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Family Ministry Structure – Part 4

Continuing the conversation about how Family Ministries has taken shape at Faith Promise Church.  Moving from theory to practice so far we’ve talked about…

Vision 

Values

Common Language

Today we talk about how we infuse the Vision, Values & Common Language into the ministry.  In other words, how do parents at FPC know our Vision & Values?  How do we equip parents to live out the Vision & Values?

All of this can look great on paper… but it doesn’t do a flip of good if it remains on paper.  How do we move from theory to practice?

The post on Common Language touched on how we communicate our values to volunteer and parents.  However, you don’t have to be in ministry long to know that vision has to be communicated approximately every 30 days in order for it to “stick” with your audience.  I’ve got an audience with kids and volunteers every 30 days. But I certainly don’t have an audience with parents every 30 days.  How do I communicate vision to parents when I only have their attention occasionally?

The initial steps we are taking are Milestones & Marketing.

Milestones are what we refer to as key moments in a child’s/family’s life where we have increased opportunity for partnership.  Some of these milestones are ‘fixed’.  They occur at consistent times (i.e. school transitions: “PreK to K” or “Middle School to High School”).  Some milestones are more fluid and their occurrence is dependent upon the child (i.e. Salvation & Baptism).  Either way these are opportunities when parents are looking up (even for a moment) and asking for help.  These are great moments to refresh the vision and values with our parents.

Marketing is exactly that… Marketing.  We need to positively communicate what Family Ministry is about at FPC.  That means utilizing the communication tools that we have… blog, website, talk notes, video commercials & slides… to communicate our vision & values on a consistent basis.  What does this mean?  It means we use these communication avenues for more than just announcing events or needs.  We use them to communicate our values and how our ministry lives out those values.  Currently we’re working on a series of videos to run as “commercials” before our worship service that highlights one of the five values and includes personal interviews & candid shots of how fpKIDS & student ministries exercise these values.  Once one of these videos is complete (mid Feb), I’ll share with you guys here.

This is our start to keeping a consistent presence in front of parents letting them know why we’re here and how they can step into this partnership.  In many ways, we’re kind of like the “Lost & Found” for parents.  There must be a clear, defined path to “Lost & Found” because you don’t really consider the need until something is missing.  We want to be as visible as possible so that when a parent realizes the need, they know where to find us.