Intentional Faith Development Across Generational Lines

What if fear is the new brave? That's the question that you need answered if you are living afraid. Finding courage begins with fear itself--fear of the Lord. I Choose Brave reveals a countercultural plan to help you where you are--knee-deep in fears of parenting, the future, your marriage, and a world that feels unstable. When you're feeling fearful, the last thing you need is a social-media meme telling you to simply "power through" your fears. In I Choose Brave, Katie Westenberg digs deep into Scripture and shows that finding the courage to overcome our fears must start with fear of the Lord. Hundreds of passages speak to this foundational truth, yet we have somehow relegated them to antiquity. In sharing her own compelling story of facing her worst fear, Katie serves up theological truth with relatable application. In this book, you will · discover a fresh take on an old truth that displaces fear once and for all · understand why the culture's idea of "fearlessness" is a farce · access the holy courage you were made for With this new knowledge comes tremendous freedom. Hidden in the cleft of the Rock, the One truly worthy of our fear, you will begin to understand the only path to real courage.

Are your children ready to live out their faith in the real world? Most parents who value Christian faith want their children to enjoy a vibrant, growing relationship with God, both now and throughout their lives. But few of those parents ever attach this hope to an ongoing plan; therefore, they fail to lay a reliable spiritual track in front of the fast-moving train of family life. This book is a junction point where deep parental desire meets workable design and where timid inadequacy meets Christ’s sufficiency. It’s where individual families become multiplication factories, exerting a lasting impact not only on their coming generations but even on the culture at large. The death of Joshua and his contemporaries was barely old news in Israel before the people of God experienced a Judges 2:10 moment: “There arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done” (ESV). One generation is all it takes. One generation who stops remembering. One generation who stops creating. One generation blinded to God’s real work in their lives who then subtly quiets the expectation of His new work in succeeding generations. Do Your Children Believe? appears at a time in history when another Judges 2:10 moment doesn’t sound so incredibly far-fetched—a day when many people’s only real knowledge of God comes from what they’ve heard and read about, not what they’ve actually seen and experienced, and when His work is more about the dutiful following of rules than the daily adventure of walking with Him as Lord. Imagine, instead, a generation of your family who knows God with intimate familiarity. Who doesn’t just pretend at faith but actually lives it. Kids who can tell you what they believe and why it matters. Teenagers who handle adversity with the resilient joy of godly wisdom. A family who prays together and worships together, growing into young adults who are equipped and inspired to keep this torch ablaze from the moment their own new families begin. This book is here to make that reality happen, written by an author equipped with not only a passion for the concept but also a proven plan for success—a wealth of first-hand personal stories from his wife and kids for how they’ve put this plan into living action with remarkable blessings in tow. When God puts His power behind families who embrace this kingdom call, on-the-ground change will result in off-the-charts revival.

Engage All Generations suggests how every church can build on its potential and become a more vibrant witness of God’s Kingdom. Divided into three sections, the book focuses on key growth edges in the unfolding conversation about intergenerational ministry: “Learning and Growing Together,” “Praying and Playing Together,” and “Leading and Changing Together.” Practical, accessible, encouraging, and thought-provoking, this book provides the crucial next building block in our understanding of intergenerational ministry. It is sure to benefit congregations already engaged in fostering intergenerational approaches and those desiring to experiment with becoming intentionally intergenerational.

Based on the book, Five Practices of a Fruitful Congregation by Bishop Robert Schnase Imagine a congregation-wide focus on these practices that includes a five week sermon series, five weeks with every household reading daily devotions and sharing prayers on these practices, five weeks of leadership teams and small groups stimulated to take new initiatives, five weeks of conversation and commitment focused on the mission of the church. These are the practices that lead to excellence and fruitfulness, and they can change your church. Imagine! Five Practices - Intentional Faith Development is a planning workbook for use in group study. It helps lead the group to develop a plan to implement Intentional Faith Development in your congregation. FREE TEACHING GUIDE! Click here to download the free Teaching Guide for "Intentional Faith Development."

In a revised an updated edition, this comprehensive, up-to-date text offers a framework for intentional intergenerational Christian formation. It provides the theoretical foundation of intergenerationality, then gives concrete, practical guidance on how worship, learning, community, and service can all be achieved intergenerationally.

Leaders in Christian communities are all asking the same question: How can we bring the generations back together? InterGenerate addresses important questions of why we should bring the generations back together, but even more significantly, how we can bring generations back together. In this edited collection, ministers, church leaders, and Christian educators will find valuable, new generational theory perspectives, fresh biblical and theological insights, and practical outcomes backed by current research. InterGenerate offers important guidance on topics including •intergenerational spiritual disciplines, •transitioning from multigenerational to intergenerational, •new research that focuses directly on intergenerational ministry and offers practical outcomes to implement, and •benefits of intergenerational ministry for the most marginalized generations. An exciting and distinctive aspect of InterGenerate is the vast diversity of voice —men and women ranging in age from millennials to baby boomers, representing multiple countries and over a dozen denominations—all seeking ways to become more intentionally intergenerational in their outlook and practice.

How important is childhood in the spiritual formation of a person? How do children experience God in the context of their lives as they grow? What does God do in the lives of children to draw them to himself and help them grow into a vital relationship with him? How can adults who care about children better support their spiritual growth and direct it toward relationship with God through Jesus Christ? These are critical questions that church leaders face as they consider how best to nurture the faith of the children God brings into our lives. In this book, over two dozen Christian scholars and ministry leaders explore important issues about the spiritual life of children and ways parents, church leaders, and others who care about children can promote their spiritual formation.

Here the authors convincingly show that intergenerational faith formation, when done well, can be powerful, dramatic, even magical. Not only is there a place for intergenerational learning in parish faith formation, the authors believe there is a necessity for it. They show that intergenerational faith formation can help children, adolescents, and adults effectively identify with and integrate into the faith community because their learning and formation takes place in the context of communityall ages learning together. People will be looking for this one.

The Catholic religious tradition has a strong heritage of transmission from generation to generation through culture and practices in the family and the faith community. Prior to the Second Vatican Council (1965) American Catholics tended to live in ethnically and religiously similar communities where faith was transmitted. Changes in the culture of family life and the Church since Vatican II affected these two major conduits, the parish and the home. While there has been some study of the religious lives of Catholics in general (D'Antonio et al., 1987, 1993, 1999, 2005) and specifically research on adolescent faith (YSRS, Smith & Denton, 2005) little is known about the partnership of the family and catechetical community from the lens of parents' perspectives. The present study of one parish engaged in a lifelong model of faith development that intentionally integrated community and parental involvement over a 15 year period provided a unique opportunity to learn about factors impacting faith development. Therefore, the research question was: What factors, occurring in the family and in the faith community, are perceived to impact faith development?