Equipping Parents to Pass Their Faith to Their Children ~ RELEVANT CHILDREN’S MINISTRY

We know God’s design is for parents to be the primary spiritual influence in their children’s lives. 

This means we must make partnering with parents a top priority in our ministry.

This partnership should help set parents up for success.  What an honor God has given us, as children’s ministry leaders, to have a part in seeing kids follow Jesus.

What if…what if we spent as much time setting parents up for success as we do preparing for weekend services and events.

If we truly believe that parents are the primary influence, then this should be reflected in how we spend our time during the week as well as the weekend. 

Here’s some good news. a recent study by Pew research found that parents are more likely to prioritize passing on their faith than passing on their political views. 

35% of parents say it is extremely or very important that their kids grow up to share their religious views.

82% of Protestant parents have teens who also identify as Protestant.

81% of Catholic parents have Catholic teens.

86% of parents who
describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular –
have teens who were also not religious.

As you can see, parents are a huge influence in their children adopting spiritual views and values.

Our role is this.  We should be providing parents with the tools they need to build a solid faith foundation for their children.  

Here are some tools you can put in their hands.

Lesson extensions.  

Prepare a take home paper that talks about what the kids learned that day.  Encourage parents to use the paper that week at home to talk more about what their child learned.  You can also post this on social media.  Create a private group for your children’s ministry parents.

*One tip – if you pass out the take home papers during dismissal, hand it to the parents and say “Here’s what we talked about today,  You can use this paper to talk about it with them at home.

If you will hand it to the parent instead of the kid, you will see a lot more of the papers make it home.

Family events.

Families love to do things together.  Hosting a family night can impact parents and encourage them to be intentional about raising their children to follow Jesus. 

Summer family events. (click here to see an example)

Christmas family events. (click here to see an example)

Fall family events. (click here to see an example)

Easter family events. (click here to see an example)

Family Bible study.  

Think about starting a weekly family Bible study for kids and their parents. Giving parents the opportunity to study the Bible with their children makes a big impact. I normally do these on Wednesday nights. You can also give them follow-up work to do at home.

Parenting classes.  

For far too long we have put parenting classes in the hands of adult ministry.  Yes, they can be a part of it, but I believe children’s ministry should take the initiative and help lead these.

Milestone classes. 

I personally believe there is nothing that impacts parents and their children more than spiritual milestones. I have seen this lived out time and time again.  If you will get parents involved in these milestones, it will be life-changing.  

(click here to see more about milestones)

Prayer.

Pray that parents will own the spiritual growth of their children.

Pray that parents will be faithful in discipling their children.

Pray that parents will use the tools you place in their hands.

Pray for kids and parents to grow in their faith together.

Pray that you can encourage parents in their child-rearing journey.

Pray that you can equip parents to help their children develop a Biblical world-view.

Pray that parents will be open and receptive when you show them that they are the biggest influence in their children’s spiritual lives.

Your turn. What are some things you do to equip parents to pass on their faith to their children?  Share them in the comment section below.