February 17, 2003
Family ministry nurtures faith, professor says
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___AUSTIN--Churches concerned about evangelism should nurture families, because families are the most effective place to nurture faith, according to a Baylor University professor.
___In a seminar on family demographics at the Texas Christian Life Commission annual seminar Feb. 10, Tyler Horner made this point among a host of other applications for churches.
___Research shows that if a person passes age 18 without making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, the probability of becoming a Christian falls to only 6 percent, said Horner, professor of social work and associate director of Baylor's Center for Family and Community Ministries.
If a person passes age 18 without making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, the probability of becoming a Christian falls to only 6 percent.
___And family is "the most logical place of contributing to faith identity," he explained.
___Other national research shows that time spent in a religious community ranks among the 40 most important traits for developing healthy children, Horner said.
___Churches, he said, should offer affirmation about parenting, provide advice from religious leaders on parenting and provide an environment for other adults to spend time with children in a formative way.
___Effective family ministry should equip families to minister to themselves and hold up a clear biblical standard, the professor said.
___Horner also urged churches to discover the family ministry needs of their specific congregations. One way to do this is by administering the Church Census, available from Baylor's Center for Family and Community Ministries. When this 15-minute survey is given to a cross-section of the congregation, Baylor staff will analyze the data and provide church leaders detailed charts, graphs and statistics about the congregational needs.
___These and other ideas for family ministry will be highlighted at Baylor's annual Hand-in-Hand conference on church-based family ministry, scheduled for April 6-8 in Waco.
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