapters are not valuable at all; I wonder how some authors made the cut. (Just as the best scholars aren't always the best teachers, the most effective ministry leaders may not always be the best writers!) Others, like Rienow's Biblical theology of God's purpose for the family, are worth the price of the book. (Although you can get much of the same information from [...].) But this illustrates the value of this book. It exposes the reader to new websites, new authors, new ministries, and helps generates connections. To that extent, it does help the reader "collaborate" with others.

To summarize each of the author's contribution, I will reduce each author's content to one sentence or phrase. Consider this a Tweet for each chapter. Keep in mind, some chapters have very little "how to" due to space limitations. This just gets the ball rolling. My top 3 are indicated by an asterisk (*).

1. A Rising Tide - by Michael Chanley - "Developing small groups that help parents be parents." (9)
2. Parent Liasons - by Anna Light - Have parent liaisons to interact with the parents of your youth ministry.
3. Family Connect - by Becky Arthur - How to partner with parents
4. Big Idea - by Brad Tate - Coordinate "one unifying `Big Idea' each week" for all of your church's ministries so everyone (kids/teens/adults) is learning the same content at the same time. (20)
5. Make a Shift - Brian Haynes - Designate and celebrate spiritual milestones.
6. Putting the Pieces Together - by Brian Vander Ark - Be strategic and plan your goals for content, curriculum, parent resources by age group.
7. *Change You Need to Embrace - by Carey Nieuwhof - Senior pastors need to get on board with family ministry. Here's why.
8. Families Serving Together - by Dick Gruber - Children and teens should volunteer with their parents.
9. Doing Book - by Fred Stoeker - Creating a space to talk with your kids at home
10. I Hate Homework - Gina McClain - Parenting is important.
11. Proverbs 16 - Heather Wimsett - Shema is important.
12. *Our Journey - Jason Houser - How to do family worship at church and home
13. Connecting Youth Ministry with Families - Jeremy Hall - Setting and articulating the goals for breakthroughs we want teens to experience
14. First Voice, Second Voice - Jim Kast-Keat - Partner with the parents of your preteens.
15. The Missing Piece - Developing a Biblical Worldview in Your Children - by Jim Wideman - How to live out a Biblical worldview so your kids "catch" it
16. How to Offer a Truly Family-Friendly Event - Jeremy Cliff - Offer affordable, fun experiences for families to enjoy together.
17. Family Nourishment - Joyce Oglesby - Host people over for dinner in your home.
18. PJ's All Starts Leadership Program - Justyn Smith - Offer a ranking system to promote children's leadership designed around your goals and values.
19. Reinventing Baptism - Kenny Conley - Use baptism as an opportunity to involve parents in children's spiritual development - through the education process, the act of baptism, and follow-up conversations.
20. Church DNA - Team Kidmo - Find a part of the church vision/goal that you can support through family ministry.
21. Paramount Parenting - Matt Markins - Shema is important.
22. Environment Changes that Need Changing - Matt McKee - Pay a lot of money to change the visual environment of your ministry.
23. Family Fitness - Michelle Romain - Live out healthy lifestyles as a spiritual value for your family.
24. Double It - Nevan Hooker - Set a Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal and start going for it!
25. God's Heart for Families Affected by Special Needs - Pat Verbal - Reach out to families with children with special needs.
26. *Where Do You Start? - Reggie Joiner - "Churches that build effective family ministries will strive to integrate their strategy, refine their message, reactivate the family, elevate community, and leverage their influence." (138)
27. Selling Out - Sold Out - Rob Bradbury - How his church became discontent with where they were and launched a Friday night family event.
28. *Building a Theology of Family Ministry - Dr. Rob Rienow - A Biblical basis for family ministry based on God's purposes for the family in redemptive history.
29. Engaging Families Through Involvement - Roger Fields - How Kidz Blitz curriculum works
30. Fighting Staff Infections - Ryan Frank - Improve your relationship with your senior pastor.
31. Building Ministry - Sam Luce - Create a generational pipeline to ensure that age-segregated ministries are connected to each other.
32. The Small Conquering the Big - Steven Dilla - "The small things done consistently over long periods of time make big differences." (176)
33. Young at Heart - Steve Young - Shema is important.
34. Living the Shema as a Dad - Timothy Smith - Shema is important for dads.
35. Music: The Language Everyone Speaks - Yancy - Model and teach worship to your kids.

-Jonathan Foster

as always, i'm grateful for a new book that sparks ideas for empowering a church + parent partnership. collaborate: family + church did just that for me.

collaborate is the newest book from minister's label publishing that combines the expertise of michael chanley and 34 teachers, ministers, leaders and thinkers on how to connect the church + family. i loved the practicality of this book, each chapter boasting a new idea for empowering the church, or encouraging parents, and i love the collaborative aspect of the book, some chapters contradict the others and that is just fine! it's not about being right, it's about sharing our best ideas. i am planning to recommend this book to friends and churches looking for new ideas in family ministry.

With 35 authors and a ton of ideas, you will find things that you like, things you dislike, and things you'll have to mull over for a while. Overall I found this to be like a magazine or catalog for Children's Ministry. I have several take aways from the book, and there were some throw aways as well. I cannot say much more that that.

This book is not a good "intro to family ministry." It's not for handing off to church committee members or senior pastors, trying to convince them that helping parents is the key to saving the next generation. But this book IS a fantastic summary of the current movement going on amongst many church leaders. It'll point you to some resources you haven't found yet, motivate you to read some of those books you've been meaning to get around to, and inspire you with lots and lots and lots of great ideas just waiting to be customized into your ministry. It's the next best thing to attending all these authors' conferences-- and much easier on your budget.

I love this book because it gives you so much to pull from. It's people in different contexts speaking on different topics. If you want a cookie cutter family ministry model, then this book is completely wrong for you. However, if you want a book to create some inspiration and spark some creative thinking to do ministry in your specific context then you must pick this book up.

It's an awesome read and kudos for the work done by all the authors and the team to organize the thoughts and put it together for us to consume. Absolutely love it!!!

For those of you who pre-ordered your copy of the new Collaborate book, Michael Chanley's collection of 34 authors writing about family and church, you should have received it by now! Mine showed up in the mail on Monday and I dove right in, eating up 50 pages before it was time to head to bed (I was a little tempted to stay up late and finish it, but since the baby doesn't sleep in, I thought better of it!). I'm really liking the book so far, and I think it has some great ideas that I'd like to implement at our church over the next year (I'm trying not to do "too much too fast"). So far, I'm reached Chapter 12 and these are my favorite ideas (in order of appearance):
1. Parent Liason Team (or Parent Advisory Group) (Chapter Two)
2. Milestones (using them them to connect church and home) (Chapter Five)
3. Parent Fuel Packs - monthly kids that contain age-appropriate resources that parents can use to facilitate spiritual discussions at home (Chapter 7)
4. Child Dedication class (gets family thinking about the "finish line" in their child's life) (Chapter 12)

So far, a number of great sounding books have also been mentioned that I'll be checking out. I like the fact that each chapter is "bite-size" -- it's something I can completely see accomplishing in my ministry. So often, I read ministry books and am amazed at the great ideas, but feel overwhelmed about where to actually start. This book has a great format -- you could just take one chapter a month or one chapter a quarter (after you've gobbled up the whole thing first, of course) and begin to implement the idea found there. Well, I better get back to reading!

BLOG: [...]

This book truly speaks to the benefit of great thinkers working together. Experts from all over the spectrum of ministry address - from their personal perspective - their tested theories on best practices for discipling the next generation. From parental involvement in student ministries or church-wide celebrations, to programs that seek to bring generations together thru meals or social activities, this book has gems of advice for anyone who works with youth and their families.

For me, the significant take-aways were:
VISION: What our desired end-result? Who do we want children to grow up to be?
MISSION: The Shema! Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength. Impress them upon your children. (Somehow I had never realized that Deut. 6 follows directly after, and is therefore truly a part of the Shema - Hear O Israel: The Lord your God is one.) Can't have one without the other. This is the mission of the people of God (whether it be Israel of the Old Testament, to the modern day church family) - to pass along the faith of their fathers to the next generation.
PATHWAYS: Collaborate: with Pastors and Church Leadership, with Student Ministry leaders, with parents, with the entire church family.

Collaborate: Family + Church book by Michael Chanley was as a good friend of mine Leading a Dynamic Children's Worship Service (The Kids Church Book) said: "..what I'd call a family ministry conference on paper that you can attend at your leisure". This is exactly what the book that is made up of 35 different ministers, teachers, leaders and thinkers of all different backgrounds provided for me.

There were several things that throughout this book were either new or reinforced current thoughts and feelings of mine. I am not wanting to rewrite the book again so I will limit my thoughts down to just a few. The first and foremost anyone who has accomplished anything great has done so with the help of others, which means they have had to collaborate. It is great that the church is on a journey of collaborating within and even outside of itself. One of the main points throughout the book is simply it is time to collaborate through practical ways and connect what we do at church with the home, supporting parents in their quest to take their responsibility for the spiritual formation of their children.

Obviously with 35 different contributors it would take too long to try and discuss the various take away points that I enjoyed in this book. But I will attempt to give a few.

Gina McClain page 56 - "We can continue to equip parents with tools and resources to help them lead & develop their child spiritually, but if they lack the right vision for their child, the tools will be viewed as having little value and will go unused. It's critical that we capture parents' attention and set them on a path toward a God-sized vision for their family."

Jeremy Hall page 71 - "Have you noticed that our world has set benchmarks for every age concerning height, weight, intelligence and how emotionally adjusted people should be? But what about the bench marks that tell us where our children should be spiritually?" I enjoyed this question because Jeremy and his wife are exploring the question my wife and I have been on for years. This question is the exact reason we set up like schools have with their parent teacher conferences, pastor parent conferences.

Justyn Smith page 97-101 - Simply put, this is a chapter that Justyn ads in a new idea for me about bands and a ranking system the kids' work through that could and should easily involve the parents.

Basically, I could continue to share stuff I enjoyed from the book, but I feel I would be a better friend to you if I just simply recommended that you go and get this book. I am glad that books like this are beginning to come out and pray that this and the ones out so far are not the end but the beginning of what we are to see.