Family Ministry

Philosophy of Family Ministry at River Oaks

It is our goal that both our theology and our methodology of presenting everyone mature in Christ (Col 1:28) be thoroughly biblical. God clearly can and does produce children who love the supremacy of the glory of Christ in a variety of ways.

However, we believe that the way God intends for us to communicate the truth about His incomparable character and the wonder of His works (Deut 6:1-9, Psalm 78:1-8) to children is primarily through the faithful instruction of parents and especially fathers who are equipped and supported by the church (Eph 6:4, Col 3:21).

Therefore as leadership, our desire is to prepare parents for and lead parents in the fulfilling of this task (Eph 4:11-13) with the goal of producing mature families within the covenantal family of God (Jer 31:31-33, Eph 2:19-22). This happens through the sound exposition of the Word of God in all teaching contexts (1 Tim 4:16, 2 Tim 4:1-4), authentic loving relationships (John 13:34, Romans 12:1-18) and through the intentionality of the family ministry mission (2 Cor 1:12, Eph 5:15-17).

Five Principles drive our ministry to families:

  1. God is the focus of all teaching. We desire to be Christ-exalting, gospel-centered and to communicate His greatness with joyful zeal (Psalm 145:4, Psalm 70:4, Ecclesiastes 9:10, Philippians 4:4, Titus 2:14).
  2. Equipping parents (especially fathers) to lead family Bible instruction times. We are committed to lovingly encouraging & exhorting parents and especially fathers to lead with excellence & faithfulness (1 Thes 2:9-12).
  3. A very high priority on family worship. We desire to strengthen parents to shepherd their children by loving, instructing and modeling authentic and passionate worship of the living God (Rom 12:1-2, Psalm 16:11, 27:4, 37:4).
  4. Every member of River Oaks can help in some way. We are a covenant community of believers who have been given a generational command (Psalm 145:4, Gal 6:10, Eph 4:1-16, Ro 12:3-8).
  5. We depend upon God to convert our children. There is no guaranteed formula for producing a person that loves Christ. Only God can cause a person to love what he ought to love, namely Him (John 1:12, 3:3, 6:63-65, Eph 1:4-6).

It is our future hope that in this way 2 Corinthians 1:14 would be fulfilled and we would boast about one another before the throne as we join the heavenly throng in worship of the Lamb who was slain (Rev 5:12) forever rejoicing in the greatness of the glory of his grace!