"Cradle-to-Grave" Faith Formation

I'm part of a Facebook group for youth workers in the CRC. Recently a youth ministry leader I know posted this for discussion: 

My leadership team and I are starting the process of formulating an overview for cradle to grave faith formation at our church.​

Our hope is to identify a framework/mission/vision for the church's education that we can anchor each specific ministry on, along with setting goals for each age group, and visible markers of those goals.

Is this something that you have done not only for your specific ministry, but for the faith formation of all ages? What might be some helpful resources? Do you have any ideas for implementation and communication?

Thanks for your input!

Seeing as "encouraging and equipping local Christian Reformed congregations and their leaders in their calling to practice intentional, lifelong, intergenerational, holistic, missional discipleship and faith formation" is our mission at Faith Formation Ministries, I was interested to see what kind of conversations this post stirred up. 

If you're following any of the latest trends and research in the church education/faith formation/faith nurturing/discipleship world, you'll know that these are questions that many leading voices are pushing congregations to ask (see recent works by Holly Allen, Kara Powell, and John Roberto). And based on conversations I've had with people, I know of a few congregations in the CRC who are in the middle of this cradle-to-grave process right now. My own church (where I'm on staff) is just starting to think about this and I'm guessing there are others out there who might be on a similar path.

So, how might FFM help answer these questions? Actually I'm thinking these are questions that we need to be answering together. I'm thinking (and hoping) that maybe we can gather some people together and begin to walk through some of these questions and processes, learn a bit from each other, and then take things back to experiment a bit and try out in our own settings. 

If your congregation is/has/wants to look into developing cradle-to-grave discipleship/faith formation plans for your church and you are interested in sharing your journey with others, email us at [email protected]. I'd love to put together a little cohort of learners to see how we might walk this path together. If you have ideas you'd like to share without the commitment to a group, we'd love to hear from you as well. Feel free to comment here or email us your congregation's story.

We're looking forward to hearing from you!