Notes from Session #4
Sticky Faith
// Parent Curriculum DVD
Segregation in the church is causing kids to shelve their faith.
“High school and college students who attend church-wide worship services and have intergenerational relationships, tend to have more sticky faith.”
Not just sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with kids in a worship service setting, rather:
“The number one way kids are effected by church is when adults have shown an interest in them.” When adults make an effort to get to know the kids.
Our churches, in an effort to care for kids well, have established and proliferated adult to student ratios to be adhered to in children’s ministry (in the Nursery, early childhood, elementary, and middle school and high school), all for good and wise reasons. In our churches we need to reverse the standard ratios (not get rid of them in a classroom or large group setting, but for discipleship purposes). Instead of something like 1 adult for every 5 kids, we need there to be 5 adults for every 1 kid. That’s five adults that you pick to invest in your kids in little, medium and big ways.
Kara Powell calls it:
A Sticky Social Web
Or a cluster and constellation of intentional intergenerational relationships. All of our kids need other adults to affirm and guide them, to be encouraged and involved (i.e. Sunday school teacher, small group leader, coach, teacher at school, family friend, etc.).
5 to 1 relationships won’t happen by accident. You as a parent have to be intentional.
“How do I go about a 5 to 1 sticky social web for my kids?”
Ask your kids to name 5 adults they respect and want to be like. Invite those adults one at a time over for dinner sometime to get them more involved in your child’s life. Setup intentional times when your kid can interact with these other adults they look up to and respect. You don’t have to keep this 5 to 1 goal a secret to your kid. Be open with your teen about it as well as the adults you are trying to get your adolescent around more often.
Or you can go to other adults who you as a parent know you want to influence your kids and talk with them about crafting and engaging in a more intentional sticky social web.
You want to point your kids to adults who care about your kids and want to point your kid to the God who made them.
This is the fourth post in a series called Sticky Faith.
