The Family Manifesto

As a reviewer and researcher I am constantly working the Family Manifesto. It is one of the six criteria we use in reviewing resources for the ministry. So if you want to get a taste of what we are dealing with, take a look at it. Let me know what you think.


In 1992, FamilyLife created a document to address the critical issues regarding marriage and family in today's world with guidelines from it's Creator. As I read it afresh today, it is as fresh and relevant as it was when it was created 17 years ago.
Following is the Preface. To read specifics on marriage, husbands and wives, childlessness, the sexual union, and commitment read The Family Manifesto on the FamilyLife website.

• 
  During the latter half of the twentieth century the American culture has suffered an unrelenting decline. Although scientific and technological advances have created an outer veneer of prosperity and progress, our inner moral values and convictions have rapidly crumbled. Once, most Americans based their sense of right and wrong on Judeo-Christian principles, which provided them with a solid, biblical foundation for life. Today, a growing number of Americans see morality and ethics as relative and subjective and have developed their own version of "morality" with little regard to absolute standards.
  This idea of moral tolerance has been eroding the foundation of the American family and society. Many Americans today have little or no concept of how to maintain a successful marriage and how to raise children to become responsible adults. In addition, a growing number of educators, politicians, and members of the media are attacking and redefining the family, creating a vast amount of confusion about what a family is. Many people today proclaim that "family values" are important, but the gradual shift to moral relativism has led to a great debate about what "family values" ought to be.
  Abraham Lincoln once said, "The strength of a nation lies in the homes of its people." It is our conviction that the family is the backbone of the Christian church and of society as a whole. History shows that, if any society wants to survive, it must uphold, strengthen, and continue to build upon the biblical institutions of marriage and family.
  The Bible begins in Genesis with the marriage of a man and a woman and ends in the Book of Revelation with the marriage of Christ and His bride, the Church. In between, God provides timeless blueprints for family life, which, if followed in a spirit of humility and obedience, provide us with the only true way to maintain healthy family relationships.
  The following document affirms this biblical model and challenges us to consider how we should live within the walls of our own homes. It is offered in a spirit of love and humility, not of judgment or contention. Furthermore, it is not intended to be a comprehensive doctrinal statement about what the Bible says about marriage, family, and related subjects.
  Unquestionably, this document attempts to face critical cultural issues. We invite response from anyone who wishes to affirm the truths of marriage and family from the Scriptures. It is our hope that this document will serve to accurately represent the truth God has revealed to us in Scripture, will provide insight into what a biblical family looks like, and will show how we can honor and glorify Him in our family relationships.
  We freely acknowledge that we, like all people, have often denied the biblical truths of family life by the way we live. We desire, however, to live by God's grace in accordance with the principles stated herein and to pass these principles on to future generations so that He will be honored and glorified as our families reflect His character.

Read The Family Manifesto in its entirety at FamilyLife.com.

FamilyLife in Central America!

Global Outreach is the international department of FamilyLife. Their goal isn't just to develop little FamilyLifes around the world but to empower the local population to implement Biblical training and ministry for marriages and families in their countries. One of the great tools they have developed is called Movement Makers. They start with a core of people who want to affect marriages and families for Christ and training uing the Movement Makers manual. Read an example of how this is happening in Ecuador:

Through yesterday we’ve presented three sessions of the basic Movement Maker Training here in Guayaquil, Ecuador. There is a Campus Crusade couple who led the outreach to families in Guayaquil. Here are some highlights:

Several Navy couples are participating in the Movement Maker training. This NCO is giving a presentation to the class. His class group developed a diagram to explain the three phases of developing a spiritual movement with families: launching, developing and maturing.




The couples are participating in a group project. This hands-on learning methodology keeps the students fully engaged in the material and helps them to own the ideas and express their personal involvement to implement the spiritual movement strategies.



This couple has been seeing the gospel of Jesus Christ make a powerful impact in the lives of couples as they have been leading a HomeBuilders group over the past year. They have been married six years and have learned a lot as they have been working through their own marriage difficulties and learning how to apply biblical principles in their own marriage.

They stepped out in faith last year by deciding to lead a HomeBuilders couples study in their home on a military base. They went through their neighborhood, knocking on doors. They offered to pray for couples and asked how they could support and encourage them in their marriage. The couples responded to this warm invitation from a sincere couple—they agreed to join the Morans by going through the HomeBuilders study guide called: “Building Your Marriage”.

Four couples came and also four ladies who attended without their husbands. The husband explained how the couples showed up with all their baggage—some of their marriages were in significant trouble. One wife was contemplating suicide. Through God’s intervention and the love and encouragement of this couple, the wife accepted Christ into her life and began to grow in her faith. This couple learned that much of her personal suffering and mental anguish came from an extraordinarily difficult relationship with her husband. He was frequently drunk and frequently unfaithful. However, the wife began to pray for her husband and their marriage. God intervened and the husband also prayed to receive Christ into his life. His entire life changed from the inside out and now they both attend the HomeBuilders couples study with this couple.

Another couple in the group had a pattern of abuse and heated quarreling. The wife was able to spend some time counseling with this wife and praying with her. However, the marital crisis erupted to the point where the husband threatened to kill his wife. His wife fled to the wife's house in desperation. While she was pouring her heart out, the wife explained there was only one person who could help in this situation—that person was Jesus Christ. The desperate wife prayed to ask Jesus into her life and to seek His help to heal her broken heart and her broken marriage. Eventually her husband joined her at the HomeBuilders study group and he also asked Jesus to come into his life.

God has given FamilyLife an incredible message of hope and salvation to deliver to hurting marriages and hurting families. God has also given us great partners around the world . However, it’s the volunteers that generate the life-on-life ministry to so many couples—that’s what provides real meaning to the idea of “Helping you to help others”.