Karen and Ron Flowers Codirectors

Family. The comforting feel of your mother’s body, the smell of her skin in the hot sun. The anticipation of fun with aunts and uncles and cousins at a family reunion. Posing with the balloon man for a snapshot in the park. A sauna with Dad, mist and vapor clearing passage to the heart as well as the lungs. A sense of belonging and connectedness as stories and traditions and skills of generations past are entrusted to you for safekeeping. The release of sharing deeply with another, of love risked and returned.

Images like these form connecting bridges between our earliest memory of family and our hopes and dreams. For some these images create a warm, positive collage. For others the memories are tainted with hard experience, trouble, turmoil, and pain. For better or worse, our family images profoundly affect us for life.

Family is God’s idea. Human beings are created for relationships, in the image of a relational God. And despite sin’s havoc, God hasn’t changed His mind about His original design. When Christ redeemed all human experience from the curse of sin, He redeemed marriage and family relationships. He established the church as family because He knows everyone needs love, support, and dialogue in community. Family is still God’s chosen setting for people-making. It is the primary place where God intends for children to be nurtured into responsible adulthood.

Family was also in the mind of Christ when He bade His followers, “Go and make disciples.” The family is the primary setting in which Christian values are processed and internalized across generations. Even more foundationally, the nature of our family relationships profoundly affects our very capacities for love and intimacy, both with God and with other human beings. As Ellen White penned succinctly: “Their whole religious experience is affected by their bringing up in childhood” (Child Guidance, p. 473).

The Department of Family Ministries celebrates the goodness of God’s gift of family. This ministry speaks to families in the midst of joy

FAMILY TIES: A small group in Madagascar discusses implementation strategies at a family ministry leadership conference.

and laughter and in somber times of worry, pain, and loss. Family Ministries serves Adventist Christian families in very practical ways toward understanding and living out the principles of God’s Word in marriage, in parent-child relationships, in the extended family circle, and in the family of God. The ministries supported by Family Ministries in the local church and in the wider professional community provide a safe setting to learn, develop relational skills, work through difficult issues, and heal from painful experiences.

At the General Conference a number of significant advances have been made in the past quinquennium toward developing family ministries leaders professionally and enabling better ministry to families through the Adventist Church.

Resource Development
In response to the mandate of more than 700 delegates who attended the abuse and family violence breakout discussion at the General Conference session in Utrecht, the department released Peace and Healing: Making Homes Abuse Free, a kit including a video, programming resources for the local church, and a Quick Reference Guide, which provides pastors, teachers, and others who may be called upon to relate to individuals confronting abuse and family violence the answers to the most basic questions about what to say, what to do, and how to best support victims and relate to abusers. Currently available in English, French, and Spanish and in multiformat—PAL, NTSC, and SECAM—the kit resource has been placed in every union office worldwide. Positive responses have come from the church and the community. The police department for the city of Corona, California, for example, has purchased copies for every police officer in their jurisdiction.

Family Ministries Planbook. The Family Ministries Planbook has grown even more popular as a resource to support the celebration of Christian Home and Marriage Week and Family Togetherness Week in the church’s annual calendar. Five new titles appeared during the quinquennium—Family Seasons, Families Filled With Joy, Peace and Healing, Facing Family Crises, and New Beginnings—to join a growing library of family sermons; children’s stories; seminar resources for strengthening marriage, enabling parents, and building relationships in the church family; as well as annotated book/video lists and additional family ministries leadership materials.

Denominational position statements. This quinquennium saw the emergence of several major statements on family issues that departmental staff either prepared or helped to prepare: An Affirmation of Marriage (approved, General Conference Administrative Committee 1996), Birth Control (approved, Christian View of Human Life Committee and Annual Council, 1999), Meeting the Challenges of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (approved, CVHLC/AC, 1999), Child Sexual Abuse (approved, General Conference Spring Meeting, 1997), Family Violence (approved, AC, 1996), Human Sexuality (approved, CVHLC, 2000).

GCFM Web site. GCFM has opened its Web site at familyministries.gc.adventist.org and placed core resources for ministry to families online. The Web site will also give family ministries leaders and administrators worldwide access to departmental news, research, and subject files on family issues.

Curricular Approach to Family Ministries
The GCFM World Advisory, made up of directors from the world divisions, voted in 1996 to adopt a curricular approach to leadership development and family life education in the church. An 11-part Family Ministries Curriculum was developed and leadership development was structured to systematically cover the curriculum in three divisions during the last quinquennium. Both Andrews University and Loma Linda University are currently providing graduate certificates in family life education based on this curriculum. A professional organization, the Association of Adventist Family Life Professionals, has been created, and a certification process for Adventist Family Life Professionals is being put in place in the North American Division, which may provide an option for other divisions to follow.

World Commissions and Task Forces
Abuse and Family Violence Task Force. Prior to the General Conference session in Utrecht, GCFM had convened an interdepartmental, interdivision task force to address the issues of abuse and family violence. The task force provided the consultant base for the Peace and Healing resource and will continue to give guidance to the preparation of ministry resources to break silence and help church leaders take their important place in the network of professionals needed to effectively help families protect the vulnerable, put a stop to violence, and connect with the resources available to them.

World Commission on Human Sexuality. In cooperation with General Conference Health Ministries, GCFM convened a commission on human sexuality with world representation. A position statement, An Affirmation of God’s Gift of Sexuality, and a detailed curriculum framework, God’s Good Gift of Sexuality: A Seventh-day Adventist Curriculum Framework for Sexuality Education, will provide a basis for the development and evaluation of curriculum resources in this content area.

Premarital Guidance Task Force. GCFM also convened an interdivision, interdepartmental task force to review current research and evaluate premarital guidance resources now available. The most recent literature confirms the approach the Seventh-day Adventist Church has taken over the past 20 years, which involves creating opportunities for couple dialogue on a wide spectrum of marriage issues and relational skill building. In the future the department plans to assist divisions and unions in taking the important next step of developing premarital resources that are contextualized to the cultural setting for pastors and others preparing couples for marriage.

Interfaith and Professional Connections
GCFM maintains professional and interfaith connections through membership and involvement with the United Nations Committee on the Family and the community of nongovernmental organizations (NGO), the Binational Advisory for the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence, the Association for Couples in Marriage Enrichment, the National Council on Family Relations, and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.

A Worldwide Ministry for Families
During this quinquennium the departmental structure has been consolidated in every world division, with an ever-increasing number of local churches putting the ministry into place, following the guidelines published in the Church Manual in 1995. Departmental staff have made visits to each division providing mentoring, support, and professional in-service presentations to family ministries leaders as well as enrichment programs to strengthen marriage and parenting. Among many highlights were the first bidivision family ministries leadership conference which brought some 500 delegates together from all over Asia in Beijing, China, and a series of marriage enrichment retreats for pastoral and administrative couples in five unions in South America.