About a decade ago, a small group of young parents that we were a part of read the book Sticky Faith by Kara Powell, Brad Griffen, and Chap Clark. In this book, they looked at young people who had stayed connected to their faith post high-school and continued to demonstrate a strong faith in college. One major factor that they found was the importance of an intergenerational “web” made up of at least five adults who were involved in the lives of those young people.
Ever since reading that, my husband and I have made it a habit to randomly ask our kids if they can name five adults who they know love them and are praying for them. Often they can. Sometimes they can’t. When those instances happen, we have set about to find mature, Christian adults that we love and trust to connect with our kids. That has been through a variety of means including but not limited to asking someone to pray for our child, asking the youth pastor to meet regularly one-on-one with our child, and overtly asking a Christian adult if they will seek out a growing relationship with our child.
As a result of this intentionality, our children do have a rich web of intergenerational relationships that we have cultivated that surround them. They don’t all look the same or even respond in the same way to the adults that they have relationships with, but generally, when asked, they can name five adults who they know love them and pray for them.
I truly believe that intergenerational community is a major missing component in most churches as they tend to be separated by age and life experience with little room for generational overlap and space to form meaningful relationships.
Therefore, in addition to encouraging our churches to transition to more intentional, connectional communities with opportunities for generations to grow together, here are some practical tips for parents/caregivers who want to be intentional about finding those people for their kids and youth.
Dinner Together
One of the main ways we were able to connect our kids with adults was through inviting various adult members of our faith community into our home on a regular basis and not shooing the kids off to their own space but encouraging our kids/youth to remain at the table or in the living room as we visited. We’ve had grown adults jumping on trampolines, watching cartoons, and making homemade pizzas in our kitchen together with our kids and and those moments have forged opportunities for connection.
Pray For Me
I’ve spoken often on this blog about churches using the Pray For Me Campaign to connect generations at church through intercessory prayer. But even if your church doesn’t officially sponsor something, there is no reason you could not reach out to a few adults and ask them to pray for your kids through the academic year. The accompanying book is available for purchase on Amazon and would be a perfect way to invite a more intentional connection between your family and a person of prayer.
Extend the Invitation
If your child(ren) is involved in sports, community theater, dance, karate, etc. there is a huge opportunity for you to create space for connections and relationships simply by extending an invitation to others to join you in cheering your child on or watching them perform. I know from experience how meaningful it is to look out in an audience or the crowd in the stands and know that they are there for you because they care about you and for no other reason.
BONUS: Talk to your leadership at church and see if they could dedicate a space like a bulletin board for parents and kids to post their sports/extracurricular schedules so that older church members can make plans to attend. Imagine what a blessing that would be to all!
Ask the Question
If you decide to ask your child if they can name five adults that love them and are praying for them, be prepared to be surprised by some of the names your child might share. We never know the connections that our child makes in their own heart and mind to others and, once we know that connection exists, we have the opportunity to foster it into something that cultivates faith formation and healthy spiritual growth. It also helps us to know if there are any connections that we might find concerning and need to circumvent them for the protection and health of our child.
There are many other ways that we can help connect our kids in healthy, ongoing discipleship relationships with members of our faith community, but hopefully these four will be a good start to creating an intentional web of relationships for your children. Encourage the leadership at your church to consider providing ways for families to connect across generations both in and out of the church building and make the first steps in reaching out to those beyond your typical circle. The results can literally be life-changing!
Everyday Discipleship at Home: A Webinar for Parents
Looking for a way to engage with your kids around faith at home WITHOUT adding one more thing to your already busy schedule?
ReFocus Ministry is excited to offer “Everyday Discipleship: A Workshop for Parents/Caregivers.” This one-hour workshop covers an unlimited number of parents from your church to join us for a seminar including an Everyday Discipleship worksheet and follow-up resources for parents/caregivers focused on helping support and equip parents for faith formation in their homes.
This workshop has been widely attended by both ministers and parents alike with positive feedback on how it changed their perspective on discipleship in the home and got them excited about sharing their faith with their kids.
We will use a Zoom format with an individualized code for your church only and all resources will be emailed prior to the webinar so they can be distributed to parents before we meet.
For more information, send us a note using the contact form below!
We are excited to join you on your journey.
For more information about…
- Kids in Worship
- Determining which Type of Family Ministry model works best for your church
- Discipleship in Intergenerational community
- Encouraging the continued conversation through Practical Discipleship at Home
- Seminars, Workshops, Coaching
Check out to ReFocus Ministry or “like” our Facebook page. Join our conversation at theReFocus Family and Intergen Ministry group on Facebook.
About ReFocus
Refocus Ministry was started by Christina Embree who serves as the Minister of Generational Discipleship with the Great Lakes Conference of the Brethren in Christ. She is also wife to Pastor Luke, mom to three wonderful kids, and pastor at Plowshares BIC.
With years of experience in family ministry and children’s ministry, she is passionate about seeing churches partnering with families to encourage faith formation at home and equipping parents to disciple their kids in the faith. She holds a Masters of Arts in Ministry focusing on Family, Youth and Children’s Ministry and is completing a Doctorate of Ministry in Spiritual Formation at Wesley Seminary, she also blogs at www.refocusministry.org and is a contributing blogger at D6 Family, ChurchLeaders.com, and Seedbed.
The advertisements on this page are chose by the web host and do not necessarily reflect the views of ReFocus Ministry.
