Family to Family

Family to Family

Introduction

Dr. Jerry Pipes is on the staff at the North American Mission Board and is the President of Jerry Pipes Productions. He has traveled around the world speaking to millions of people in local churches, schools, businesses, and area wide Celebrations. Jerry served as one of the presenters in the former Bush Administration's President's War on Drugs in the early 90's. Jerry is the author of several books related to the issue of personal growth and the family. He has authored Becoming Complete, Family to Family, and Building a Successful Family. Additionally, he has produced numerous booklets and training processes with almost thirteen million copies in print.

Victor Lee is a veteran journalist and minister with a focus on discipleship, sports evangelism, singles ministry, purposeful family living, and evangelism strategy. A former newspaper reporter, Victor has written several hundred articles for Christian web sites and magazines.

Analysis

In the book Family to Family Pipes and Lee provides a critical examination of the family. This book was written for busy parents who desire to spend quality family time together and share their faith in Christ with their children (Lee, Victor and Jerry Pipes, 1999, p. 1) The authors provide information to assist families with discovering God's purpose for the them, develop a family mission statement, establish core values, make time for quality and quantity family time centered around God's purposes, and equip them to lead their children to Christ and mentor them spiritually.

The theme of the book is to empower families for effective disciple making, for creating the best likelihood that each family member will make Christian values their own, and relate warmly to their heavenly Father (Lee, Victor and Jerry Pipes, 1999).

Pipes and Lee discuss the fundamentals of leading and individual's family to the Lord. They propose things such as creating a family mission statement leading family devotionals, knowing when and how to introduce their child to Christ, and how to be real with your teenager. They provide the reader with techniques from Fey and Thompson that further explain how to expand evangelical influence outside of the home, into the neighborhood, relatives, coworkers, and even family mission trips.

Pipes and Lee examines the concept of a healthy family. The authors define a healthy family as one that spends quantity and quality time together, a family that is committed to each family member, one in which both parents share responsibility for raising the children, one in which the family unit is found in Christ, one who shares its faith so it is passed down to the next generation and one which their time together is centered on the purposes of God (Lee, Victor and Jerry Pipes, 1999, pg. 11-14). Ultimately a family can only be a fulfilled family by following God's divine plan for family life.

After explaining to readers the definition of a healthy family Pipes and Lee skillfully communicate the importance of having a family mission statement that is consistent with and reflective of the Word ...