Sticky Faith Family Ideas
Sticky Faith Family Ideas
Sticky Faith Family Ideas
Family Ideas
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fulleryouthinstitute.org stickyfaith.org
NOTICE
Random. Chaotic. Circumstantial.
Sound familiar? If you live with an adolescent in your home, chances are these words describe quite a bit of your daily life experience. Teenagers engage all kinds of vital life tasks in random, chaotic, and circumstantial ways. Like their friendships. And dating relationships. And homework. And probably their interactions with you. But we arent using the words random, chaotic, and circumstantial to describe any of those areas of life right now. Were using them to describe what weve learned from research about the prayer life of teenagers. Research shows that faith practices are important to what we call Sticky Faith faith that lasts beyond high school and into college and young adulthood.* Yet often teenagers arent sure how to nurture their own spiritual growth. Our research at the Fuller Youth Institute has indicated that only about half of graduating youth group seniors pray once a day or read the Bible once a week. Beyond prayer and Scripture study, teenagers also dont seem have experience with a host of other timeless faith practices that could make a difference in their day to day lives. As a follow up to the Sticky Faith research, we are exploring what disciplines best connect kids with God and nurture lasting faith, in particular those that help integrate faith practices with all of life. Out of that exploration weve created this resource as an entry point for youth workers and parents to invite young people to create new faith rhythms. You might notice that weve tried to create ideas that get both you and your kids talking. Research shows that parents are one ofif not the biggest influences on their kids faith. Yes, even for teenagers. Further, our Sticky Faith research revealed that while its important for parents to talk with their kids about the kids faith, its just as important for parents to talk about their own faith journeys with their kids. Were convinced you will all grow from these kinds of conversations. See stickyfaith.org for more resources to help you know how to build Sticky Faith in your family.
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The overall theme of this Every Day series is noticing God . Some people say paying attention is the core of the spiritual life. We think theyre on to something. So this journey over the next weeks (for many of you, this 8 week journey might work well to use during the Lent season as preparation for Easter) is an invitation to notice. Noticing might mean you have to stop, listen, change up your steps a bit. It might mean trying some new things as a family. One way to think of these practices is that they are ways we learn to pay attention to and notice God and Gods work in and around us. Ideas to Engage Your Whole Family in Noticing God More Below are some ideas and tips for you as you engage this journey together with your family. Please note that you wont be able to implement all of these ideas, so pick one or two youd like to focus on and give them a try together! Many parents have noticed that the moment they pull out the printed family devotion is the moment the kids shut down. If youve experienced this, think about ways to have these conversations or try these activities without using this (or another) resource as a cue sheet. Your kids will appreciate your own words and your authentic presence more than anything we could write for you. Read Psalm 103: 6-14 together. Wonder together what it means that the writer uses such big language for Gods love and for how dramatically God removes our sin. You might also ask: What does it mean that God is slow to anger? Do you think that describes our family, and why/why not? How do we need God to work in our family to make us all more like God in this area? Talk together about something your family might want to fast from as a family during this journey. If you do, be sure you choose as a family . Also consider how you can invite your kids to participate, but also give them permission not to participate. Remember that the point is creating ways we can notice God more during our everyday life. Acknowledge that certain sacrifices will likely mean something different to your kids than to you. For example, given the pervasive role digital technology plays in the lives of adolescents today (its truly all they have ever known), living without the internet or their cell phone is comparable to an adult imagining life without electricity. So rather than fighting with your teenager over instituting a blanket No media on Sundays rule, invite them to work together with you toward something thats manageable as a practice everyone is willing to try together. In the end they might long for more time apart from their digital connectivity, but that desire will have to come from them, not you, in order to really be effective.
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Find a local or global outreach opportunity or cause to support as a family. If youre giving up something together that involves time and/or money, also decide together what youll do with that time and/or money. Maybe you can channel money to help build a well in another community, or maybe you can visit pediatric cancer patients in your city at the local childrens hospital. Do some research, incorporating your kids web savvy, and try something new together. If youre doing this during Lent and you attend an Ash Wednesday service together, ask on the way to or from the service or over dinner, Why do we wear the ashes on our bodies today? and explore what it means to different members of your family. Be sure you answer thisand everyquestion yourself! This week the DAILY GUIDE invites your kids to read and re-read Psalm 25:1-7. Consider doing the same and sharing together about the impressions the passage has made on each of you at the end of the week. In the DAILY GUIDE we invite your kids to consider incorporating the Lords Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 into their daily and weekly rhythm of prayer. You might also want to do this in your family as a way to reinforce, wonder about, and be changed by this prayer. In fact, we encourage you to consider using the DAILY GUIDE yourself throughout this 8-week series! Our hope is that this resource leads to new long-term rhythms for your family and for your children in their own life with God. Heres to nurturing Sticky FaithEvery Day!
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fulleryouthinstitute.org stickyfaith.org
UNPLUG
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fulleryouthinstitute.org stickyfaith.org
RECEIVE
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fulleryouthinstitute.org stickyfaith.org
YIELD
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fulleryouthinstitute.org stickyfaith.org
SIMPLIFY
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kids and not an imposition on them. In many communities there are local shelters or rescue missions that help distribute clothes, toys, and certain necessities to those in need. Consider as a family donating one item each to a local organization. But heres the catch: ask everyone to choose something that they would actually wear or use. Its easy to give away the sweater that Grandma gave you two Christmases ago. Again, make this an invitation and give your kids permission to say no. Hopefully as they are engaging in the SIMPLIFY theme, theyll start asking questions about what they really need. Dropping off your donations together may also be a great experience for your family.
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fulleryouthinstitute.org stickyfaith.org
LAMENT
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LOSE
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Encourage each other. Loss is a part of life and of following Jesus, but its not the end of the story. Maybe your family can repeat this phrase (or one like it) to each other all week to remind each other that even though life can be hard, we can still have hope: Its Friday, but Sundays coming. IF YOURE DOING THIS SERIES DURING LENT Go to a Thursday Passover/Last Supper service as a family or create your own reminder at home on this evening when Jesus shared his last meal with friends and talked about how his loss would usher in the new Kingdom. John 13-17 gives the most extensive account of the Last Supper and final words of Jesus to his friends, but you could read any Gospel account together. Go to a Good Friday service as a family. Add something to your experience like riding to and from the service in complete silence, fasting until after the service, or journaling and sharing your experience of the service.
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fulleryouthinstitute.org stickyfaith.org
MADE NEW
Sticky Faith Every Day Family Ideas
Ideas for Engaging Your Whole Family in being MADE NEW Congratulations youve finished this 8-week Sticky Faith Every Day series. Our hope has been that youve noticed much more about silence, rest, your brokenness, submitting to God, simplifying your life, lamenting pain in your life and this world, loss, and ultimately about NEW LIFE. But this journey is not over. Its just beginning. There are probably at least one or two changes you notice in your familys life since you started this journey, but its also likely you sense how much further you still have to go. Be encouraged by Pauls words to the church in Philippi when he says to be certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. ( Philippians 1:6 ) As your family reflects on these past 8 weeks, consider these questions for discussion and commitment for new rhythms in your life: What surprised you about this series? What did you notice in each other these weeks? (e.g., You were more present during the Unplug week. You grew in patience so much these last 40 days. You were more emotional during this season. I noticed you didnt watch as much TV.) Spend some time encouraging each other. What has God made new in your life and family these last 40 days? What ongoing spiritual practices and rhythms is God prompting you to continue in the future? If you experienced this series during Lent, talk about the traditions your family has throughout the year. You likely have some family Christmas and birthday traditions, but Lent and Easter traditions are much less common. Did you start any this year that you want to continue as a ritual for years to come? As youve completed Lent and Easter this year, are there any rituals or traditions youd like to start next year? Seal these 8 weeks of noticing with a note to each of your family members (or if the size of your family makes this daunting, every person can write a note to one family member). Were sure there have been moments days ! in the journey when you wanted to give up, felt discouraged, or wondered if God was making anything new in your life. If youre
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feeling that way, your family probably is too. Take some time in the next couple of weeks to notice how God is making your family new. Write your family members a note so you can adequately express yourself and allow them to remember what you notice. Use this note only to encourage and bless your family members, not to challenge or criticize them. If you want to get really creative, purchase them a small, inexpensive item that symbolizes these changes and encourages them on the Philippians 1:6 path. As God continues to work in your life until Christ returns, remember that Gods in the business of making things new. All the time. Every day. Be encouraged by these words from 1 John 3:1-3:
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world dont recognize that we are Gods children because they dont know him. Dear friends, we are already Gods children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
May you know the depth of your Father s love for you and your family. And may you wait in eager expectation for the day when we are fully made new.
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