Q & R: Your Faith Forward presentation
Here’s the Q:
Thank you for your very moving and thoughtful presentation. I became so wrapped up in what was presented that I lost track of taking notes. A copy of your powerpoint presentation would be helpful!
Here’s the R:
That presentation included a lot of personal photos that I’d rather not share online, but here are some of my own notes from the presentation. I hope they’ll be helpful!
Looking back as a parent …
What worked in helping my kids (I think?):
– Daily prayer at meals & bedtime
– Connecting God to experiences of life
– Connecting God to acts of service
– Sharing our struggles
– Asking for their prayers
– Inviting their interpretations
– Never judging
– Surrounding them with friends
– Church as introduction to new experiences
– Hospitality to multi-religious, nonreligious friends
– Continuing to learn
– Apologizing
What didn’t work in helping my kids spiritually:
– Unexplained exposure to fundamentalism
– Not preparing for Christian diversity, especially fundamentalism
– Not being more overt about Bible as literature, exposure to meaning over fact
What I wish I would have done differently as a pastor/parent:
– Encourage kids and youth ministries to augment Sunday mornings with daily web-based connections.
– More and earlier involvement in “grown up church” – so it’s “all ages church”