A Theology for Family Ministry

Michael Anthony, Michelle Anthony, Michael Anthony, Michelle Anthony

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781433673672
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christlicher Dienst

The times are definitely changing. What was once simply referred to as a Nuclear Family in North America has morphed into labels such as Non- Traditional Families, Fragmented Families, Single-Parent Families, Gay- Partner Families, Blended Families, and beyond."It may not always be pretty, but it is reality, and that's the intersection between biblical ideal and ministry practice, " writes editor Michael J. Anthony in A Theology for Family Ministry. With thoroughly researched input from a broad team of family experts, the book advises church and ministry leaders on how to make biblically and philosophically informed choices when reaching out to adults and children within these shifting paradigms. Emphasis is placed on what the Scriptures teach about the composition of the home, followed by discerning and hope filled strategies for helping all families live out their God-given mandates. "While the family may continue to change into models that bring discom fort and angst to some of us, we rest in the assurance that God has a plan for those who live in any of these new configurations of what we now call family, " explains Anthony. Other contributors include Ken Canfield, Michelle D. Anthony, Karen E. Jones, Freddy Cardoza, Michael S. Lawson, Richard Melick Jr., Curt Hamner, Leon Blanchette, Gordon R. Coulter, James W. Thompson, Timothy Paul Jones, Randy Stinson, Kit Rae, and David Keehn.

Unit 1

The Changing Face of the
North American Family

1

The Morphing of the Family

Michael J. Anthony

Biola University

I grew up watching the popular sitcom television shows of the 1950s and 1960s. Episodes of Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, and The Dick Van Dyke Show were weekly staples in our home. We would gather around the TV as a family and watch together while they generated laughter, finger pointing, and the occasional postepisode family discussion. We looked forward to the evening when our favorite show was on, and we would organize our time accordingly.

The writers and producers could capture the essence of our family even though they had never come to interview or visit us in our home. It was as if they had little spy cameras in our house so the things we were dealing with as a family became the theme of next week’s episode. Obviously, our family wasn’t alone in this observation. These popular portrayals of the “all-American family” were a snapshot of what was happening across the country. And where reality did not match the television show, the actors provided role models for how most Americans wanted to emulate their households.

As the popular Bob Dylan songs goes, “The Times They Are a Changin’.” The family of the twenty-first century has morphed into so many different configurations since those popular shows first aired that even sociologists are hard pressed to define them all. What was once simply referred to as a “nuclear family” has now morphed into labels such as “nontraditional families,” “fragmented families,” “single-parent families,” “gay-partner families,” “blended families,” and a host of other descriptions.

The purpose of this chapter is to explore and present some of the variations of families common in our culture today. If we are going to establish a theology of family ministries, we will need to take a hard look at what the Scriptures teach about the composition of the home (chapters 4–8) and then present strategies and models for helping these families live out their God-given mandates (chapters 9–12). However, before that can begin, we need to acknowledge that we do not live in a vacuum and families, as we once knew them, have changed dramatically over the past few decades. This first unit is designed to present the reader with a snapshot of current social and cultural existence as it pertains to the North American family. It may not always be pretty, but it is reality, and that is the intersection between biblical ideal and ministry practice.

Still the Gold Standard

The traditional nuclear family (e.g., dad, mom, and two kids) was the ideal model during the aftermath of the Second World War. The postwar baby boom explosion launched America into an unprecedented season of family growth. The percentage of married adults hovered close to 95 percent of the population.¹ However, this model was short lived as the 1960s brought about a turbulent era of transition. Young adults deferred marriage, opting for a carefree existence of experimentation with drugs, rock music, and sexual freedoms.

The growing demand for gender equality encouraged women to stand on their own, get in touch with their own strengths, and not rely on marriage and family as their sole source of security and identity. Marriage was still seen as a desirable objective by most men and women, but self-fulfillment and gratification were increasingly important motivators.²

Marriages that began after the war faced difficult times, and soon many were ending in divorce. As one author put it, “[T]he Cleavers are only available on reruns now, and the prominence of the breadwinner-homemaker family rapidly declined in the last third of the twentieth century. Married women moved into the work force, divorce rates rose, and more children were born out of wedlock.”³ The percentage of single-parent homes was on the rise in ways America had never known before. Sociologists were in a quandary to predict what the future held. This was new territory for the American family to be sure.

Throughout the next decades and into the twenty-first century, America has come to see new variations in what was once viewed as the gold standard of the American dream. The traditional family model is on the decline, but it has not been abandoned. A 2008 Washington Times article reported on a recent Census Bureau study that revealed “the most popular family type remained the nuclear family: Nearly 43 million children, or 58 percent, lived with their married biological parents. The number of parents in two-parent homes swelled even larger, to 51 million, when adoptive parents, remarried parents and unmarried-but-cohabitating parents were added in. Another 19 million children lived in single-parent homes, nearly 17 million with their mothers.”⁴

Although the variations have expanded and become far more creative in nature than our grandparents ever dreamed possible, the traditional nuclear family of two parents with children remains the foundation of American society.

Changing Paradigms of the Family

What are these new paradigms of family that we see throughout our society today? Definitions have had to expand and reconfigure what was once a fairly stable construct to examine. But when it comes to describing the all-American family today, it is time to take out a fresh piece of paper to describe what you see. Take a glance, for example, at some of these recent statistics that represent some of these familial changes:

• About one out of six 15-year-old girls will give birth before reaching the age of 20, according to the National Center of Health Statistics.
• In 1950 women made up 28 percent of the workforce. Today that figure is 48 percent.
• Multigenerational families have increased by 60 percent since 1990, according to www.togetheragain.com.
• A new Census Bureau American Community Survey shows that the number of parents younger than age 65 in households was up 75 percent between 2000 and 2007. It would appear families are not putting their aging parents in nursing homes as frequently as before.
• In the early 1960s, almost 60 percent of families had children younger than 18 living at home; that percentage in 2009 had dropped to just 46 percent.
• Married couples are older now. In 1968 less than 30 percent of married men were 55 and older. Today, nearly 40 percent are that age; the percentage of married women 55 and older has increased from 22 percent to 33 percent.
• Twenty percent of women ages 40 to 44 have no children, double the level of 30 years ago; women who do have children in that age category have fewer of them—an average of 1.09 children today compared to 3.1 children in 1976.
• Of women who gave birth in 2006, 36 percent were separated, widowed, divorced, or never married. Five percent were living with a partner.
• Research indicates that a 10 percent increase in welfare benefits increases by 12 percent the chances that a poor young woman will have a baby out of wedlock before she reaches the age of 22. This is true for both black and white girls.

In summary, the American family today is a household with fewer children and both parents working outside the home, with mothers giving birth to children at an ever older age, having far fewer children, and spacing them out farther than in years past. Never-married young teen mothers no longer disappear to have their baby with a relative out of state but remain home without raising an eyebrow. Aging parents live with thei...