What Does Family Faith Formation Look Like in Canada?

It started with a simple question: “What do parents need in order to disciple their children well at home?” In response to that question, sixteen organizations, including the CRC’s Faith Formation Ministries, have partnered with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) over the past two years to conduct research related to family faith formation in Canada. 

This project expands on themes and ideas that emerged in some of EFC’s previous projects, Hemorrhaging Faith and Renegotiating Faith, related to why some youth and young adults leave the church and why others stay involved. Along with other findings, those studies highlighted the impact of faith practices and faith-oriented conversations in the home. This current study leans into the family and home context by exploring what faith formative patterns are evident in households with children under 18 living at home. 

The Family Faith Formation research project has now entered the final research phase. During this phase, EFC is conducting two broad surveys, which will allow them to test some of the observations that have emerged in the previous phases of research. 

The first survey is for parents in Canada who have children under 18 years of age living at home. The second survey is for pastors and church ministry staff in Canada. These surveys will provide a snapshot of what parents believe they need to disciple their children well and give us a glimpse of what pastors believe parents need in order to lead home-based discipleship efforts. 

To this end, CRC members and pastors in Canada are invited to participate in this last stage of the research. Participating in these surveys is voluntary. All of the research is being conducted by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. 

As with the previous study, if enough CRC members and pastors in Canada participate in these surveys, EFC will provide a summary report of CRC responses that can be compared to the national trends that are identified through the study. That information and the survey overall will help Congregational Ministries better equip parents and churches to engage the discipleship needs and opportunities for ongoing faith formation of our children and youth in Canada. 

EFC anticipates that the final report for this project will be released in the fall 2022. 

The surveys are open for your responses until June 7, 2022: 

To participate in the parent survey, follow the link for your preferred language (English or French) below: 

• (English): https://www.research.net/r/89XWFTB
• (French): https://fr.research.net/r/SV9CF7H

To complete the pastor survey, follow the link for your preferred language (English or French) below: 

• (English): https://www.research.net/r/8Y9P88K
•  (French): https://fr.research.net/r/R2SHGHH