Children's and Family Ministries

A GREAT FAMILY MINISTRY MODEL    

IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN DISTRICT!   

Ethan McClaugherty, Family Pastor at the Canon City EFC, has developed a very effective model for Family Ministries based on his Four Pillars.  Ethan has spent time developing and implementing his model from what he sees as the four needs of families – Marriage, Financial Counseling, Parenting Classes, Accountability (Small Groups).    

  “This ministry was born six years ago after taking a close look at where families in this church and town really needed help to develop and strengthen Christ-centered families.  These four pillars were specifically designed to renew and transform couples/parents based on the consistent, destructive patterns of the majority, if not all, of them followed to some degree.” 

This Family Ministry model is based in training couples/parents using what he thinks are the best materials available in the four pillars, such as Song of Solomon, Tommy Nelson, Prepare/Enrich, Olson, Larson Crown Financial (www.crown.org) , Raising Kids With A Faith That Lasts, Focus, (or I recommend), Visionary Parenting (www.visionaryparenting.org) , and then making every effort to get couples/parents into the small group ministry of his church.   In Ethan’s words,  

“. . . my focus is still more on helping to create marriages that show the love of Christ to children before a word is spoken.  Teaching Christ in a home where mom and dad are consistently in conflict has the opposite effect. . . Five years later, these four areas of focus have proven to help move families away from worldly patterns and toward Godly patterns.  This has helped them to rebuild a Christ-centered family life while also creating a more vibrant church body.  I believe that this transformation has also started making the large amount of money the church puts into children’s and youth ministries more effective, all while turning the tide on the pattern of divorce and/or destructive habits.”  

Ethan would be happy to encourage you and tell you more about his journey in Family Ministry at Canon City EFC.  Email him or call him - ethanm@efreechurch.org.   

Julie Kurz, Consultant for Family/Children’s Ministries