Four Keys for Vibrant Faith

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Four Keys for Vibrant Faith

• Presented by Chip Stokes

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How Families Pass on Faith and Values
Stated Faith Values
Rules
Tradition Rituals
Roles
Lifestyle
Atmosphere
Bonding
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Romans 61-4

• Do you not know that all of us who have been
  baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
  death? Therefore we have been buried with him by
  baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was
  raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
  so we too might walk in newness of life.

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THE FOUR KEYS

• Faith Practices
• for
• Living Ones Baptism

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Romans 61-4

• What does the water signify?
• Luthers Small Catechism
• on Baptism
• We are to study and practice
• our baptism.

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Mark 8 34-35

• If any want to become my followers, let them
  deny themselves and take up their cross and
  follow me. For those who want to save their life
  will lose it, and those who lose their life for
  my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will
  save it.

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Caring Conversation the spiritual love will
speak to Christ about a brother more than to a
brother about Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Life Together Conduct yourselves wisely toward
outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your
speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so
that you may know how you ought to answer
everyone. Colossians 45-6 Mark 1035-45 Gods
justice and righteousness
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Caring Conversation Simply put, there is
nothing, nothing in the world, that can take the
place of one person intentionally listening or
speaking to another. The act of conscious
attending to another person when one once
discovers the taste of it and its significance
can become the center of gravity of the work of
love. It is very difficult. Almost nothing in our
world supports it or even knows about it.
Jacob Needleman in A Little Book on Love  
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Family Devotions They devoted themselves to the
apostles teaching and fellowship, to the
breaking of the bread and prayers. Acts
242 Acts 1212 1640 Ephesians 515-20
Be subject to one another
v.21 Colossians 312-17
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Family Worship Let family worship be short,
savory, simple, plain, tender, heavenly. by
Richard Cecil
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Service Remember it was the life of Christians
in the world that brought others to Christian
faith. We are called to join in Gods liberating
and reconciling work in the world on behalf of
peace, justice and love. John Westerhoff,
Bringing Up Children in the Christian Faith But
be doers of the word, and not merelyhearers who
deceive themselves. James 122 Acts 243-47
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Rituals Traditions And when your children ask
you, What do you mean by this observance? you
shall say, It is the Passover sacrifice to the
LORD, for he passed over the houses of the
Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the
Egyptians but spared our houses. Exodus
1226-27 Joshua 44-7 Luke
241-52
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Five Key Family Questions

• 1. What gives a sense of meaning or purposeto
  your familys life together?
• 2. What are the ways you live your faithtogether
  as a family?
• 3. In what ways has living in your family
  strengthened your faith?
• 4. In what ways has living in your family
  challenged your faith?
• 5. What Bible story has been especially
  meaningful to you?

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• The aim of education is not knowledge but
  action.
• Herbert Spencer

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CHURCH COUNCIL MOTIVATION for EVANGELISM
(Anderson Research Assoc.)
Annual Budget
78
Fill Empty Pews
65
Keep up with the non-denom. church down the street
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Comply with district/synod goals
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Love of God in Christ Jesus
Margin of error or 30 points
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Its All About Faith!
Spiritual Leadership for Faith Formation
Passing on the Faith from Generation to Generation
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Participation in Christian Education
Exposure to effective Christian education is
strongly associated with both faith maturity and
loyalty. The more effective the Christian
Education program, the greater is faith maturity
and loyalty. Having effective Christian education
is irrelevant, however, if people do not
participate. Most denominations have much greater
success in including children than high school
students and adults. Because of the potential
power of Christian education to promote faith
maturity and loyalty, a major task facing
denominations is to increase the involvement of
high school students and adults in formal
Christian education. Contrary to common
thinking, Christian education is important to the
faith development of adults as a it is to
children. The percentages below refer to the
average rates of involvement, at the named age
levels, as estimated for their congregations by
pastors and coordinators or ministers of
Christian education.
Five Mainline Total CC ELCA PC UCC UMC SBC Ch
ildren grades K-6 60 61 67 69 66 56 48 Youth
grades 7-9 52 55 70 48 54 45 52 Youth grades
10-12 35 47 32 40 33 35 49 Adults 28 35 23 31 22
29 49 Used by permission from Search Institute
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Summary of Mainline Protestant Youth Most
Significant Religious Influences
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Influence Percentage Choosing As 1
of Top 5 Mother Female 74 Male
81 Father Female 50 Male
61 Pastor Female 44 Male
57 Grandparent Female 29 Male 30 Youth
Group Female 30 Male 30 Christian
education Female 26 Male 26 Bible Female 2
4 Male 25 Friends Female 29 Male
22 Church School Teacher Female 21 Male
26 Church Camp Female 28 Male 20 Youth
Group Leader Female 16 Male 15 Movie/Music
Star Female 3 Male 4 Revivals/Rallies F
emale 4 Male 3 Percentages reflect
average score of 7th through 12th graders
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Faith Factors Researchby Roland Martinson

• Faith integrated into family identity and
  practice.
• Three or more adult mentors of vital faith
• Three or more months of service in the name of
  Jesus Christ.
• Apprenticed early into leadership in their
  congregation.

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Faith Factors Research

• 5. Engaging, meaningful church experience
  involving youth.
• 6. Excellent senior high/young adult ministry.
• 7. Encouraged by strong Christian Friends.
• 8. Support within Christian community during
  personal crisis.

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Exemplary Congregations in Youth Ministry

• These congregations do not begin with a focus on
  youth.
• 2. It begins with God and an understanding of
  church

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Exemplary Congregations in Youth Ministry

• FAITH MATURITY
• Gods living presence
• Centrality of Faith
• Emphasizes Prayer
• Focus on Discipleship
• Emphasizes Scripture
• Centrality of Mission

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Soul Searching

• . . . Christianity is either degenerat-ing into
  a pathetic version of itself or . . . actively
  being colonized and displaced by a quite
  different religious faith Christian Moralistic
  Therapeutic Deism.
• p. 171

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BROKEN ECOLOGY OFFAITH FORMATION

• The Church
• Town/Community
• Public School
• Periodicals

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RELIGIOUS INTEREST OFTEENS
VERY IMPORTANT SOMEWHAT IMPORTANT NOT TOO
IMPORTANT NOT AT ALL
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8
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Five Themes for Youth Family Ministry

• 1. Faith is formed by the power of the Holy
  Spirit through personal, trusted
  relationships--often in our own homes.
• 2. The Church is a living partnership between the
  ministry of the congregation and the ministry of
  the home.
• 3. Where Christ is present in faith, the home is
  church too.
• 4. Faith is caught more than it is taught.
• 5. If we want Christian children and youth, we
  need Christian adults/parents.

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Family Life in the Bible
Although the Bible has other agendas that are
more central than that of family, it does drop
hints along the way about the family that are
worth considering. It is clear that in the world
of biblical faith, the family is the primary unit
of meaning which shapes and defines
reality. Walter Bruggeman, The Covenanted
Family, p. 18
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Family Life in the Bible
One major function of intergenerational life is
to transmit the stories and the promises which
identify the family, so that each new generation
has an inheritance that gives both identity and
roots, and purpose and vocation. That you may
tell in the hearing of your child, and of your
grandchild, how I made sport of the Egyptians and
what signs I have done among them that you may
know that I am the LORD. Exodus 102 (Ibid, p.
19)
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The Word of God in Daily Life
Galatians 323 For what happens historically
and temporally when Christ came--namely, that he
abrogated the law and brought liberty and eternal
life to light--this happens personally and
spiritually every day in any Christian, in whom
there are found the time of law and the time of
grace in constant alteration.
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The Word of God in Daily Life
Law and Gospel in Ones Life The distinction
between the law and the Gospel is necessary to
the highest degree for it contains a summary of
all Christian doctrine. Therefore, let everyone
learn diligently how to distinguish the law from
the Gospel, not only in words but in feelings and
experience that is, let him distinguish well
between these two in his heart and in his
conscience.
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The Word of God in Daily Life
Law and Gospel in Ones Life For as far as the
words are concerned, the distinction is easy.
But when it comes to experience, you will find
the Gospel a rare guest but the law a constant
guest in your conscience, which is habituated to
the law and the sense of sin reason, too,
supports this sense.
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The Word of God in Daily Life
Lennart Pinomaa's Summary The distinction
between true and false works is as difficult as
the distinction between true and false faith. No
theory is adequate. One must believe, pray and
strive. (Faith Victorious An Introduction to
Luthers Theology, 76)
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Apostles, Bishops, and Priests(Martin Luther,
The Estate of Marriage LW 4546)

• Most certainly father and mother are
  apostles, bishops, and priests to their children,
  for it is they who make them acquainted with the
  Gospel. In short, there is no greater or nobler
  authority on earth than that of parents over
  their children, for this authority is both
  spiritual and temporal. Whoever teaches the
  Gospel to another is truly an apostle and bishop.

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Confirmation Booklet

• A Word to Mom and Dad
• Encourage and support your teen in their work.
  Help them where you are able, but urge them to
  give their best.
• Ensure that your teen has transportation and
  attends class weekly.
• Worship regularly with your child.
• Nurture the importance of stewardship through
  your own commitment of time and financial
  resources.
• Pray for them and yourselves as they grow and
  mature.

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Deuteronomy 64-9

• Hear, O Israel The Lord is our God, the Lord is
  one. You shall love the Lord your God with all
  your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
  your might. Keep these words that I am commanding
  you today in your heart. Recite them to your
  children and talk about them when you are at home
  and when you are away, when you lie down and when
  you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix
  them as an emblem on your forehead, and write
  them on the doorpost of your house and on your
  gates.

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Matthew 1032-33

• Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before
  others, I also will acknowledge before my Father
  in heaven Matthew 1032

But whoever denies me before others, I also will
deny before my Father in heaven. Matthew 1033
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Deuteronomy 620-21
When your children ask you in time to come, What
is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes
and the ordinances that the Lord our God has
commanded you? then you shall say to your
children, We were Pharaohs slaves in Egypt, but
the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty
hand
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Deuteronomy 111-3
You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and
keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and
his commandments always. Remember today that it
was not your children (who have not known or
seen the discipline of the Lord your God), but it
is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his
mighty hand and his out stretched arm, his signs
and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh,
the King of Egypt and to all his land.
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Soul SearchingThe Religious Spiritual Lives
of Teens

• One of the key themes of this book is that
  parents are normally very important in shaping
  the religious and spiritual lives of their
  teenage children, even though they may not
  realize it.
• p. 56

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Soul SearchingThe Religious Spiritual Lives
of Teens

• 92 of teens say that religion is extremely,
  very, or fairly important when a parent says
  religion is extremely important.
• Ibid., p. 56

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Soul SearchingThe Religious Spiritual Lives
of Teens

• . . . The best general rule of thumb that
  parents might use to reckon their childrens most
  likely religious outcomes is this Well get
  what we are.
• Ibid., p. 57

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Participation by Generations

• Booster Generation Most churched
• Baby Boomers Less than 37
• Gen X Less than 32
• Millennial Kids Less than 30

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Faithlife in the Home Resources
Home Visits
Community
Congregation
Christian Parenting Enrichment
Adult Christian Education
Home
The Childs Faith Journey
Congrega- tional Worship Celebrations
Inter- Generational Enrichment Events
Home
Congregation
Community
Age-Level Ministries
Leadership Training
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A Child In Our Hands Congregation Incorporates
the Four Keys in every aspect of the life of the
congregation including the home.
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• A Child In Our Hands Congregation is committed to
  the biblical and historic principles of the Five
  Themes
• 1. Faith is formed by the power of the Holy
  Spirit through personal, trusted
  relationships--often in our own homes.
• 2. The church is a living partnership between the
  ministry of the congregation and the ministry
  of the home.
• 3. Where Christ is present in faith, the home is
  church, too.
• 4. Faith is caught more than it is taught.
• 5. If we want Christian children and youth, we
  need Christian adults/parents.