Family Ministry: How Does God Work in the World?

I used this book in college for a Family Life class and now I'm using it to teach a class from at the church where I minister. It is very good, and very in depth.

This title is comprehensive, practical and enjoyable to read for its size. It provides a nice evangelical primer on the broad subject of family ministry and has significantly improved my understanding of the field. My biggest take-away from this text was Jesus` definition of family: "whoever does the will of [his] Father" (Matthew 12:50). Once we get THAT concept in our heads, it opens up new possibilities for meaningful and lasting relationships in our world. It also reorients our allegiances and willingness to sacrifice for the good of others. That is a powerful vision of the Kingdom indeed. As it relates to this way of defining "family," I especially appreciated the quote found on page 169: "We need to give attention in our churches to the development of Christian friendships. We need others whom we can call "friend," those to whom we can "make all things known." This was of particular importance to me because it was a conclusion I had come to long ago after meeting my three dearest friends (and my wife later) in a church context. Let it suffice to say that these friendships have superseded the depth of my relationships with blood-relatives, and it is because of the bond of Christ. Yet this was only one dimension of the text; there is so much more to the book than can be covered in a brief review. If you've only got the time and space for one book on family ministry, this should be it. Nevertheless, my chief complaint regarding this text is its total lack of an index. Thus it is infuriating when trying to locate pertinent information quickly. For being part of IVP's "Academic" catalogue, not having any type of index, be it of scriptural, subject or author orientation, is completely intolerable and needs to be addressed. Future editions will be significantly improved if this suggestion is taken seriously. Thanks for reading, -C. Lambeth

Garland writes an incredible book. She takes notice of the way that the term "family" has changed in the past 30 years and write with authority on the matter. I'm using this book in grad school and it is pheonominal. Any minister should buy this book to better serve the community of faith.

Diana Garland's newest book is a truly authoritative study of family ministry that will no doubt become required reading in seminary classes throughout the country. Dr. Garland is an intellectually stimulating writer who still manages to pepper this work with personal stories that give life to the scholarship. She lays a thorough groundwork for understaning families today as well as a foundation for understanding families from a Biblical perspective. She explains the history of the family ministry movement and tells why it must do more than simply "church-ify" the language and practices of mental health professionals. Most importantly for practitioners, she dedicates 10 chapters to the practice of family ministry. These chapters are full of creative and practical ideas to minister to families and to help families minister to others. In fact, families ministering together is a theme played throughout the book and is one that runs counter to much of our age-graded programming in churches. Dr. Garland is director of graduate social work education at Baylor and editor of a professional journal on family ministry. Her newest book will be an invaluable resource for all of us who work in this area.