Helping Families Talk About Faith

What’s one thing your church could do that would echo down the generations? Simple: help families learn how to talk about faith together.

Christian parents want to talk with their kids about God—they really do. But it can be hard to know how to make this a natural part of our daily living. We’re pretty good at corporately expressing our faith in worship, but personal expressions often intimidate us.

The good news is that talking about faith often means talking about everyday life. Our faith stories don’t have to be mountaintop experiences or rags-to-riches conversion stories. Encourage parents by helping them understand that sharing a faith story can be as simple as telling their children about the time they were at the dentist to get a root canal and prayed that God would calm their anxiety—and God did.

It’s also important to encourage kids to talk about their faith. Teach parents how to ask open-ended questions to create space for those conversations. For example, questions like these are helpful to ask at the end of a day:

• What was the best thing that happened today? What was the hardest thing that happened today?
• Was it easy to feel thankful today? Why or why not?
• Did anybody show you God’s love today? How did he or she do that?
• How could we show somebody else God’s love today?
• Did you meet someone we should pray for today?

Faith Formation Ministries has put together lots of great resources that your church can use to help families talk about faith together. Here are a few:

Everyday Family Faith: Simple Practices and Activities for Building Faith at Home

Available in both English and Korean, this little book has been selling like hotcakes. (And it weighs about as much as a hotcake, so it’s easy to slip into a purse or pocket!) Everyday Family Faith helps parents and caregivers weave faith into daily life through simple Scripture, faith questions, prayer, and activities. To learn more or order, visit FaithAliveResources.org.

Dwell at Home’s New “5 Ways” series

Dwell at Home is a new series of resources developed for parents of kids using the CRC’s Dwell curriculum in children’s ministry. But these resources great for ALL families! Print these free downloadable half-page tip sheets out, share them on social media, or send parents the links:

• 5 Ways to Bring Children's Ministry Home
• ​5 Ways to Help Kids Worship
• 5 Ways to Help Your Family Grow in Faith
• 5 Ways to Pray with Kids
• 5 Ways to Retell a Bible Story with Kids
• 5 Ways to Wonder with Kids

Dear Parent: A Guide for Family Faith Formation

Using the framework of four "Building Blocks of Faith," Dear Parent encourages parents as they help their children to find their place in God's family, know God's story, live in hope, and discover their calling. Each chapter ends with discussion or thought questions, ideas for living the chapter topic out, and a short resource list. To learn more or order, visit FaithAliveResources.org.

Family Faith Formation toolkit

This free, online resource collection contains dozens of practical ideas for your church to use in family ministry. Check it out!

To keep up to date on Faith Formation Ministries resources for families, follow the Faith Nurture and Family Ministry topics on The Network.