An Introduction

This is a site dedicated to helping church leadership understand and examine how to inclusively plan and prepare for Step and Blended families in the church. Step Families like our own family have unfortunately overtaken the number of traditional families in the United States. It is our passion to help leadership and program facilitators consider the obstacles and complexities that step and blended families face in the church. It is our prayer that God will use this ministry to the roadblocks that prevent the rebuilding of the families lives through the healing power of God's grace, through God's teachings in the church, and to become an encouragement resource for leadership on how to reach more of God's people.
In Him,
Les & Sweetie Berry

Do You Recognize Your Conflicts?

The complexities of family is a story as old as Adam and Eve. From the beginning families were torn apart, moved apart, and yet God will still Lord of their creation and they still needed God. Today's family is often not centered on God, nor do they know God's peace in their lives. Our passion is helping churches learn the needs of "today's family" so that programming may become inclusive and welcoming to all of God's children.

Below are just a few things my own step family has faced in scheduling. Now if its simply this hard to get our children to church, how much harder for a child or an adult to feel like they are ever truly a part of God's family.

• Our children could only see their natural dad on 1,3,5th weekends since he lived in another town 70 miles away. Youth activities on Sunday night only meant they had to choose whether to participate in youth and miss seeing their dad for another week, or see their dad and miss being a part of our youth group.
• Children were asked to leave choir, youth, clubs because they couldn't follow the "no more than two absences allowed" rules due to required custody visitation, so once again they know that they are not truly " a part" of God's family, but a union card carrying member of brokenness.
• Wednesday nights are often reserved for in town non custodial parents. The child is torn between children and youth activities afterschool and evening or seeing their dad....this one causes much heart ache for Wednesday only based programming
• Classes for adults are often based on married or single, however there are many divorced with children singles that are a kettle of a different fish than an originally single person.
• Remarried couoples are often in a specific Sunday school class, which can lead to feelings of ostrization to people who have already lived through serious break down of their family.....and often with teenagers, the issues at home may be more about teenage years than step family...but they don't realize that because they aren't around the parents of teen that aren't remarried.
• Often no classes, fellowships, or care groups are designed to minister to non traditional family issues, and yet our people are hurting and needing guidance and healing.
• Camps and special activities are often offered the first six weeks of summer, when children have summer visitation, so they are automatically excluded.
• Extended families are often embarassed that they have divorced grown children, rarely does church help deal with their emotional loss of time with their grandchildren or the complexities holidays and events bring to their lives.
• Beneign statements made such as "you MIND your father" are said to a child who not only knows that man is his step father, but his natural father has left him and he greatly resents that you expect him to respect and honor this man he had no choice but to allow in his life.
• There was absolutely no divorce recovery programming to help children deal with their pain, anger, upset, and abandonment issues, they were expected to just handle it....and often while not talking about it to anyone....
• Couples get into positions that mean someone is going to feel they have to give up their church home, adding to the abandonment, failure feelings....yet it would be best for the children if the divorced parents remain in a church, even if seperately, so that some unity can remain for all in the family. Fellowships that are aware of how to deal with brokenness can help members be aware of how to remain neutral even when its tempting not to!
• We are not making it "safe" for struggling couples to ask or receive help with their troubled marriages. We need to talk openly about the issues that lead to seperations and loss of trust, so that we can rebuild families before they are in two households!

There are good materials and structures in our Christian ministeries effectively dealing with the above issues. Our prayer is that God allows this site to gather excellent materials in one place so that ministry leadership will have one place to see what "best practices" and methods are working to reach all of God's step and blended families!

About Advertising Here...

A Joyful Place Resources, LLC is about helping step and blended families, church leadership, and the community understand and support blended and step families in the their walk with God.
We are simply sharing resources for the support and growth of Step and Blended families as we discover and use them. We do not accept payment for advertising them! Love gifts sewn for the harvest of families in church are welcome.

If you have a non ministry product that is appropriate for step or blended families and would be appropriate for a Christian, please feel free to contact us to be featured on one of our sidebars. Please remember that if you are to advertise here, your client readers are people who are trying their hardest to make home a joyful place overcoming the issues of being a step or blended family. We will be sharing 6 advertising button spaces on this site for a very $10monthly fee (3 month minimum via Paypal or check) beginning in April 09.Contact us @ ajoyfulplace@gmail.com for more information. Please list A Joyful Place Called Home in the Subject area.