{"id":3375,"date":"2012-07-02T18:07:26","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T22:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/?p=3375"},"modified":"2014-07-21T10:12:41","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T14:12:41","slug":"starting-spiritual-conversations-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/starting-spiritual-conversations-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting Spiritual Conversations at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

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. <\/strong><\/p>\n

While we don\u2019t believe that statistic accurately reflects the home life of the average family attending our church, we want to make sure that we\u2019re doing what we can to\u00a0be certain it doesn\u2019t become true of the Faith community.<\/p>\n

A Small Window<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One of the chief goals of our Children\u2019s Ministries is to partner with parents in the process of discipling kids.\u00a0 We believe that’s important because our ministry’s access to kids is so limited.<\/p>\n

Even if a child attended every\u00a0class 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.\u00a0\u00a0Compare that to the number of waking hours a child experiences during a given week (roughly 100 total hours),\u00a0and you realize that our ministry’s window of influence is actually quite small.\u00a0 Parents have the best opportunity (to say nothing of the best ability) to reach their kids with the truths of Scripture.<\/p>\n

Where do you start?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Do you open up to Genesis 1 and start reading?\u00a0 Should you get a devotion book from the local Christian bookstore?<\/p>\n

Schedules are tight whether you’ve got a two-year-old, a ten-year-old, or both with some in between.\u00a0 How do you get the most out of your investment of time?\u00a0 Why not start with a passage that your kids already know?<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

A Simple Tool<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But how do you get the conversation going?\u00a0 We’re providing you with a tool.\u00a0 Each week, our church bulletin features a section titled “Faith Kids @ Home.”\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sample of what one of those sections will look like:<\/p>\n

God Blesses Israel through Balaam<\/strong><\/p>\n

Passage: \u00a0<\/strong>Numbers 22\u201324<\/p>\n

Principle: \u00a0<\/strong>God is sovereign and keeps His promises.<\/p>\n

Praise: \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cIn My Life, Lord, Be Glorified\u201d<\/p>\n

Prompt: \u00a0<\/strong>Ask your child these questions:<\/p>\n