Family ministry has been changing in our post-modern world. Children’s ministry workers and Sunday school teachers must be aware of the new dynamics. And we must notice how trends affect church programming and outreach strategies.
Family Ministry for a Post-Modern Culture
Consider these stats that reflect the state of marriage and families in the post-modern world. (Much of the data is from Time magazine and the Pew Research Center.)
- In 1960, nearly 70% of American adults were married; now only about half are.
- Eight times as many children are born out of wedlock.
- There are striking differences by generation. In 1960, two-thirds (68%) of all 20-somethings were married. In 2008, just 26% were.
- Americans are waiting about five years longer to marry than they did in 1970.
- Post-modern generations are much more inclined than their elders to view cohabitation without marriage and same-sex marriage in a positive light.
- A new “marriage gap” is increasingly aligned with a growing income gap. Marriage, while declining among all groups, remains the norm for adults with a college education and good income. But it is now markedly less prevalent among people on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder.
- College graduates are now far more likely to marry (64%) than those with no higher education (48%).
- People in less-advantaged groups are as likely as others to want to marry. But they place a higher premium on economic security as a condition for marriage. This is a bar that many may not meet.
- America’s divorce rate began climbing in the late 1960s and skyrocketed during the ’70s and early ’80s, as virtually every state adopted no-fault divorce laws. The rate peaked at 5.3 divorces per 1,000 people in 1981. But since then it’s dropped by one-third, to 3.6. That’s the lowest rate since 1970. Some experts say relationships are as unstable as ever, and divorces are down primarily because more couples live together without marrying. Since 1960, the number of couples who live together without marrying has increased tenfold.
