A Simple Way to Encourage Family Faith Formation with Free DWELL at Home Resources

A consistent theme from churches supporting parents in at-home faith formation is how the busy pace of family life has resulted in overwhelming feelings of burnout among parents. Parents are employees, chefs, tutors (for subjects they haven't studied in years!), chauffeurs, coaches, and more—often with minimal outside support or personal time. Handling these relentless responsibilities leaves little room for rest, making extreme mental and physical fatigue an almost inevitable outcome.

As the church, we must ask how we can encourage and equip parents in this season that is both beautiful and challenging, both life-giving and draining. The Dwell at Home 5 Ways resources were made for this reality.

Here are some ideas for how these wonderful resources can equip families: 

Keep things simple. Don’t send your families all six tip sheets at once, expecting that they’ll read through them all on their own. Parents don’t have time to do that kind of work. 

Instead, pick a practice that you’d like to develop in your families. A good place to start might be “5 Ways to Help Your Family Grow in Faith.” Distribute this resource to your families through social media, email, or by mailing paper copies.

Then walk your families through the resource week by week, posting one of the five suggestions each week, encouraging families to focus on just that activity in the next seven days.

For example, the first way to Help Your Family Grow in Faith is “Explore God’s Story.” The resource encourages parents to find unique ways and times to read Bible stories—whatever works for them as a family. You could post this suggestion on social media and encourage families to post photos throughout the week of the various places and times they engaged in God’s Word together.

Breaking each 5 Ways resource into five weeks of activities gives families something to work toward, but keeps it simple enough that they can fit it into their busy schedules. Here are a few other 5 Ways resources that might be a good place to start:

• 5 Ways to Pray with Kids
• 5 Ways to Retell a Bible Story with Kids
• 5 Ways to Wonder with Kids

You can view all of our 5 Ways resources on our Dwell at Home page. These resources are all free and permission has been given to share them in whatever way blesses your ministry.