As a pastor or youth worker, you can encourage your families to celebrate being together through Family Nights. The following are a few suggestions you may share.

Encourage Family Nights.
Educate and share with the families you minister to of the fun and importance of Family Nights. Make the term, Family Night, a part of your church lingo. If several families are having Family Nights, experiences can be shared, and the kids and youth in your ministry might be more open to this type of fun.

Be considerate in your programming.
Make sure that your ministry allows one night per week where families can have Family Night. It's clear that Family Nights must be scheduled or they may not happen. Youth programs, choir practice, Bible studies, committee meetings, and sports can and often divides families and make it difficult for them to meet for Family Nights.

Encourage your families to "keep it simple." 
The fewer rules families make regarding Family Nights, the fewer rules they will break! Three rules might be: 1) participation from each family member, 2) respect for one another, and 3) attendance to the best of one's ability. If for some reason a family is unable to meet on their scheduled night due to a conflict, encourage them to simply move Family Night to the next available night.

Provide curriculum for families to use at Family Nights.
This can be done through a monthly newsletter or suggested books. Take the pressure off the parents, and let them know that Family Nights do not require a seminarian to conduct them. What they do require is a willing parent, a little bit of time, and great expectations!

Offer parents suggestions to help them create their Family Nights.
These suggestion might include:
* Consider the ages and attention span of the children in the home, and make sure that the Family Night time length is age appropriate. If the children are preschoolers, Family Nights should last about 15 minutes.

* Understand that whatever the size or makeup of a family, a family can experience the joy and value of Family Nights.

* Give each family member a "job," a Family Night responsibility. Individual family members may lead a few songs, pick a game, lead prayer, read the devotional, and plan a special snack.

* Share prayer requests and pray for each other. Remember to pray for what's important.

* Touch bases and review the week to come. Kids appreciate knowing ahead of time when Dad will be gone on a business trip and when Mom has that important meeting. Parents, on the other hand, need to know the dates and times of kids' games, church events, slumber parties, and more. I believe families who plan together, and manage their time, are able to make time for each other, their busy lives, and God.

* Use Family Nights as a time to talk about what's important. This can provide a "safe place" for questions to be asked, gripes to be aired, and games to be played. Allowances can be given and chores assigned. Funny stories from the past week can be told, and God's Word can be read, deepening the faith of your family members.

Offer suggestions to help make Family Nights fun!
Think of ideas or provide suggestions to "excite" "fascinate" and "wow" families with the things of God. Parents can have fun with family and friends while deepening their faith and teaching values. They can discover fun ways to worship as a family.

Help the families in your ministry to create Family Mission Statements.
This will help them define their beliefs, values, and goals.

The tools above are just a few ideas you might use in helping others develop a Family Night. Now you and the families you minister to can explore ways in which you can mold the suggestions, altering them to fit specific family's personality, stages in life, needs, and desires.

Janet Lynn Mitchell is the author of Hands-on Faith: Family Nights and Hands-on Faith: Family Fun, which are published by Carson-Dellosa.