Church Membership and Family/Church Interaction

 I just realized something

 

1. Doing membership classes en masse with several families at once, implies that the church culture is the thing the family is joining and conforming to.  Medium to large sized churches do this.

 

2. Doing membership classes with one family at a time, implies that the family culture is more important than integrating with the church culture.  Small churches tend to do this.

 

Neither is necessarily better than the other – each has pros and cons.

The first option makes church more “programmed” – a bad thing in my mind.

But conveying church culture is important to do, and the first route does it.

 

The second option makes church more relationally based – a good thing.

But it keeps the family more an isolated unit, instead of integrating the family into the church’s culture more.

 

Families should be willing to adapt themselves to get involved with church life.

And churches shouldn’t demand too much of families, and should often tailor church events to family roles, to strengthen the family.

 

There was a lot of talk a decade or two ago about making sure churches are family-friendly.

It’s also true that families should be church-friendly. 

Rich Lusk and Uri Brito even wrote a book about this, “The Church-Friendly Family.”  Check it out.