In Christianity, a family integrated church is one in which parents and children ordinarily attend church services together; during the service of worship, children and youth stay all through church services and do not attend children's and youth ministries during this time (though after or before the integrated service of worship, church members often attend Sunday School catered to various age groups). Other terms used are family discipleship churches, family-centered ministry and inclusive-congregational ministry.[1]
A spectrum of such churches exists, where some eliminate all age-segregation and others allow for some in certain contexts. Although segregation may take place during weekday events, family-integrated churches are generally united in having children in the main worship service on the Lord's Day.[2] Churches who uphold the model of the family integrated church opine that children and youth who sit with their families during worship develop a love for the liturgy, including the preaching and sacraments, which they will carry with them throughout their lives. Timothy Paul Jones notes that in the family-integrated ministry model, "all age-graded classes and events are eliminated."[3] Family integrated churches emphasise inter-generational ministry and the "parents' responsibility to evangelize and disciple their own children."[1] Some advocates base this on the idea that families are the "God-ordained building blocks of the church."[4]