Supporting Families @ Faith

Supporting Families at Faith

By The Family Life Team

Sharon* had a good career. Despite not having a university degree, she was able to climb the ranks to become a Vice President at a prestigious company. With prestige, power and money, she was the envy of many.

Things on the home front were not so rosy, however. While she was a success in the boardroom, her family life was severely compromised. Hard as she tried, frequent travels for work meant that she could not juggle her role as a wife and a mother. Beneath that facade of achievement, she was broken and unfulfilled within. challenges such as problems with in-laws; parents struggle in parenting their children; families have to manage care for aging parents and work out their finances. and the list goes on.

Christians are not immune to these realities and they often need a shoulder to lean on in tough times, or just words of encouragement to know that they are not alone. this was the impetus for the formation of the Family life initiative at Faith—to provide a network of spiritual and practical support within the church that members can easily have access to.

sharon* is one of our members at Faith methodist Church and not the only one facing these challenges. Families today are struggling, and under tremendous pressure. On top of work-related stress and hectic lifestyles, singles face relationship issues; married couples have marital identifying the needs of today’s Family

so how does Family life contribute within this framework?

With this question in mind, a survey was conducted via Faith’s small Groups to understand the impact of these challenges on our members, and how we can strengthen family life within the church family. Our members shared candid thoughts, and amongst the myriad findings, the top four topics that emerged and were highlighted were: marriage, Parenthood, medical, and Financial.

the life of our church exists through small Groups and has, over the years, become an extension of family life. therefore, it was not surprising that members who took part in the survey ranked small Groups as the most effective platform for delivering family life services related to marriage, parenthood, grief, career, medical, aged parents and singlehood.

*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals Family Life is inclusive

at the ministry Fair held in may 2018, a member who visited the Family life booth was hesitant to volunteer and

besides other reasons, cited that being single, she could not identify with the work of Family life. it dawned on us that the definition of “family” was an ambiguous one.

Family life is often viewed as synonymous to married life, but it is not so. Family life goes beyond marriage and parenthood. in God’s family, it is an all-inclusive network where our roles as children, spouses, parents, grandparents, spiritual parents, and fellow believers intertwine.

such relationships and connections coexist in a fluid dynamic, making family life multi-layered, multidimensional and complex.

therefore, the primary mission of Family life is to, through small Groups: the next Step

Faith’s 52nd anniversary Family Conference & service on 14 July is the launch of our first Family life initiative. Bishop emeritus Dr Robert solomon is the keynote speaker at two plenary sessions, examining the biblical portraits of trends from outside, tensions within, and truths from above that families need to know in order to not just survive, but thrive in today’s challenging environment.

Please join us and pray with the Family life committee for God’s guidance and wisdom as we work to build healthy and God-fearing families at Faith.

Family life is also looking for volunteers. if you sense God’s call to serve in this area, do approach any of the committee members listed in this article to find out more! together, we can bring families to God and let him rewrite their stories, as he did for sharon*:

“God spoke. i heard him and while the struggle was real, in obedience i gave up my career and everything that came with it. it has been 7 years since then. From time to time, i do miss the finer trappings of life. But i finally learnt to distinguish between a need and a want. i need my family. the ‘wants’ i had just weren’t good enough to meet my needs. i am now a much happier person than when i had the high life my career offered me.”

One family empowered for his glory, and many more to come.

• Help members understand God’s purpose for family life;

• Equip families to overcome life’s challenges; and

• Empower Small Groups to touch lives within their extended family

Besides organising in-house workshops, talks, and retreats, the Family life committee hopes to build up a library of training and equipping resources to meet the needs identified through the survey. these resources will be made available to the congregation of Faith. more information will be provided in time to come. CounseLLing aT FaiTh

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The FamiLY LiFe Team aT FaiTh

piLLAr pAStor Rev see swee Fang

FAMiLY LiFE CoMMittEE

Training and Equipping Leo Wee Lin

7111Leo@gmail.com

Alison Lim

alison010114@gmail.com

Support Groups Chan Chin Kiang

chanck97@gmail.com Eileen Chong

joeileen@hotmail.com

Special Events Wee Chor Keong

weeck01@yahoo.com Joseph Chong

joechong59@hotmail.com

FaithCare Representative Calvin tay

zs_tay@yahoo.com