milestones (faith, social, physical, etc.) in a child & youth’s life and connecting with families (family ministry) at those natural, stages of life
This is cool. Milestones: kind of like rocks, or significant moments in the life of a person. First time parents, baby dedication/infant baptism (depending on faith tradition), believer’s baptism, confirmation/catechism (depending of faith tradition), rite of passage (from child to teenager), graduation (from teenager to adult), are some examples of “milestones” in the lives of children and youth. Some of these can be natural, some can be contrived. I wonder what this would look like in the overall development of spiritual formation @ our church? I wonder what it would look like to call parents to engage (spiritually/holisitically) in the lives of their children at each of these milestones.
It’d be interesting to see if it is worthwhile to think about crafting “classes” ahead and in the middle of these “milestones”. I wonder if people would care or be interested… you know, first time parents (having veteran parents sharing along with grandparents), people already have families and are (hopefully) connected with them for wisdom and direction and help. However, are they? Do families depend on each other for wisdom? Are families intentionally passing along parenting wisdom and strategies to first time parents? I don’t know. In my case, with my family support system between 1500 and 2000 miles away, it’s difficult for us (we have to “adopt” local grandparents, which has been fun!). I would have loved an interaction time with veterans in parenting. I wonder how many others feel the same way.
Is it worth crafting these “classes” as a sort of spiritual formation framework to start on with families. Even if only a small percentage of learned behavior and concepts stick, is it still worth it?
This is the thing that I picked up during this tour that I think might have the most promise, mainly because I’m a teacher and I think in categories and frameworks. If I’ve got a room to play in, or a house to live in, for me, having boundaries (i.e. walls) are important because it communicates limits and freedom within those limits. Again, for me, when there are no limits, I’m scattered, so a loose “spiritual framework for faith formation” would be extremely helpful. This concept of “milestones” so intrigues me…
