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Family-Integrated Church By J. Mark Fox ( Salem Communications )
Release Date: 2006-06-02
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $13.99
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Product Description
The story of a church that is surviving and thriving without age-segregated programs. You will laugh, be encouraged, and be inspired. A workable blueprint for change in the local church!
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 Exactly what I was looking for! ( lionottr )
I received this book on Friday. I finished it Saturday morning. Every question I had was answered. How refreshing. There are so many things I loved about the book. One of the things that sticks out in my mind is that the author just wrote from his experiences (drawing, of course, from scripture to do that!) Not one time did the book cause me guilt (challenged me yes...very different) or have a flavor of "here's what you need to do". The book addressed music, evangelism (seems to be the biggest concern for people wanting to implement the FIC model), small groups, church discipline and church leadership and its function. I appreciated the emphasis on evangelism and that the author warns about "implosion". I finished the book literally laughing with relief yet charged up.
I'm not sure Mark Fox realizes how vital this book is. The issues raised in the book address THE issues. I will be recommending this book to all of our friends and to our church. I enjoyed it more than Family Driven Faith and I LOVED that book. Family Integrated Church has more topics that were so relevant to our concerns and the growing concerns of the homeschool community that seems to be leary of the reputation the FIC is getting because of the Patriarchy Movement. Personally, our family doesn't reject or deny the Patriarchy Movement but also regrets that there is so much controversy surrounding it. I'm glad that this book doesn't reflect (nor does have major conflict with) all of those ideas. I recommend reading Uniting Church and Home by Eric Wallace first, then Family Integrated Church, then Family Driven Faith. After all these, perhaps Mark's new book, Planting a Family Integrated Church will be out!
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Excellent Introdcution to Family-Integrated Churches
Mark Fox writes an excellent and easy-to-read book for anyone who wants to become introduced to, or more knowledgeable about, the Family-Integrated Church. The book is most certainly not a `how-to' manual, but that speaks to the heart and humility of its author, as he recognizes that family-integrated churches - while having many things in common - will have their own distinct personalities. Beyond that, Mark's premise is simple: create a health family and you will by nature create a healthy church.
In the book, Mark shares the story of how the church he founded back in 1987 changed over time as they came to realize the effect(s) that their methods and programs had on families. He also shares some of what worked and some which did not.
What Mark shares is how their church came to realize the tremendous evangelism and discipleship opportunity that existed right before their eyes - the family. While sharing the story of Antioch, Mark demonstrates that when the home is brought together; taught together; discipled together; and worships together, they become a tremendous asset for the church...able to shine the light of the gospel out to others around them in some amazing ways.
If you want to witness first-hand a family-integrated church in action, then read this book. What is worship like when all ages are in attendance throughout the entire service? How do they handle crying children? What about their teens? Do they have a youth group? How can you possibly teach children who are in different grade levels? How is outreach and ministry accomplished? In addition to finding out the answers to these questions and more, you will witness how Antioch Church brings together those of every age so that they can impart the best of wisdom and experience upon each other, with an eye towards furthering the gospel.
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Encouraging!
Our family has been part of two "family-integrated" churches that each dissolved within five years. It has been frustrating and heart-breaking, because we believe this model is the Biblical model, though counter-cultural and downright strange to most Christians. Pastor Fox's book is very encouraging in that he shows it CAN be done! However, he shows how God has worked in his congregation in spite of their mistakes, rather than glossing them over. Many of the mistakes that his church experienced were similar to situations we experienced, but they were handled differently by the elders of the church. I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about family-integrated church life.
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 Hope for returning to a biblical church model ( steveandwendy )
Mark Fox shares his "recipe" for healthy church growth and encourages readers to return to Scriptural principles as the foundation for church ministry. Through humorous anecdotes, related experiences, and biblical support, Fox challenges his audience to rethink the modern church model. "Family-Integrated Church" is both a book that shares the importance of worshiping as unsegregated families (parents and children worship together)and a guide for considering healthy leadership models. Both pastoral and engaging in his approach, Fox writes from his heart, often humorously, and gives readers a taste of how joyous family-integrated worship truly can be.
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 Mostly "Church" and a little bit of "Family-Integrated"
I was excited to get this book because I have been wanting a detailed explanation of how and why the family-integrated model (where families are kept together rather than divided into age-oriented ministries) might be a good way to do church. However, the title was a little bit deceptive. This is a book about the lessons J. Mark Fox has learned from pastoring a church for many years, and that church happens to be one that is family-integrated. This is a good book with valuable lessons for church leadership, but there is very little material in it that actually deals with family integration. If you are looking for a book about general church ministry written by a man who has been in the trenches for the long haul you should read this book. But if you are looking for an in-depth treatment of the family-integrated church model, I suggest you look elsewhere.
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