"What do we do first?" is what Timothy Jones says is one of the toughest questions he faces from ministry leaders across the country. In writing this book the answer to that question just got easier. This is a good place to start. I thank God for Dr. Jones and the grace that has been given him for educating and equipping the church and the home as we pursue the joy of the next generation together.  
 
David Michael
Pastor for Parenting and Family Discipleship
Bethlehem Baptist Church
 
 
 
As I read Family Ministry Field Guide: How the Church Can Equip Parents to Make Disciples by Timothy Paul Jones, I found myself seeing the content from several different perspectives. I realized I was reading this helpful book as a professor of Family Ministry, as a person with experience in church and parachurch ministry, as a Certified Family Life Educator, and not least of all as a parent. Timothy's work is edifying from each one of these points of view.

The introduction of the book sets the course by demonstrating the relevance of the content for contemporary family ministry and its eternal significance. This very simple approach gives the reader a sense of the potential lasting value of what is proposed in subsequent chapters of the book. Along the way, Timothy provides insightful questions and helpful, real-world exercises which can orient ministers, educators, and parents toward a family ministry perspective. The Family Ministry Field Guide presents a very practical process by which churches can begin to implement a viable family ministry, specifically focused on enhancing parenting and the "equipping of Christian households to function as outposts of God's mission in the world"
Timothy reveals his heart for family through his personal, enlightening illustrations and his clear desire to work beyond what appear to be whole and healthy families. His awareness of God's plan sets the foundation for the process toward a family ministry perspective. His recognition that family ministry must flow from who leaders are with their families establishes much needed authenticity. His value for intergenerational experiences provides the context in which family ministry can thrive.

Timothy is very clear that this book does not advocate the introduction of myriad new programs. He is forthright in noting the time, effort, and energy needed to develop what he is suggesting. At the same time, I am encouraged that it is first of all worthwhile and secondly, do-able. Whether a person reads this book as a minister, educator, or parent - the content, recommendations, and vision will likely stir the heart and mind to actively integrate family ministry into everyday life.
 
Gregory A. Delort, Ph.D., CFLE
Professor of Family Ministry
Associate Dean of Academics
Manhattan Christian College
Manhattan, KS
 
 
 
 
The Family Ministry Field Guide is a practical tool for church leaders to question how they equip families to disciple their children. The information is not reactionary, relying on the latest trends or statistics, but instead built upon how the gospel can impact families in a real way.

Jeff Hutchings
Director of Family Ministry
The Journey - Tower Grove Campus
 


 
Built on careful study of God's word and practical wisdom from personal life, The Family Ministry Field Guide will educate, equip and inspire church leaders and whole congregations to honor Jesus through effective family ministry. By centering family ministry on the gospel of Jesus Christ Timothy Paul Jones avoids the trap of idolizing family that comes at the expense of effective mission. This book is not about replacing program-centered ministry with family-centered ministry. Instead we are called to a gospel-centered ministry that clarifies the goals of both parents and churches. More than raising healthy citizens or retaining church members, our goal in family ministry is to see children serving alongside their parents and in the fellowship of the church as missional disciples of Jesus for the glory of God. This book doesn't just provide a simple agenda of new programs to employ but urges churches to pursue a change of culture. We're reminded that real culture change takes time. Yet we're not just left with idealistic dreams but given practical steps to pursue, complete with discussion outlines to work through together as a congregation. This book has given me many helpful ideas to implement. More significantly though, through drawing us to Scripture it has painted the vision of God's plan for children, families and congregations that summons my faith, drives me to prayer and inspires me to action. A highly recommended guide for both the theory and practice of family ministry.
 
Rev. Graham Stanton
Principal
Youthworks College
Sydney, Australia
 

 
 
I found in Family Ministry Field Guide not only an excellent resource for pastors of family ministry, but a call for the church to partner with families, not just minister to them, in such a way that the whole family (parents and children) reflect Christ in their home. It is an excellent guide not only for parents and pastors, but professors of family ministry as well, providing a contemporary approach for the contemporary family.
 
Jim Estep
Professor of Christian Education
Lincoln Christian University and Seminary
 

 
 
What a practical book for pastors and church leaders who want to be intentional about equipping parents to disciple children! The book helps you understand the challenge of today's families and the different models of family ministry. But its real value is the practical exercises and discussion questions that can guide a church in developing its own strategy for discipling all generations.
 
Daryl Eldridge
President of Rockbridge Seminary
 

 
 
Jones' Field Guide will help literally thousands of Generation X parents who are taking back the role of leading their children spiritually. Raising kids to love God and love others takes focus and commitment. This book will give parents the information and techniques necessary to make the whole experience of family discipleship much simpler and manageable.
 
Shane Garrison, Ed.D.
Asst. Prof. of Educational Ministries
Campbellsville University
School of Theology
 
 
 
 
Dr. Timothy Jones has a balanced and prophetic voice about what is happening in the average Christian church and home. He cuts through the false motivations and statistical myths that have motivated many in the family ministry movement. What he offers instead is a refreshing gospel-driven perspective on family ministryone with the goal of equipping families to be outposts of God's mission in the world. His perspective is Orange with a theological edge. Dr. Jones' skill as a teacher and a researcher is clear in the Field Guide. His practical and relevant counsel is peppered with fresh statistical research. My prayer is that many churches and ministers will be transformed for Christ's sake because of this important work.

Jared Kennedy
SojournKids Pastor
Sojourn Community Church
 

 
 
Timothy Paul Jones' latest offering, The Family Ministry Field Guide, fills an important niche in the growing field of Family Ministry. Informed but readable, it threads the needle of providing both professors and practitioners with a resource that is biblically faithful, theologically thoughtful, historically informed, and practically relevant.

Like a workman, Jones deliberately builds a type of historical theology of family ministry by drawing from the titans of Christian history, while interspersing those grand thoughts with common-sense reflections on parenting, shepherding, and formation from contemporary leaders and everyday people. In sum, The Family Ministry Field Guide becomes a wonderful weaving of biblical principles, with strong social science research, and practical anecdotes.

While valuing intergenerational interaction, it establishes a framework for local church-based family ministry that places a priority on the home as the centerpiece of spiritual formation. It is my opinion that resources like this can help provide solid solutions on how churches and households of faith can engage in ministry to help address what may be the primary crisis of our age: the disintegration of the family. 

Freddy Cardoza
Ph.D.Department Chair, Christian Education
Associate Professor, Christian Education
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
 
 
 
This is simply the best book I have ever read on family ministry. Every pastor and church leader of families should read it, then get it into the hands of every family in their church. In the Family Field Guide Timothy Paul Jones challenges our assumptions about what we think "works" in family ministry, then stirs an appetite for something far greater, a vision to transform our families through the power of the gospel. There is no improving on Dr. Jones's vision"The goal is Jesus, the center is the gospel, and the family is the means." Yet Timothy Paul Jones gives more than a catch phrase, in the Family Ministry Field Guide, he tells you how it's done.
 
Marty Machowski
Family Life Pastor
Covenant Fellowship Church
Author of Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God
 
 
 
Timothy Jones's Family Ministry Field Guide is an appeal to ministers to embrace a model of ministry that engages with individuals and families in partnership with parents who recognised and resourced as the primary disciplers of their children and a guide to help them to work out how effective their current practice is.

Jones does not pretend to offer a quick or easy fix. Instead the book methodically works through planning and implementing a God honouring, Christ focused, family equipping ministry while supplying encouragement and direction to help overcome some of the obstacles and to avoid some of the pitfalls that are likely to come with the sort of paradigm shift that such a change is likely to entail.

Jones asks challenging and provocative but always helpful questions that have emerged from his own experiences in ministry and from his research as seminary professor of leadership and church ministry. As the reader takes time to stop, consider and reflect, the questions become an invitation to reorder and reprioritise ministry so that effort and direction is spent in promoting the growth and development of Christian community rather than in simply trying to preserve the status quo.

This is not just a book for those who recognise the need to reorient and reenvision their ministries. It also offers advice and guidance who are already pursuing patterns of ministry that are more closely modelled on the NT paradigm than they are on models from educational institutions or the business world. It is a book that will serve well as an entry-level text book for Family Ministry and one that will continue to stimulate and encourage in the years to come.
 
Andy Stirrup
Academic Registrar
Youthworks College

 
 
"At a time when the Christian family is under attack from every angle, Timothy Paul Jones has issued a clarion call for churches to partner with parents to develop a Christ-centered worldview in their children's lives--but he doesn't stop there. He also provides the tools that church leaders will need to implement this vision in their day-by-day practices of ministry, beginning in their own homes. Theologically grounded yet deeply practical, Family Ministry Field Guide is a much-needed book."

James Garlow, Ph.D.
Senior Pastor
Skyline Church

"A message filled with the promise that we can all do something beautiful for God."
-Shane Claiborne, author, activist, recovering sinner

 "Listen to her.  She is a powerful force for good."
-Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics

"I will never be the same after reading Arloa Sutter's words...a beautiful story of hope and reconciliation."
-Rev. Tracey Bianchi, pastor for women at Christ Church of Oak Brook

 "Broken people on the journey have given her new lenses to see familiar Scriptures in new ways."
-Ray Bakke, Chancellor, Bakke Graduate University