Prisons, Local Government, Registry Offices... and more

There are several 'gateways' your church can use to engage with your local community. Some of these are obvious and easy to access, while others may be more challenging. But with prayerful planning you could use these gateways to make contact with families you might otherwise never have the opportunity to meet.

Engaging with dads in prison

While only a small percentage of parents serve time in prison, these are often families most in need of support. Liz Ollerton ran a Positive Parenting course, 'Time out for Dads', in Parc Prison, Bridgend at the invitation of Kainos, a Christian charity seeking to transform the lives of those in prison.

"The dads in the prison had all opted to live in the wing of the prison run by Kainos," explains Liz," "so they were all individuals seeking to change. They were one of the most thoughtful and responsive groups of dads I have ever worked with.

"You do need to go through proper channels - perhaps with the chaplaincy, the educational department in the prison, or other charities focussed on working in prisons.

"After the course, one dad wrote: 'I know how to go about things when I get out and be with my 4-month-old daughter. I now know what to expect and how to deal with the stressful situations.' That kind of comment shows how a simple parenting course can make a difference in the life of a family."

Opening our doors to the community

Liz has also presented Care for the Family's How to Drug Proof Your Kids® and community courses for parents of teens at the invitation of several churches. She has some advice for any church thinking of engaging in this way:

"What I've found is that engagement often snowballs. You run a course for people in the church so they know what it is, and that it's safe to invite non-church friends to. Then you run it again and people are happy to invite their friends along.

"It's good to do a taster evening. People are more likely to come to a one-off event. The 'taster' session begins to build a bridge with people.

"But mainly people need to feel listened to and they need to feel that you are genuinely interested in them. We need to offer a sense of hope - and as Christians we do have real hope to offer people in all aspects of life."

Local government

There are several ways you can support family life through interacting with local government. Positive Parenting has been engaging with local government for several years, running parenting courses on behalf of councils across the country.

As with most forms of engagement, long-term relationships with local government are best built by stating your objectives up front, and then ensuring that you only deliver what you have promised to do. Offering to run a parenting course, that turns into a 'mission' half way through, will jeopardise your church's chances of working with local government again.

Register offices

Couples choosing a civil ceremony need to contact the register office in order to make the legal arrangements for the wedding. This makes the register office an ideal gateway to offer couples marriage preparation. The National Couple Support Network (NCSN) seeks to work with registrars in offering pre-marriage courses and resources to couples.

Studies have repeatedly shown that marriage preparation reduces the likelihood of divorce, across all demographic groups, including ethnicity and income level. And yet the vast majority of couples getting married are not aware of the range of help available to them. Churches can help get the message out, and build important connections with couples starting out on the adventure of marriage.

Perhaps your church is already engaging in one of the ways we've described in this article - or in other ways. We'd love to hear from you, so click here to tell us your story.

Last Updated 06 December 2010