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Families today seem to come in more shapes and sizes than ever before. There are:
- Single people who have never married
- Single people who have been divorced, and possibly share the care of their children
- Couples without children
- Widows and widowers of all ages
- Lone-parent families
- Two-parent families
- Families with one or more disabled children or adults
- Extended families
- Adoptive families
- Friends living together
- Foster families
- Blended families
- Families with many children
- Families from different cultural backgrounds
- Mixed-faith or inter-church families
- Carers and their elderly or disabled relatives
And probably many more. Any church wanting to reach out into its community, and become friendly to families of all kinds, faces an exciting challenge. The purpose of this resource is to help your church explore the broad definition of 'family-friendly', take a few more steps along the road in that direction, and make some changes that will impact not only your current congregation, but also the community within which you worship.
Family-friendly is more than being child-friendly. It is about creating a church where everybody feels welcome and comfortable, and knows that their individual needs have been considered, and met wherever possible. The first task for you to do is to gather the views of as many adults and children in your church community as possible. Listening to people's stories, and creating an environment where open discussion can take place, is a vital key to becoming a family-friendly church. A brief discussion of this material, with a group of church leaders, will not give you the broad perspective that you need. You will probably miss the views of those who may be on the fringes of your church, or who may feel that they are too busy to fill out a questionnaire, or who may be uncomfortable with written material. A variety of approaches will be the most effective, and some of the results may be quite surprising. |
