{"id":5557,"date":"2014-04-14T18:46:21","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T23:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate\/?p=5557"},"modified":"2014-04-14T18:50:17","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T23:50:17","slug":"a-new-definition-of-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate\/2014\/04\/14\/a-new-definition-of-families\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Definition Of Families"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By\u00a0Leneita Fix<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Almost every day I hear a different youth worker complain about a parent who doesn\u2019t really \u201ccare\u201d about their child. Have you ever done that? I know I have. The \u201cuntraditional\u201d family has become the norm with divorce rates continuing at 60% (in and out of the church), parents cohabiting, and grandparents raising grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>Then there are the struggles our students are facing.\u00a0 Bullying, abuse, and identity are universal.\u00a0 However, there are also drugs, violence, eating disorders, cutting, and just generally being a teen.\u00a0 We keep saying it\u2019s \u201charder\u201d for this generation.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Why do we think that?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There was a time when truthfully by looking at someone\u2019s fashion, taste in music, family make up, or \u201cissues\u201d it was easy to identify where they \u201clived.\u201d There were definitive \u201csides of town,\u201d with the particulars of what went on there. Now we have come to live in a \u201cmash-up\u201d society of culture, challenges, and tastes. Our idea of who is sitting in our pews, attending our youth groups or living in our community is no longer easily defined by how much money they make, location or the color of one\u2019s skin.The other side of the tracks with their common misconceptions and problems are moving, and reaching each of us in ministry in some way.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of where you are currently located, I would venture I could place you in a room with 50 other church leaders from anywhere in America and there would be common stories to tell.<\/p>\n<p>As I have had the opportunity to speak across the country I often talk with youth pastors who have students who have some families they struggle with. Everyone has a different \u201clabel.\u201d Here are some of the labels I have heard:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Inner city- at-risk-urban- unchurched-spiritually immature- dechurched- and \u201cThe Community\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/www.simplyyouthministry.com\/resources-adult-leaders-development-everybody-s-urban.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" alt=\"Everybody's Urban\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.simplyyouthministry.com\/\/wp-content\/upload\/dodge\/2013\/07\/Everybodys-Urban-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The common threads I hear are families living in some form of \u201csurvival mentality.\u201d They just are trying to get through the day and \u201clive their life.\u201d You might choose a different term, but my ministry partner Jeff Wallace and I use the term, \u201cnew urban.\u201d It does include demographic area, culture, multi-ethnicity, social ills, and socio-economics. However, we\u00a0would argue, in terms of the Christian community, this title blurs those lines and moves beyond them. Families are dealing with deep-seated issues all around; honestly, some are just better at hiding it than others. Our book\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.simplyyouthministry.com\/resources-adult-leaders-development-everybody-s-urban.html\" target=\"_blank\">Everybody\u2019s Urban\u00a0<\/a><\/em>can help you delve more into this idea and on how to reach your \u201cnew urban\u201d students who are in a survival mindset and quite possibly stuck there.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s time for the Body of Christ to stop making assumptions. It doesn\u2019t matter what we label we give, or what we see with our eyes; too many are stuck existing to survive the day when they need to know Christ wants them to thrive.<\/p>\n<p>The question we must ask ourselves is will we stop thinking \u201cthose problems aren\u2019t ours\u201d or thinking some families are just too broken, and instead intentionally let compassion move us to action?<\/p>\n<p>This is why Jeff Wallace and myself are partnering with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.leadertreks.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">LeaderTreks<\/a>\u00a0on April 29 \u2013 May 1 for a \u201cRefuel Retreat\u201d at Pawley\u2019s Island in South Carolina. We want to help you embrace and support who is in your group. How do you partner with a generation of parents that seem more distant than ever?\u00a0 How do you help students genuinely step up and know what it means to belong to Jesus? (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.refuelretreat.com\/locations\/pawleys-island\/\" target=\"_blank\">For more information click here.<\/a>) (It\u2019s alright if you don\u2019t want to talk to us just enjoy the free time and being at that beach.)<\/p>\n<p>Won\u2019t you join us in the conversation?<\/p>\n<p>Leneita Fix<br \/>\nAuthor &amp; Speaker &amp; Co-Founder FrontLine Urban Resources<\/p>\n<p><em>(Excerpt taken from\u00a0simplyyouthministry)<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=5557&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0Leneita Fix Almost every day I hear a different youth worker complain about a parent who doesn\u2019t really \u201ccare\u201d about their child. Have you ever done that? I know I have. The \u201cuntraditional\u201d family has become the norm with divorce rates continuing at 60% (in and out of the church), parents cohabiting, and grandparents raising [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,281],"tags":[14852],"class_list":["post-5557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-print-resource","category-resources","tag-youth-ministry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A New Definition Of Families - ECC | Youth Worker Update<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate\/2014\/04\/14\/a-new-definition-of-families\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A New Definition Of Families - ECC | Youth Worker Update\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By\u00a0Leneita Fix Almost every day I hear a different youth worker complain about a parent who doesn\u2019t really \u201ccare\u201d about their child. 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