is my church FTD-friendly?
Every church can care for families in transformative ways
At Sikunye we believe that every church is already equipped to be the modern-day village around families with young children. There are strengths and assets in every church that can be used to support, encourage and journey with families to see them thrive and their children reach their God-given potential. There are existing activities and platforms within your church that can be used to reach families inside and around your church community.
Churches that are FTD-friendly: Speak up about FTD, Surround Families, Collaborate with and Refer to others, Equip and Prepare families, pray for and with families and create welcoming spaces for families in this important phase of life.
But churches are in different stages in each of these elements. If you are new to understanding the FTD, you might well be ‘preparing the ground’ for ministry in this area. Perhaps you have a few activities to reach families in this stage. You are ‘sowing seed’. Maybe after a while you are ‘growing’ and you have a range of activities in a particular element of FTD-friendliness. Finally, as you reach out to families in your broader community we would say you are ‘bearing fruit’.
How are you doing? What do you see in your church community?
Take the self-assessment
Sikunye developed a survey to help you examine what is already happening in your church to serve and reach families. This is not a pass or fail type test. It is exploring the six elements of FTD-friendliness to identify whether you are ‘preparing the ground’, ‘sowing’, ‘growing’ or ‘bearing fruit’.
The results will be emailed to you and you can do this assessment as often as you want, to explore how you have progressed over time. We trust it will encourage you in the good work you are already doing, and be a source of ideas to explore implementing in your context.
If you want to take some next steps in seeing your church care for and support families with children in their First Thousand Days, we want to equip and support you. Find yourself on the Sikunye journey for church leaders and congregants.
