Adopt a Family
Over the years, our family’s sense of connection with the various churches we’ve been part of has varied widely. We have moved from state to state several times during our marriage, which always requires a new round of exhausting “church shopping” and new attempts to begin to plug into that new body of believers in a way you hope will eventually feel more natural—like an extended family itself.
One of the quickest ways to start to feel connected to the folks at your church—and to help kids to begin to understand what it means to be part of that family—is to intentionally serve specific people.
Our activity for the month is an encouragement for your family to pick another family in the church and find creative ways to serve them both individually and together for a week or a month or a season.
Try This:
Explain the project to your family. Let them know that being part of God’s family includes learning to love and serve other Christians, especially those in your church. So, as a family, you’re going to pick one other family in the church and find ways to help and serve and encourage them during a specific week or month or other predetermined period of time.
If possible, try to work together to pick the family you will focus on serving. Maybe it’s a family in particular need of real, physical help, such as a family with a new baby or an elderly couple with some household projects or an under-the-gun single parent. Or maybe it’s a family that has experienced particular stresses, lately, that you could support with kindness and encouragement. It could even, perhaps, be a family someone in your family has recently been in some kind of conflict with; focused blessing can be a good way to restore bruised relationships.
Once you’ve chosen another family, ask your group to brainstorm ways you could serve that other family—and encourage your kids to try to come up with some of these ideas on their own. Make them cookies? Wash their cars? Free child care? Some unexpected meals? Cards? A pre-arranged date night for the parents and play night for the kids?
Don’t rule out any ideas right away, but try to steer away from too many ideas that involve spending money. The point of this activity is to serve another family together, not just to buy them things. It’s a chance for you and your kids to use your unique talents and spiritual gifts in concerted and specific service to another family in your church family.
At some point, you might need to tell the other family what you’re up to—especially if your service involves a specific project. If necessary, try to reduce the potential awkwardness by explaining that you’re tackling a family project of serving other families in the church. It’s not always easy for people to receive unprovoked kindnesses like these. Assure them that they will be doing you and your kids a favor if they’ll allow you to serve them a few times during the next few days or weeks.
During the project and once it’s completed, look for opportunities to ask your kids how they feel about serving together in this way. Be sure to enforce that the biggest reason for doing it isn’t for the reward of the other family’s grateful reactions, but as a way of serving God by giving to others what He has given to you. Be sure to thank and praise your kids for their selfless efforts to be kind to others.
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