Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. Today I’m excited to have Kurt Brodbeck with us from Northview Church.

Northview has been around since 1980, but has seen the most growth since 2003. It’s currently a church of 11 locations in Indiana, and Kurt is the Family Ministry Pastor.

Kurt is with us today to talk about why a church should work to empower parents in leading their children to follow Christ, and practical steps a church can take to help parents win.

* Spiritual conversations. // Kurt believes the church needs to be incredible at creating environments for spiritual conversations to happen, particularly when it comes to kids and students. While most churches agree that we need to help resource parents, a bulk of our time is spent focused on the church’s own internal programs. Meanwhile parents have questions about what is the right spiritual conversation to have with their kids, when to have it, and what to do if they don’t have all the right answers. Parents have a huge felt need in raising their kids and it’s the church’s job to give parents the tools to do it and set them up to win.* Partner with parents. // The church can’t be the hero in the spiritual development of kids. Parents not only need to be included, but they need to be the heroes in their kids’ eyes. Churches are often terrible at accountability and follow-up, but parents are awesome at those things as well as caring for and nurturing kids. But parents may have trouble starting conversations about things happening in the life of their children. This is where the church can partner with parents. The church creates environments where those spiritual conversations can happen and then resources the parents to follow up with their kids.* Family Framework. // Northview has a program called the Family Framework. The Family Framework is a set of classes and other resources which helps parents develop a family plan to help them make the most of each moment they have with their kids, from birth to graduation. The classes help parents win with their children and create spiritual engagement so that together they can grow.* Bible presentation. // One strategic path in the Family Framework is the Bible Presentation Parent Class for second graders. The parents come to the class and learn about how the bible came to be and how to read it for themselves. They then present the bible to their children and are able to read and learn about the bible together.* Focus on blessing. // For the older kids, the Family Framework focuses more on events instead of classes. The Blessing is for fifth and sixth graders, alternating one year for boys and the next year for girls. Every boy needs to hear a blessing from his dad and every girl needs to hear a blessing from her mom, focused on who they are and who they are becoming. For the parents, this resource provides coaching on how to create a blessing for their children.* Emphasis on the kids. // As a parent you want better for your kids than you had for yourself. One of the reasons Kurt believes Northview has grown so much is because of the emphasis their senior pastor has put on kids, students, and family.

You can learn more about Northview Church at their website and you can email Kurt at [email protected].

Lightning Round

Influential Book //