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Post tagged with family ministry

Family Ministry: The Centality of Motherhood in Redemption

May 13th, 201308:38 AM ET

By Timothy Paul Jones

“It was male human nature that the Son of God united to his divine person; it was a female human person who was chosen to be his mother. In no woman has human nature been raised to the dignity which it possesses in Jesus of Nazareth, but to no male person has there been given a dignity comparable to that which Mary enjoys as Theotokos, a dignity ...
Family Ministry: In Praise of Inefficiency

March 25th, 201309:28 AM ET

By Timothy Paul Jones

I saw something beautiful the other day while walking down Breckenridge Lane. In a front yard not far from my home, a young mother was removing a layer of leftover leaves from the fall in preparation for planting spring flowers—an ordinary activity in the middle of an ordinary day. What was extraordinary about this scene was what I saw beside th...
Family Ministry: Gut Feelings, the Gospel, and the Big Lie About Nine-Out-of-Ten

March 18th, 201302:13 PM ET

By Timothy Paul Jones

“So, tell me,” I ask, “why do you want to transition your church toward family ministry?” “Well,” the pastor begins “nine out of every ten kids are dropping out of church after they graduate, aren’t they? Evidently, what we’re doing right now isn’t working.” “Mm-hmm,” the children’s director agrees. “Eighty-eight per...
Finding the Right Motivation for Family Ministry

February 04th, 201309:12 AM ET

By Timothy Paul Jones

I heard clapping in the worship center and breathed a sigh of relief. I was waiting in the senior pastor’s office for the final tally of ballots, and the applause suggested the vote had gone positively. After six years as a pastor of a small rural church, perhaps my life had grown too predictable. For reasons that weren’t readily apparent at t...
Family Ministry: Living in the Right Story

September 24th, 201211:42 AM ET

By Timothy Paul Jones

Accused by a member of Parliament of always repeating “the same old story,” British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once retorted, “Of course, it’s the same old story! Truth usually is the same old story.” Whatever one may think of Margaret Thatcher’s politics, her words carry with them a reminder that can transform the lives of the fa...
Family Ministry: Learning to Do Less So That Parents Can Do

September 18th, 201203:52 PM ET

By Timothy Paul Jones

Parents in your ministry don’t have time to disciple their children—or, at least, that’s the way many of them feel when they look at their weekly to-do lists. According to recent research in the field of family ministry, half of church-involved parents have resigned themselves to the notion that, to some degree, their families are simply too ...
Shaping a Child's Soul, a Task Too Crucial to Be Entrusted to Professionals

May 11th, 201210:17 AM ET

By Timothy Paul Jones

I saw something beautiful one day while walking down Breckenridge Lane in Louisville. In a front yard not far from my home, a young mother was removing a layer of leftover leaves from the fall in preparation for flower planting—an ordinary activity in the middle of an ordinary day. What was extraordinary about this scene was what I saw beside th...

About this blog

My name is Timothy Paul Jones, and I love living in the city of Louisville with my wife and daughters. Over the past two decades, I’ve had the privilege of leading several congregations as a pastor and in associate ministry roles. Now, I serve as associate professor of leadership at one of the largest seminaries in the world. Here, I invest my time in mentoring a rising generation of God-called ministers of the gospel. I also write books in the fields of history, apologetics, and family ministry.

I enjoy spending time with my family, meandering along city streets, visiting baseball stadiums, drinking French-pressed coffee, eating locally-produced foods, and cooking for friends. My family is involved in children’s ministry at Sojourn Community Church.