[.ca] Family Ministry: A Comprehensive Guide (ISBN 0830815856)

The Changing Family Structure:
Garland writes an incredible book. She takes notice of the way that the term "family" has changed in the past 30 years and write with authority on the matter. I'm using this book in grad school and it is pheonominal. Any minister should buy this book to better serve the community of faith.

Family Ministry: A Comprehensive Guide:
Diana Garland's newest book is a truly authoritative study of family ministry that will no doubt become required reading in seminary classes throughout the country. Dr. Garland is an intellectually stimulating writer who still manages to pepper this work with personal stories that give life to the scholarship. She lays a thorough groundwork for understaning families today as well as a foundation for understanding families from a Biblical perspective. She explains the history of the family ministry movement and tells why it must do more than simply "church-ify" the language and practices of mental health professionals. Most importantly for practitioners, she dedicates 10 chapters to the practice of family ministry. These chapters are full of creative and practical ideas to minister to families and to help families minister to others. In fact, families ministering together is a theme played throughout the book and is one that runs counter to much of our age-graded programming in churches. Dr. Garland is director of graduate social work education at Baylor and editor of a professional journal on family ministry. Her newest book will be an invaluable resource for all of us who work in this area.