Parents Play Main Role in Shaping their Children’s Faith
Author Christian Smith and Dr. Ann Michel of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership recently published an article about parents passing their faith to their children. Christian Smith wrote a book, Handing Down the Faith, and Ann Michel asked him questions. Smith’s book says parents have important formative powers over how their kids turn out. How children turn out is largely how children were raised and by what examples their parents were.
Smith’s study puts lots of responsibility on parents. He also says churches share in this, not in programs, but relationships. Smith says that too much of our thinking has been “how do we get people to come to church”, when what we should be looking at is “how do we go to where life is?”.
Christian Smith and Ann Michel have caused me to think and I hope they have you too. Children need parents who talk to them, not just on Sunday as they go to church. Parents need to be engaging their children seven days a week and they need to discuss with them how our faith needs to guide us in these turbulent times.
As a former Youth Director, I always saw youth wanting to talk about what is going on in their world and never having enough time during the hour or two at church. Parents need to think about what is engaging their children and then discuss what the Bible is saying about it. The world is changing at an incredible rate and parents need to be able to discuss this with their children. Children are going to school today in places where there are guns and other dangers every day. Drugs are present and sex is discussed openly. Parents need to be good listeners and to discover what their children are living with. We need to not only be good listeners but we need to be good responders and able to share with our children in meaningful ways. Our faith is what we have to hold onto and this faith needs to be so up front that we can share it with our children. The church can provide leadership and knowledge, but as parents we have to know there is hope and we have to be the ones to give that to them. Our hope comes from Jesus who gave His life for ours and we need to be so sure of who we are with Christ that others will see it and follow.
Listen to your children and share your faith.
Author: Tommy Herndon
