Attract Families to Your Church and Keep Them Coming Back

Every church needs this new book by Linda Ranson Jacobs! This book comes out May 1 and is for every pastor, every children's and family minister, and every Sunday School teacher.

Make your church family friendly. Navigate through the changing tides in ministry and become a church that families want to attend.  Reach out to all kinds of families: two-parent families with children, blended families, boomerang families, adult children of divorce and their families or lack of families, single adults whose family is the church, grandparents parenting again, childless families, co-habitation families, and children with three legal parents. 

This book gives practical helps and suggestions for ministries, worship, small groups, and even facilities. Author and family expert Linda Ranson Jacobs will help you to create a welcoming place for everyone.

Buy it here:

 http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/search.aspx?ddlSearchScope=&txtSearchQuery=9781426774300

Here is what churches have to provide to attract today's families:
1. A strong children's ministry that caters to the individual needs of their child.
2. A safe place for their children.
3. A place that meets the adult's need for spiritual growth.
4. A place where adults and children feel loved and accepted.

Contents
1. The Church That Might Have Been
2. What Parents Want
3. Taking a Page out of the Book of Nehemiah
4. Creating a Family-Friendly Church for Single-Parent Families
5. Nontraditional Families Are the New Normal
6. Other Common Family Structures
7. Looks Count and So Do Church Attitudes
8. Keeping the Family in Family Ministry
9. Electronic Steeples: Social Media and the Digital World
10. Making Worship Family Friendly
11. What to Do with Those Challenging Kids
12. More Help Attracting Families to Your Church

Linda Ranson Jacobs is a popular church consultant, author, trainer, program developer, and a family expert who regularly writes and speaks to church leaders throughout the United States. Linda is the developer of HLP4 (Healthy, Loving, Partnerships For), a website for single parents and those working with single parents, the creator of DC4K, (DivorceCare for Kids), and a contributing developer of the H.E.R.O.E.S. CARE Project, (Homefront Enabling Relationships, Opportunities, and Empowerment through Support).

I kid you not, your church will benefit from this book. Costs under $12.
Kathy

Church Art Reflects Church Values

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is one of my favorite places to visit. I try to go four or five times each year. I appreciate art. I like to create art, which is a way for me to pray.

Last summer when Mike, my husband, and I were looking for a new church following his retirement, we visited six churches, all United Methodist. We were very much aware of how we were welcomed--or not welcomed--what kind of follow-up was in place for first-time visitors such as receiving a letter from the pastor noting our attendance sometime the next week, and what kind of contact was made to determine our interest in Sunday school or other activities.

Something I also noted was the art--or lack of art--that I saw in the hallways. Four out of the six churches had large oil paintings of all of the persons who had pastored the church. One had a picture of our bishop. These portraits lined the halls where everyone walked--in other words, seeing these portraits was the first thing I noticed after entering the building. I did not see any artwork illustrating the life of Christ or other event in the Bible.

One church had what I call "life in the kingdom of God" photographs lining the walls of the large narthex. There were close to twenty photographs of adult and youth mission teams at work, the Christmas program, a Thanksgiving collection of filled grocery bags at the altar, a Sunday school class, Bible school events, and other experiences from various ministries and events that were important to that congregation. The last church we visited had stained glass windows, altar sculptures, embroidered kneeling pads--art was everywhere even on the ceiling. I appreciated the pamphlets available that described the meaning of all of the art in the building.

I was discussing my observations with a friend who is Catholic. I commented that all of the Catholic churches I visited are filled with often very graphic art, depicting the life of Christ. There is always a statue of Mary and as well as other paintings. She commented that Catholics view art as integral to the worship experience. However, she described a fairly new Catholic church close to me, that has only a crucifix hanging in the sanctuary and no other art. She said that this church intentionally did not want any art because the thinking was that "the people are the art of the church."

Reflecting on several weeks of art adventures in churches made me wonder what a church is saying by its choice of art? What type of art do you have in your church? What type of statement, if any, might that art have for those who visit? Does God speak through art? If so, what might God be saying to you?

Jacquie
Fishers, Indiana