Several years ago, the Barna Group published an incredible statistic. It found that less than 10% of families who regularly attend church have spiritual conversations in the home.
While we don’t believe that statistic accurately reflects the home life of the average family attending our church, we want to make sure that we’re doing what we can to be certain it doesn’t become true of the Faith community.
A Small Window
One of the chief goals of our Children’s Ministries is to partner with parents in the process of discipling kids. We believe that’s important because our ministry’s access to kids is so limited.
Even if a child attended every class we offer throughout the week (Sunday School, Children’s Church, and Wednesday Night Kids of Faith), that child would spend a total of 4.5 hours with our teachers. Compare that to the number of waking hours a child experiences during a given week (roughly 100 total hours), and you realize that our ministry’s window of influence is actually quite small. Parents have the best opportunity (to say nothing of the best ability) to reach their kids with the truths of Scripture.
Where do you start?
Do you open up to Genesis 1 and start reading? Should you get a devotion book from the local Christian bookstore?
Schedules are tight whether you’ve got a two-year-old, a ten-year-old, or both with some in between. How do you get the most out of your investment of time? Why not start with a passage that your kids already know?
In each week’s Sunday School classes at Faith, all of your kids are learning about the same passage of Scripture in ways that are appropriate to their respective levels of development. The goal of this approach is to help parents engage all of their toddler and elementary-aged children in spiritual conversations about a common subject.
A Simple Tool
But how do you get the conversation going? We’re providing you with a tool. Each week, our church bulletin features a section titled “Faith Kids @ Home.” This section provides you with simple conversation starters, suggestions for family devotions, and ideas for helping your kids apply what they learned in Sunday School throughout the week.
Here’s a sample of what one of those sections will look like:
God Blesses Israel through Balaam
Passage: Numbers 22–24
Principle: God is sovereign and keeps His promises.
Praise: “In My Life, Lord, Be Glorified”
Prompt: Ask your child these questions:
- Why did Balak want Balaam to curse Israel?
- What did God tell Balaam?
- What did God allow Balaam’s donkey to do?
- What did God allow Balaam to do to Israel?
Practice: Help your child apply these truths in the following ways:
- By serving and obeying God in everything he does.
- By checking his motives to be sure they are for God’s glory
- By remembering that God’s blessing is unchangeable.
This Week: As a family, read Numbers 22–24.
Next Week: Deuteronomy 4
Memory Verse: Psalm 117:2
“For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!”
“I don’t want to hang on to my bulletin.”
We also offer you the option to receive these prompts via e-mail each week. If you would like to receive this e-mail, please sign up at our Children’s Ministries blog, Faith Kids Connection. (Here’s a link to just the discipleship helps on that blog.) You can sign up for all of our posts, just the discipleship helps, or others.
Helping kids to develop a love for God and His Word is the most significant thing a parent can do. It’s a big task, but you’re not alone. We’re here to partner with you, and we hope this tool will help to generate some meaningful interaction around the Word of God in your home.
