A Word About Family Faith Statements

We are trying something different for our Faith Statements this year! In the past we have asked the youth in 8th grade to attend a weekend retreat and have a time of reflection and writing their faith statements in preparation for the Affirmation of Baptism in the fall of their 9th grade year. While this weekend retreat has been a great time to focus on our faith, we felt there was a piece missing: families. Youth would come back from the weekend with their statement of faith and sometimes families would read it and sometimes not.

The National Study of Youth and Religion concludes that the best way for youth to become more serious about religious faith is for parents to become more serious about theirs. Parent religiosity during the teenage years was an even stronger predictor of young people's faith in emerging adulthood. Research is nearly unanimous on this point: parents/guardians matter most in shaping the religious lives of their children.

Do your children know why you go to church? Do they know your story and how Jesus changed your life? Is going to church changing your life? How is faith bearing fruit in your life? As the number one influencer on your child's faith, they need to know these things!

This is where Family Faith Statements play an important role. On Wednesday, April 22nd, we are holding our next Family Night for Confirmation Ministry and we are inviting families to come and start the process of writing a Family Faith Statement. We will have more instructions and conversations surrounding the questions below, but you can start by thinking about these before you attend the meeting!

The hope for these Faith Statements is to give your family a foundation to build on throughout the following years. We will have students write their faith statements every year of Confirmation, coming back to their statements from years past and adding, changing and discussing what they believe.

1. What are some descriptive words that help you define God?
2. What are some important beliefs about God and the church?
3. What are some descriptive words that help you define Jesus?
4. What are some important beliefs about Jesus?
5. What are some descriptive words that help you define the Holy Spirit?
6. What are some important beliefs about the Holy Spirit?