FAITH FORMATION
IN FAMILIES ANDREW RAMSBOTTOM
| Children & Families Consultant, SUNZ
F
amily —in the wider sense that may include grandparents, extended family networks and whānau—is the natural place for the faith of a child or young person to be formed. Faith formation is meant to be done with all ages together so that the generations help to form each other’s faith. Yes, children and young people help to build the older generation’s faith! We all benefit from ‘doing faith’ together. But where do we start? The Bible The Bible is central to all faith formation and a good place for parents and caregivers to start is with their own regular time with God, preferably every day. This is an unashamed plug for using the Scripture Union Bible reading guides! There are also many other good resources. Find a Bible version that suits your family. If you have preschool children you may want to use a children’s Bible, but once they are school-going age an ’adult‘ Bible is the best.
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Mix it up using different Bible reading methods. The easiest is the traditional method: gather the family, get out a Bible and read a part of it out loud. Encourage children and youth to share in the reading rather than adults doing it every time. Audio Bibles are a different way to just listen to Scripture. There are many options available online and the Bible Society in partnership with Radio Rhema has produced the NLT Kiwi Audio Bible which is available on a memory stick. Yet another option is to watch the Bible. A simple Google search will give you many options. Just a warning: if you have children under the age of 13 please watch the programme yourself before you show it to your family as sometimes the footage can be quite graphic.
