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What determines whether children will carry on the faith of their parents? Past research established that parents play the critical role. In this episode noted sociologist Christian Smith shares new research examining how parents shape their children’s faith and the critical factor of talking about religion in the context of day-to-day life.
Jessica Anschutz of the Lewis Center staff reports on how a Connecticut church has made the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday a time for intergenerational…
Rebekah Simon-Peter outlines four models small churches have used to survive the pandemic — the church at home model, the shut-in model, the never shut…
Looking for a simple, creative way to engage young families in the life of your congregation? Jessica Anschutz explains how providing a gathering space for…
New research on how parents pass faith to their children provides strong evidence that talking with children about faith in the context of daily life…
David Manner says the goal of healthy intergenerational worship is unobtainable unless the different generations within your church are first interacting together outside of worship.…
Sandra Peoples, a leading voice for the special-needs community, says the modifications churches have made to reach members during the COVID-19 crisis have made special-needs…
Emily Peck McClain describes the very real challenges children, youth, and families face during this time of upheaval and distance from physical church. She offers…
Johannah Myers describes a paradigm shift in how we form disciples with a move away from Christian education toward an emphasis on forming people in…
Looking for a creative, new way to bring people of all ages into a space where they can meet Jesus? In this episode we speak with Johannah Myers about Messy Church, a global movement born of the desire to reach individuals and families not attracted to traditional Sunday morning services.
Church tech expert Will Rice says churches with weekday childcare programs will have people looking for daycare regularly visiting their websites. He outlines ways to…
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me.” Here are 50 Ways your church can demonstrate its love for children and its desire to connect…
Many congregations find that reaching out to their local schools is an important way to serve children and their families and strengthen ties with the…
Doug Ruffle, who once served as a missionary in Argentina, shares the heartwarming story of a Christmas pageant that went off script, yet captured the…
Nursery schools and childcare programs are more to churches than a source of rental income. Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says they offer important missional…
The work of faith formation leaders in a congregation is expansive and vital, yet often undervalued and misunderstood. Virginia Callegary lifts up the need to…
Ann Michel of the Lewis Center Staff outlines four ways a church can lay a solid foundation for a church-school partnership before jumping in headfirst.…
Thinking of launching a church-school partnership? Or looking to strengthen an existing partnership? In this episode Jake McGlothin, author of The Mission-Minded Guide to Church and School Partnerships, speaks with Lewis Center Associate Director Ann A. Michel about how churches can build effective, transformative relationships with children and teachers in their community.
Jake McGlothin, author of The Mission-Minded Guide to Church and School Partnerships, explains how compelling messages that align your congregation’s vision to the task of…
Margie Briggs, pastor of two small churches in Missouri, describes how the annual tradition of hosting a “birthday party for Jesus” has attracted children and…
Pastor Daniel Kerlin’s Pennsylvania church hosts a free summer lunch program. When kids who were on their own or couldn’t tell time were having difficulty…
John Wimberly reports how creating a team of four teachers for each children’s Sunday school classroom had the paradoxical effect of easing the burden of…
This year, worshipers at the Washington, DC, church where I serve will be hearing Christmas carols on November 29, the first Sunday of Advent. In…
Given the title of Linda Ranson Jacobs’s new book, Attract Families to Your Church and Keep Them Coming Back (Abingdon Press, 2014), one might assume…
To make worship more family friendly, you might look at it through the eyes of a child. Ask other ministers and church leaders what they…
Effective church-school partnerships take a true commitment and willingness to build long-term, sacrificial relationships. Learning from the many congregations that have begun partnerships with low-income…
Any church leader looking to be convinced that the state of public education in America is a Christian concern need look no further than Nicole…
My mother attended a one room schoolhouse for all but the last two years of her public education. As a Baby Boomer, I grew up…
Teaching children to tithe is an important part of their faith education that we often overlook. Giving to God is a core value of our…
While generational differences receive much attention, it is remarkable how people’s highest values tend to stay relatively constant from one generation to another. However, the…
This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary available at churchleadership.com.
