FAITH STICKY FAITH STICKY. What is STICKY FAITH

Transcription

1 Help for the journey: X:site An event for Yrs 3-6 that takes place 6 times a year. Locations: Sheffield, Teesside, Tyneside, Keighley, Halifax For more info, check the websites: Help for the journey: Refuel An event for Yrs 3-6 that takes place several times a year. Help for the journey: It s Your Move Next event: Saturday 2 March 4:00 6:00pm St George s Leeds Help for the journey: Energize High quality resources for church youth groups What is 1

2 What do we mean by sticky faith? What is like? 1. Internal and External 2. Personal and Communal 3. Mature and Maturing Listen, people of Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. Always remember these commands I give you today. Teach them to your children, and talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. Tie them on your forehead to remind you, and write them on your doors and gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NCV) 2

3 The Sticky Gospel - findings Strange ideas about what it means to be a Christian Too easily use participation in religious activity as a measure of success Gospel like a jacket A Red Bull gospel A gospel of sin management History has brought us to the point where the Christian message is thought to be essentially concerned with only how to deal with sin: with wrongdoing or wrong-being and its effects. Life, our actual existence is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message, or it is included only marginally... the current gospel then becomes a "gospel of sin management". (Dallas Willard) A Gospel of grace You, yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Exodus 19:4-6a TNIV) The Sticky Gospel - practice Explain terms Teach with an understanding of the context of obedience Case studies and real life examples that focus on what it means to trust God Contrast doing good things with trusting in a good God Make trust an on-going teaching theme Teach about recovery and repentance The HEADLINES 1. Shift from a behaviour based gospel to a grace based gospel 2. Shift from separating children and young people from the rest of the church to integrating them into the life of the church 3. Shift from a dry-cleaner view of parenting to partnering with parents 3

4 Involvement in all-church worship during high school is more consistently linked with mature faith in both high school and college than any other form of church participation. Church & Community The more teenagers serve and build relationships with younger children, the more likely it is that their faith will stick. Sixth form students don t feel supported by adults in their congregations. By far, the number-one way that churches made the teens in our survey feel welcomed and valued was when adults in the congregation showed interest in them. In summary: All-church worship. Serving younger children. Older students feel unsupported. Adults taking interest Feel valued. 4

5 The 5:1 Principle 5 Adults involved in every 1 young persons life Consider the role of parents in 5:1 Ongoing support for young people through all transitions and into university life Relationships in Church Changing your church culture? How much time do children and young people spend with the church congregation? What activities can the whole church do together? Can you influence how your leadership thinks? Relationships in Church in practice Browse the various ideas Add your own! Relationships in their groups How do we develop meaningful relationships in our groups? What gets in the way? Relationships in their groups What they said More deep conversations & one-onones 3 most significant things The adults involved The community formed Friendships Experiences: Who Am I? Plot the key trigger moments or transition points for children & young people as they go from What do we already do and what else can we do to affirm them and support them at these times? 5

6 Experiences: Who Am I? Trigger events Exposure to diversity Physical/Emotional Challenges Develop rituals & rites of passage Age, cultural, spiritual milestones Reflect on their experiences Identify passions and gifts Experiences: Living & Believing Can we draw up a plan of activities that we can do to help children and young people to connect living and believing? What might be on this Home and school Deuteronomy 6: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Some questions Whose role is it to bring up children to know God? How much do parents talk to children about faith? Are there subjects/issues that parents should avoid with children/young people? Is it helpful to discuss doubts about faith with children? How much freedom should a young person/child have to make up their own mind about faith? Findings Most parents don t talk about faith with their kids Kids whose parents talk about faith have more sticky faith Christian Parents tend to avoid tricky subjects Parents who talk about doubts help faith to stick Kids with Sticky faith have parents who encourage individual thought 6

7 Reflection: In your home as you were growing up, to what extent did you see any of these things taking place? In your current work with children and young people, to what extent do you see these things taking place? Faith made practical 1. Provide space and time for quality conversations 2. Learn to listen and ask questions and not lecture 3. Create the right venue for meaningful conversation 4. Don t avoid the touchy subjects Faith made practical 5. Be creative if your child does not want to talk to you 6. Share your own faith 7. Seek out sticky faith ideas from other parents 8. Talk about your doubts Faith made practical 9. Develop conversation rituals Dinner conversations Creative worship experiences Special birthdays Family goals Activity: Split into 4 groups and for come up with as many practical ideas as possible for the topic on the green sheet. Now do the same for one of the orange sheets. Sticky Justice: Living for God at school 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Q How can we be parents who love and serve God and others, and who raise kids who do likewise. How can we plant a vision for kingdom service so deeply in our kids that they can t help but offer love and hope to those in need. 7

8 Findings Justice is a biblical value and theme Biblical justice meets all sorts of needs Kids want to be involved in justice and service work Short term mission work does not lead to lasting transformation (The before / During and after model) Framing Experience and reflect Initial debriefing On-going transformation Service is stickier when it hits closer to home What does this look like for your kids at school? Activity: In small groups, look at the scenario given and discuss what this looks like in practice for your kids at school. National Centre For Biblical Parenting A resource to enable parents to adopt biblical models of parenting Making It Happen Albert Einstein Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Ready for the journey 1. Children need to own their faith 2. Growth and change are necessary and often messy 3. The Power of shared stories 4. YOUR faith impacts your child more than any other factor 5. Communicate, communicate, communicate 8

9 Ready for the journey 6. Identify advocates and obstacles 7. Experiment around the margins 8. Foster a lifelong friendship with your child 9. Be patient. Good things take time 10. Give your child to Jesus Action Planning Spend a few minutes reflecting on and answering the questions on the sheet. Resources for the journey 1. X:site 2. Bookstall 3. Sticky Faith website ( 4. Explore Together 5. Northern Training Conference (1-3 March) 6. Future Events 7. Light ( 8. Breakthrough Let s Pray Thanks and have a safe journey 9