Book Critique Family To Family
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In Family to Family, Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee emphasize the importance of family and advocate for an inward-outward approach to evangelism that begins at home and moves out to the world (Acts 1:8). Setting it apart from other broadly categorized family help books, Pipes refrains from asserting some new or profound cure for family woes instead opting to build on old-school methods of spending quality and quantity time as a family.
Overall, Pipes and Lee do a remarkable job unfolding how families can be a powerful evangelistic tool. After all, there are only two God-ordained institutions: the family and the church.
Once a family has the spiritual strength and connection that so many are missing, that unit can more effectively go out into the community in evangelism.[3] The family unit working as a motivation and support system. Moreover, the local church serves as a support and extension of the family, and likewise converts are welcomed within the context of a family community. Pipes and Lee do not leave the reader with only a changed philosophical perspective, however. This book is intensely practical, and the authors are sure to give many down-to-earth examples of how to effectively serve as a family, one being the FIRM method of evangelism. This method works within the framework of a family evangelism, moving witnessing conversations from family to interests to religion to the message of the gospel.[4]
Overall, Pipes and Lee do a remarkable job unfolding how families can be a powerful evangelistic tool. After all, there are only two God-ordained institutions: the family and the church. This fact sheds new light on the significance of the family unit. God is relational, and throughout scripture he draws several comparisons to families. He calls us his children, Jesus his only begotten Son, compares Christ and the church to a husband and wife marriage, etc. God obviously holds the family in high esteem. In embarking on a study of how families can be cared for and leveraged for the gospel, Pipes and Lee have done a great and noble work. I appreciated how they communicated both broadly and specifically throughout the book. The authors were sure to lay the foundation, explaining why families are so important, as well as dive deep into specific ways modern families can improve.
The only real critique I can think of after reading this book is that it lacks mention of non-traditional family units, such as families without children, or single parents, or foster families. This omission is not necessarily damaging to the overall message of the book, but its addition could have benefitted the power of the impact. While the general message to non-traditional families would likely not change, I can imagine that there are certain questions members of those families have in which a more specific answer would be helpful.
In the first chapter on healthy families, the authors explain in simple, blunt terms what needs to happen when a family fails to serve God, or when a family fails to live out the godly life throughout the week that on Sundays they purport to live. While offering frightening statistics in the context of time on how families throughout the nation live out their relationships (6), the authors lay out the reality that, while the activities on which individuals spend their time are generally fine, healthy activities, once added up, they equal a great deal of roadblocks that keep the family knowing what each other does without ever really knowing each other (6). Therefore they suggest a family examination (7) and offer plenty of practical ideas to get the family back on track to becoming a spiritually healthy family, one centered on Christ (8).
The next chapter focuses on how a family can minister together to the people around them. They can do this through open evangelism, ministry evangelism (70) and servant evangelism (72), and the authors offer numerous practical and creative ideas for each.
Going into the book, one without children may expect to find very little that could prove applicable to himself. However, the lessons taught in this book are not merely for fathers or mothers or children: they are useful, practical ides that can apply to any evangelistic situation, for any person whether single or married, parents or not. An unmarried man ought not skip over the first chapters on reviving the Christian family, grasping only onto the later, more general information. Instead, he should take the substance found in those first important chapters and revive his own Christian life. Whether a man is married or not, or whether a couple have children or not, each can take the core values of this book and drastically improve their own Christian lives. Most importantly, each can take the methods of developing a mission statement personally and develop one of their own. Jesus Christ Himself, an unmarried man without children, remains the example of every believer, and it is His own personal missions statements off which we are to base ours today (27).
Before discussing the importance of understanding individual and family mission statements, we must first take a look at the essential, God-given duty of individuals to reach their own family members for Christ. The book focuses primarily on the duty of parents to reach their children, as mentioned above (43), but these roles can be reversed. If, say, a child accepts Christ through the evangelistic efforts of a close friend, or through the ministry of a neighborhood Vacation Bible School or a local Sunday School, then it becomes the mission of the child to reach her parents for Christ. The same goes from spouse-to-spouse or child-to-child. Family to Family offers exceptional advice for reaching family members, and this advice can translate into many forms of intra-family relationships.
Once the members of the family are followers of Christ, growing in Him and following a family mission statement, then actual family ministry can continue to grow outward to neighbors, family, friends and the rest of the world. This can be done through the ministry (70) and Servanthood evangelism (72), as well as through family mission trips (93), direct community work completed with the church (91) and many more ideas mentioned in the book on pages 75-86, like adopting a international student (82) or helping out latchkey kids and their families (80).
In each of these chapters, Baucham displays both an intimate knowledge of American church-going families and a firm grasp of the biblical vision for faithful parenting. He also has the heart of a coach, who knows how to alternate between setting challenging goals and giving the necessary pep talks when discouragement sets in. The book is peppered with memorable lines and compelling stories from his own family and others. These will simply give you a taste:
Haven is the home of the Fine Chao restaurant, now run solely by Leo Chao, whose wife, Winnie, has decamped to the Spiritual House, a Buddhist temple located in a defunct school gymnasium. It's nearly Christmas when the story starts, and the Chaos' eldest son, Dagou, who's been living in Haven for the last six years, working at the restaurant and living above it, is planning an extravagant Christmas party. The middle son, Ming, has been trying to separate himself from the family for years and is only in town for a couple days due to his mother's explicit request.
In the slow buildup toward Dagou's Christmas party, Chang plumbs the family dynamics, whether acknowledged by its members or not. James tries to play peacekeeper, but can't help beginning to recognize that he has inherited some part of his father's desirous nature; he finally asks out his longtime crush, Alice Wa. Ming, clenched with the effort to keep his cool, tries to stay above the fray but can't help his fury when he sees his brother's ex-fiancée, Katherine, who was adopted by white parents from an orphanage in China, continue to ingratiate herself with the Chaos. But much as Ming might disdain her for it, it's achingly clear that Katherine has found, in this family, a connection to a history and context that she's been denied. Dagou is enthusiastic in both his anger at his father and his love for a new girlfriend, Brenda, who claims she wishes to marry for money. Knowing this, Dagou tries to prove that he has some by cooking the most lavish, decadent, and generous Christmas dinner he can imagine.
Cathy Kelly is a number one international bestselling author. She worked as a journalist before becoming a novelist, and has published eleven novels. She is an Ambassador for Unicef in Ireland, helping to raise awareness of the plight of twelve million children orphaned across Africa through AIDS. She lives in Wicklow with her family.
My wife and I have four children under the age of seven, and we have been pretty consistent in reading the Bible to them and praying with them before bedtime. But, several months ago we started making a concerted effort to have a block of time in the evenings after dinner for family worship. Usually we begin by reading an entry from the Big Picture Story Bible, then I get out my guitar and we sing a few hymns and worship songs, and finally we pray.
In Family of Liars, E. Lockhart takes the reader on a new journey with the Sinclair clan. Providing a rich insight into the mothers of the characters in the first book We Were Liars, the audience is presented with a new tale encompassing of family ties, summer flings, a tragic accident, loss, flirtations, love, parties and plenty of passion. But a terrible accident strikes at the very heart of this island group, allowing everyone involved to question their construction of family, identity, loyalty, love and self belief. With relationships and ideals pushed to their very limits, who will be able to rise above?
Family Medicine publishes original research, systematic reviews, narrative essays, and policy analyses relevant to the discipline of family medicine, particularly focusing on primary care medical education, health workforce policy, and health services research. The journal does not publish clinical review articles. 2b1af7f3a8