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In this series, we’ve been talking about how to keep family relationships strong, even with the demands of full-time ministry. In our last post, we discussed rest, and I provided some practical ways to incorporate family time into your routine.

The Challenge of Strong Family Bonds

We all know we want strong families, but many of us are leaving our theological knowledge in the theory realm instead of making practical applications to build and maintain strong families.

I understand the busyness of life. Maybe your schedule is full of:

• School sports
• Weekly church commitments
• A second job to sustain a livable wage

Perhaps you can’t even remember the last time your family sat down together.

I get it. As a mother of 8 children with a husband who works out of state on 48-hour shifts, I promise—I get it. We’ve made sacrifices, sometimes facing criticism, to keep our family dynamic strong. We are far from perfect. We:

• Fight
• Sin
• Ask for forgiveness
• Forgive

But through it all, we make family time a priority.

Our Family Tradition: Friday Night Pizza and Movie Night

When we moved to rural Montana to build for Cedar Creek Ministries, we found ourselves more isolated than expected. We tried soccer and gymnastics, but everything felt like it was pulling us into a busy schedule that we didn’t want to sacrifice our family for.

Some seasons are busier than others. We all feel it.

One change we made to our schedule, which my children have been diligent about keeping, is Friday night pizza and movie night. They’ve even called me out for making plans with friends or snowboarding trips to ensure we didn’t miss pizza night!

Friday Pizza Night Routine

Friday is also our maker’s day for home education. My children can set aside their regular schoolwork to create. You might find:

• Kids in the kitchen
• Others working on a woodworking machine
• Someone on the pottery wheel
• Piano playing
• Watching art tutorials

It’s a great lead-in to making pizza dough and prepping veggies for the evening. We keep our pizza supplies on hand and include them in our weekly grocery list. Here’s what we usually have for pizza night:

• Flour
• Yeast
• Pepperoni
• Italian sausage
• Shredded mozzarella
• Jarred spaghetti sauce and tomato paste (for homemade pizza sauce)
• Bell peppers
• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Pineapple
• Olives

(If your family only eats pepperoni pizza, this step is a LOT easier! LOL!)

When we’re feeling fancy or having guests (or if my husband is home), we might add:

• Artichoke hearts
• Sundried tomatoes
• Canadian bacon
• BBQ chicken
• Alfredo sauce

The possibilities are limitless!

Family Time in Action

Around 4 o’clock, I start preheating the oven to 500°F and set the table with ingredients so everyone can make their own pizzas. If you have large pans, you can group ingredients on half or a quarter of a bigger pizza.

This becomes a time of togetherness—everyone checks out the ingredients and sees how others are building their pizzas. Conversations begin, and as the pizzas go into the oven, the children start discussing movie options.

Movie Night Tradition: Watching Christian Films

Though we watch many types of movies in our home, Friday night pizza and movie night is for Christian films from Pure Flix. One movie that stands out is 5000 Blankets—intense for the littles with its PG rating! (They’re all still talking about it!)

This is how we keep up with Christian culture in our family. Some movies we’ve introduced to our children include:

• War Room
• Fireproof
• God’s Not Dead
• The Case for Christ
• Facing the Giants
• Faith Like Potatoes

…plus, many others that we’ve never heard of but turned out to be great stories!

A Few Tips for Pizza and Movie Night:

• Don’t turn it into a legalistic event that everyone hates.
• Be excited about the night, and let your children see that enthusiasm.
• Get involved! Help make the food and sit down to watch the movie.
• Talk about the topics in the movie afterward and throughout the week. These are opportunities to create teachable moments and discuss discipleship-related topics with your children.

It’s not a science. It’s not biblical.

It’s just a quick tip and tools our family uses that might help you build strong relationships in a practical way.

Make it a Priority

You will have to make it a priority. If you aren’t into movies, maybe a game night will be better for your family. Stay tuned, as we will dive into great family games next time!

Thank you so much for sharing your time with us. Cedar Creek Ministries is funded by Christians and churches who believe in the call to offer our leaders the double portion!  If you feel the desire to make sure all those men and women called to serve God in missions and ministry have everything they need to personally rest, restore family relationships, and revive ministry vision, consider joining us in regular prayer and financial support!

Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for weekly encouragement!

This post was written by Nickole Perry, co-founder and Director of Operations at Cedar Creek Ministries.