Family Ministries

Ronald M. Flowers

Ronald Merle Flowers has been in family ministries at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists since 1980, first in the capacity of assistant director of the Home and Family Service, then as associate director of HFS, and later as associate in the Department of Church Ministries (1985-1995) for Family Ministries. Since 1995, he has been the director of the newly-created Department of Family Ministries. He and his wife, Karen, take a team approach to family ministries and have traveled in some 70 countries, developing leadership and establishing the departmental infrastructure.

Ron is a native of New Brunswick, Canada. He holds a B.A. (Andrews University, 1966), an M.A. in Religion (Andrews University, 1967), an M.Div. (Andrews University, 1968), and a D.Min. (Denver Seminary, 2000). He met and courted Karen in her hometown of Berrien Springs, Michigan where she, too, attended Andrews. They were married on August 7, 1966. They have two sons, Jeffrey, who is married to Pamela Rouse and directs a micro-credit program for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Azerbaijan, and Jonathan, who is a Ph.D. candidate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

His interest in ministry to families goes back to his early experience in pastoral ministry during which he sensed an urgent need. He and Karen began attending workshops and seminars on parenting and marriage enrichment. He became certified in Systematic Training for Effective Parenting and in Adventist Marriage Enrichment. Later in 1983, he and Karen became a certified leader couple with the Association for Couples in Marriage Enrichment (ACME), an organization in which they continue to hold membership. As a pastor in Washington, D.C., Ron was invited to serve on the Metro Washington Family Life Council, a tri-conference committee tasked with developing and piloting concepts, resources and programs for the Columbia Union and the General Conference Home and Family Service. Ron and Karen's efforts in family ministries in the local church and in resource development led to an invitation in 1979 to join the General Conference Home and Family Service staff.

Ron has authored or co-authored numerous journal articles on marriage, parenting, and family life, with many of his pieces appearing in the Adventist Review, Ministry and other denominational journals. He authored A Song of Love, adult Sabbath School lessons on the Song of Solomon studied by the world church during the fourth quarter of 1992. He has co-authored and edited more than 30 major resources for Family Ministries, including Understanding Families (AdventSource, 2001), and is a co-author with Karen of Love Aflame (Review and Herald, 1992). He has received the designation of Certified Family Life Educator from the National Council on Family Relations (1990) and a similar designation from Andrews University (1991).

A member of the National Council on Family Relations since 1980, Ron was a member of its executive committee as the chair of the Religion and Family Life section from 1985 - 1988. His doctoral program included an emphasis in marriage and family counseling. His doctoral thesis was entitled "Improving Satisfaction in the Adolescent Family: An Approach to Parent Education Incorporating Structural Family Systems Theory." A certified trainer in the use of the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis test, Ron has conducted classes in the use of this psychological test. He has also developed an instructional seminar in the use of the Myers-Briggs type indicator.

Ron serves as a local elder in the Capital Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church in Washington, D.C., where he was once the senior pastor. In his spare time, he enjoys premarital and marital counseling, teaching adult Sabbath School classes, gardening, carpentry and writing.