By MaryAnn Peteya
Friends describe Mike Sciarra as friendly, open, gracious, energetic, and as an encourager. But most of all, they say he is someone who is passionate about Jesus, God’s Word, and family ministries.
Participants in Equip09, the annual conference of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, will have an opportunity to hear Sciarra’s passion when he teaches a three-day class on family ministries and how to interweave it into every area of ministry. It is one of dozens of classes available to participants who attend the conference.
Sciarra “has a strong commitment to teaching the Bible…and family ministries,” says Tom Avey, fellowship coordinator, “[and] he is extremely competent in the area.” Avey first heard Sciarra speak at the 2007 High Impact Men’s Retreat and asked him to talk on the topic at Equip09.
The senior pastor of Grace Church, a Grace Brethren church in Orange, Calif., since 2006, Sciarra began ministry as a children’s pastor where he says the church basically did most of the Christian education, often leaving the parents out of the picture.
He realized, however, that the primary role of the church is to equip parents to teach their children.
“If we do not take care of our household, we cannot lead the household of God,” he stresses. Now his goal is to show moms and dads how to integrate lessons learned at church and to equip their children to follow Jesus.
Sciarra, who earned a doctorate in family ministries from Talbot Theological Seminary in 2000, lives out at home what he preaches from the pulpit. He and his wife, Angela, have family devotions with their five children: Alexandra, Michael, Ariana, Savannah, and Sophia. He follows the same pattern with them that he does during his personal devotion time — reading the Bible, praying, and singing.
He advocates family mission trips. The Orange church used to send groups of men to Mexico to help build houses, but now those teams now consist of families.
He encourages all ages to worship together on Sunday morning and has promoted family home groups as a way for generations to connect. He notes that all generations should have the goal of fulfilling the great command (love God) and the great commission (make disciples) in and through households.
At the Orange church, all midweek programs are held on Wednesday night, enabling parents and children to be home together the other nights of the week.
“He has elevated the value of family,” Ed Trenner, associate pastor at Grace Church, says. “There is less time at church or activities and more time with the family, because family matters.”
MaryAnn Peteya is an editorial intern with the Brethren Missionary Herald Company during the spring semester 2009. A senior at Grace College, Winona Lake, Ind., she is from Akron, Ohio.