Families are the backbone of education. Many years ago it was popular to remark that “it takes a village to raise a child.” While that in some disciplines may be true it seems to break down somewhat with a spiritual growth discipline. In Deuteronomy 6 God’s command to families was to train their children … constantly. Train them when they rise up, lie down, walk along the road, and when you are sitting in your houses. God has given a command to parents to be providers in their children’s spiritual growth strategy. Churches certainly are involved (as a part of the village) in the spiritual training of kids and we should be serious about our role. How does Explore the Bible then, give help to families to equip their kids for spiritual growth? Here are a few ways to give them some guidance.
Family Reading Plan
Each quarter there is a family reading plan that will give families a consistent daily strategy for reading through the books that are being studied that quarter. This file is available on the enhanced CD or digitally and can be shared by email or as a printed resource for families to follow.
Family Cards
The family cards offered in Explore the Bible: Kids are a great resource to engage families in discussion surrounding the passage kids would have studied that day. Ideally, families utilizing Explore the Bible across the board would already have a common reference for following up with what their kids learned. The Family Card would have on it both the object kids would have seen during teaching and three questions that can be used to either engage a parent to ask an inductive question to help kids recall what they have learned, or vice versa. Maybe a kid will ask a parent an engaging question to build upon their learning.
Parent Resources
The Enhanced CD for both preschool and kids will contain a parent resources file that will have great suggested email messages, social media posts, and tweet worthy comments that your church can use to continually communicate with the parents of the kids you lead. Spread out your messaging throughout the week so you have a consistent strategy of reaching parents through social media.
Spiritual Islands
What about those kids who are living on a spiritual island? What I mean by that is, who are those kids that are the only point of spiritual contact for their families? Their parents don’t mind if they come to church, but mom and dad are not going to come themselves. We all have them in our churches, and hopefully your ministry team has developed a relationship with those families and at least have some point of contact either through social media, email, or the child himself. Continue to communicate with those parents, trusting God’s work in their lives.
Whatever your communication strategy is with parents, be consistent and intentional as you equip parents to be the spiritual leaders of their kid’s growth.