Research Brief: Effective Practices for Training Parents in Family Discipleship -- By: W. Ryan Steenburg
Journal: Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry
Volume: JDFM 01:2 (Spring 2011)
Article: Research Brief: Effective Practices for Training Parents in Family Discipleship
Author: W. Ryan Steenburg
JFM 1:2 (Spring 2011) p. 46
Research Brief:
Effective Practices for Training Parents in Family Discipleship
W. Ryan Steenburg (Ph.D., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the Director of Administration and Development for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and the founder of Daddy Discipleship, a ministry to fathers. Ryan is also the Associate Editor for The Journal of Family Ministry. Ryan co-authored the chapter “Growing Gaps from Generation to Generation: Family Discipleship in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” in Trained in the Fear of God (Kregel, 2011) as well as a chapter in The Family Ministry Field Guide by Timothy Paul Jones (Wesleyan, 2011). Ryan lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife Kristen, daughters Caitlyn and Anabelle, son Wes and another daughter on the way. They enjoy reading books together, playing games, and taking advantage of the outdoors.
The purpose of this two-phase sequential mixed methods study was to explore best practices for training parents to pursue household family discipleship among churches identified as holding and conducting a family ministry philosophy and approach. This research used quantitative methods to measure parents’ perception and practices, and qualitative methods to explore the best practices.
Expert panel: In order to establish a sample population, an expert panel was assembled. The expert panel consisted of nine individuals who have a significant voice in the evangelical world as it pertains to family ministry. The panel included representatives of the three primary models of family ministry—family-equipping, family-based, and family-integrated. The expert panel provided a list of churches that, in their estimation, conducted family ministry well. Seventeen churches were nominated; twelve agreed to participate.
Phase One: Parental Perceptions and Practices: All eligible parents from each participating congregation were invited to take part in an online survey. The Family Discipleship Perceptions and Practices Survey (FDPPS) was hosted by an online data collection service. The core questions of the survey had been previously validated, exhibiting a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.88. The entire survey, including requests for demographic information, consisted of twenty-five questions and should have taken no more than ten minutes to complete. The questions identified the parents’ perception of their role and responsibility as well as gauging the household practices in which the parents engage on a regular basis. This first phase resulted in usable data from 933 parents.
Phase Two: Telephone Interviews and Case Studies: The second phase consisted of phone interviews with all nominated churches that were willing...
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