With increasing frequency, the issues of divorce are changing today’s families. Children and parents are being affected for the rest of their lives. Few families and churches remain unaffected:
Marriages within the church are breaking up, leaving a trail of hurting families and congregations struggling to find the right response.
Adults hurting from divorce or separation are showing up at churches, looking for help and healing from the pain they feel. It may be the first time they’ve set foot in a church, or they may be returning after a long time away.
Divorcing parents with hurting children are looking for programs that can help the children understand and accept the changes in their young lives. In some situations the children are steering the parent toward the local church.
Responses from churches vary widely, from rejection of those involved in divorce to active programs that help in healing and recovery. Often, churches with a desire to develop a family divorce recovery ministry have difficulty doing so because of the complexity in starting and sustaining such an endeavor. Others may have adopted a successful program for adults but struggle with an appropriate program that includes children. It is for such churches that DivorceCare and DivorceCare for Kids were developed.
The DivorceCare and DivorceCare for Kids solution
DivorceCare is a program designed to equip your church to conduct ongoing ministry to separated and divorced adults. The DivorceCare program emphasizes a biblical approach to divorce, separation and related issues, such as reconciliation, remarriage, forgiveness and the effect on children and families. DivorceCare emphasizes that real healing from the intense pain of divorce must begin with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The program is designed to be easy to implement, easy to use. DivorceCare is structured as a weekly 2-hour session that combines a video teaching seminar, small group discussion, Bible study and prayer. Materials can be used in a small or a larger group setting. Read more about starting a DivorceCare group at divorcecare.org.
DivorceCare for Kids is set up to partner with the adult DivorceCare. For years church children’s leaders have requested a viable divorce recovery program for children in their congregations. Church leaders have witnessed how beneficial the adult DivorceCare is and have come to realize that children can find healing at the same time as the parent. DivorceCare for Kids helps churches encompass a family divorce recovery ministry.
The DC4K curriculum features several key components:
- Comprehensive DC4K kit that includes materials to run a children’s divorce recovery program successfully
- State of the art video dramatizations that hold children’s attention and teach them relational skills and scriptural truths
- Printed lesson plans to address divorce issues and point children to biblical solutions
- A detailed, easy-to-follow 120-minute weekly schedule (90-minute optional schedule also included)
- Training of children’s divorce recovery leaders in the church
- Partnership with the adult DivorceCare program
The DivorceCare for Kids curriculum provides solutions to a number of problems related to a successful children’s divorce recovery ministry:
Teaching
Many church children’s leaders find it difficult to address the issue of children and divorce. In the past there has been little information available to assist leaders in understanding the various issues children of divorce encounter. It is a delicate balance to bring children who are hurting into a group format and keep them involved and active while instructing them with biblical principles. Care and sensitivity must be taken to meet each child on his or her developmental level, consider the differing family situations and accommodate each child on an individual basis. And when a church separates the children by grade, this requires several additional adults to cover each age group.
DC4K solves these dilemmas by providing a carefully designed curriculum that encompasses a multi-age-level, all-inclusive program with complete training resources for lay leaders. This program encourages placing children into a mixed-age, family group format. The practical life video dramatizations performed by child actors and actresses convey the divorce-related theme for each session. The Bible story videos speak directly to a child’s heart through a storyteller, who sets the tone for the biblical foundation of healing. Video concepts are supported through an interactive workbook for each child.
Format
DC4K is an ongoing program that gives children the opportunity to become attached to a group of people in a trusting and secure environment. Children who have to travel between two different homes need a place they can depend upon and find support in a neutral and safe location. Over the months they will be able to work through the pain, stress and pressures surrounding them.
DC4K is designed to be an oasis away from competing parents and other family members: a place where they can identify their feelings, talk about their individual situations and share their frustrations with trained adults who will understand and direct them in an appropriate manner.
Following the weekly schedule is a must because it provides a predictable support structure for children experiencing the separation or divorce of their parents.
Staffing
Recruiting and maintaining a qualified leadership team is one of the major challenges of an effective children’s divorce recovery ministry. It is especially difficult to find adults qualified to facilitate children experiencing the breakup of their once-intact family.
DC4K solves this problem by providing leader training on video. These high quality video seminars feature Linda Jacobs, the developer and designer of DC4K. Included in the Leader’s Guide are weekly training articles focusing on the session topic.
Each church supplies facilitators—people with a burden for this type of ministry. These lay leaders are often people who experienced divorce as a child (their parents) or as an adult; they may have children or grandchildren of their own navigating the divorce process.
Running the program
DC4K provides each church with an extensive Leader’s Guide, containing thorough information on how to establish a divorce ministry, recruit leadership, promote the ministry and effectively coordinate the logistics of an ongoing ministry.
The DC4K Leader’s Guide contains in-depth lesson plans with suggestions and samples of everything needed to manage a classroom group setting for children experiencing the divorce of their parents.
DC4K provides each church with a special leader-equipping DVD designed to be used to train lay leadership to facilitate proficiently.
The DC4K LeaderZone contains articles written specifically to assist DC4K leaders in running their groups.
Promotion
DC4K has produced a complete package of promotional materials for churches to use in publicizing the program in their communities.
About the DC4K pilot program
Before DC4K was released to the public, the program was tested in a variety of churches around the US. The DC4K pilot leaders maintained ongoing communication with Church Initiative, testing each idea and project with children and enabling us to fine-tune the program based on feedback and evaluations from the leaders, ministers, single parents and children.
About DivorceCare for Kids & The Church Initiative, Inc.
DivorceCare for Kids is a ministry of Church Initiative, a church-equipping ministry based in Wake Forest, North Carolina. Church Initiative is a nondenominational, nonprofit, tax-exempt Christian ministry organization. In addition to DC4K, Church Initiative offers the following programs:
 |
DivorceCare, a divorce recovery program for adults |
 |
Before You Divorce, a marriage crisis counseling tool |
 |
GriefShare, grief recovery support groups |
 |
Chance to Change, gambling addiction recovery groups |
 |
Facing Forever, an evangelism and discipleship resource |
Church Initiative
PO Box 1739
Wake Forest, NC 27588
800-489-7778; 919-562-2112
info@churchinitiative.org
www.churchinitiative.org