Care for the Family's Rob Parsons is appealing to churches to reach out and meet the needs of the people in their communities.

Parsons will be a keynote speaker at Care for the Family's conference Engage later this year. The conference is being put on by the family charity to help churches become "more than relevant" to people.

Supporting families is essential to addressing the needs of people in the surrounding community, Parsons believes.

"Almost every church wants to communicate in a 'relevant way' and so often the most effective way of doing that is to begin with the issues that matter to people in their everyday lives - their children, their marriages, their friendships, their worries over debt - and the myriad other issues that hit so many homes," he said.

The Engage conference will tackle "the big subjects churches need to wrestle with", including effective ways to reach families in the community, providing 'best support' for families, and how to turn 'first contact' into deeper relationships.

Parsons continued, "In a recent survey by The Sun newspaper 85% of respondents said their family was the most important thing in their life. In our churches, if we want to address the issues that matter to people around us, we need to start talking about family life and the pressures people face."

Parsons will be joined on the podium by Ian Coffey, a member of the Spring Harvest Leadership Team.

Coffey said the church had a key role to play in countering isolation in the community.

"As a leader in a local church I have seen how people have found real love and friendship through the caring concern of others - this has transformed them," he said. "Many people today are lonely and afraid - the local church is best placed to bring them hope. Engage is designed to encourage us to do this to the best of our ability."

Engage will take place at Nottingham on 4 October and Cheltenham on 8 November.

For more information, go to www.engagetoday.org.uk