Prevention in family services : approaches to family wellness / edited by David R. Mace.
- Date:
- [1983], ©1983
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Prevention in family services : approaches to family wellness / edited by David R. Mace. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[202] FAMILY WELLNESS THROUGH CHURCHES Council of Churches of Christ. In this latter group, I have worked closely with colleagues in the field of marriage and family life in the major denominations. Tо them I am greatly indebted for many insights and proposals in this chapter although I alone am responsible for the way in which they are stated here. Obviously I cannot speak with any kind of authority for other religious groups. I have, of course, enjoyed the followship of profes¬ sional colleagues whose affiliation was to Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, or other religious faiths. I have learned from them and from what I know of their activities on behalf of family life that there is every reason to believe that they also would give strong support to the move- mentto promote family wellness. Obviously, however, I have no right to speak for them on questions affectingpolicy, and I shall not attempt to do so. THE FAMILY IS IMPORTANT Effective family ministry begins with the churches' conviction that families are important. First, the family is important to its own members—providing food, shelter, clothing, and so on for their basic physical needs, and even more so as it helps to meet their individual and affectional needs as children, youth, and adults. Second, the family is important to society as it is the primary unit of our social structure and performs certain essential functions for the society's general welfare: producing children and caring for them; helping children to mature as responsible members of society; providing for the needs of adults as persons in relationships; and feeding into the culture certain values that both undergird stability and stimulate creative change. Third, the family is important to God. It is the basic structure of human relationships, providingcommunity for individuality andgiven by God in creation for the welfare of all humankind. It is a channel for God's unconditional love (as fully as human beings can express it)— affirming, sustaining, sacrificing, forgiving, and redeeming—as an opportunity for the Kingdom of God to come on earth within families and in society.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18037604_0205.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
