What’s in the course?

Session 1: Positioned for Influence

Key idea

You are perfectly placed to do this!

Summary

As parents, we are perfectly positioned and perfectly equipped to daily and easily show our child the reality of a day-to-day life with God. God has shared with us in the Bible a simple plan for us to encourage our children into a vibrant, two-way relationship with God.

Session outline

Introduction

  • God-smart or God-connected?
  • Skipping rope spiritual parenting
  • God’s plan for God-connected kids
  • How the course will help

Main session

  • Comfortable in the crowd?
  • Showing the tip of the iceberg
  • Creating windows into our relationship with God
  • Inviting our children to connect with God alongside us instead of with us

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Session 2: Making Sense of Life

Key idea

Giving your child a spiritual framework

Summary

As parents and carers, one of the most powerful things we do is to help our children and teens make sense of the world so they can engage well with it. We give them a framework for navigating life. They need a spiritual framework, too, so they can learn to understand the world with God’s truth all over it.

Session outline

Introduction

  • We naturally create frameworks for our child’s life
  • Seeing the world as God sees it – a spiritual framework for life

Main session

  • How to verbally frame, part 1 – explain everything!
  • How to verbally frame, part 2 – help them to see the relationship between God and his people in the Bible

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Session 3: Unwinding Wrong Views

Key idea

Helping our children build a healthy understanding of God

Summary

We can be so keen to help our children connect with God that we forget that they have to want to connect with him. No matter how equipped they are to connect, many choose not to because they find him unlikeable or unappealing. There are five common views of God that children can create in their heads which cause a disconnect. In this session, we’ll think about how we can accidentally contribute to these views and how we can proactively unwind them.

Session outline

Main session

  • The God disconnect
  • Five common views of God and how to unwind them
  • Journeying to a healthy view of God

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Session 4: Conversational Prayer – Chat

Key idea

Helping our children develop a heart-to-heart connection with God

Summary

We can all struggle with prayer – and so can our children. Over the next two sessions, we will be looking at releasing our children into a two-way conversation of sharing life with God and him sharing back. ‘Chat’ is the first stage of that conversation and this session will equip you to introduce your child to chat.

Session outline

Introduction

  • ‘Doing prayer’ vs enjoying the relationship
  • What chat is

Main session

  • Avoiding the ‘high priest’ role
  • Learning to do ‘chat’
  • The overflow of chat

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Session 5: Conversational Prayer – Catch

Key idea

Being ready to hear from God with our whole body and mind

Summary

Helping our children to hear God’s voice is one of the most precious gifts we can give them. Jesus’ death and resurrection not only bought us the ability to talk to God personally but also bought us the ability to hear his voice clearly and confidently. ‘Catch’ is just a way of showing children how to be prepared and expectant with their whole bodies to receive God’s communication.

Session outline

Introduction

  • God loves speaking to his people and has created us to be able to hear him

Main session

  • Samuel and Eli
  • Developing a language – ‘catch’
  • How does God speak to us?
  • Discerning God’s voice

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Session 6: Surfing the Waves

Key idea

Building on our children’s connection with God

Summary

So far we’ve discussed some important principles about how to parent for faith, but as with any part of parenting, it’s a job for life! So how do we continue to disciple our child on this journey? In this session, we will learn about a simple six-stage model that will enable you to proactively disciple your child whether they are 4, 14 or 40, and how, as our children’s spiritual lives come in waves, we can jump on board to disciple our children in any season of life.

Session outline

Main session

  • Passing on our values – a fan for life!
  • The six-stage model – chat and catch

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Session 7: Prayer Ministry for Children

Key idea

Helping our children connect when it’s tough

Summary

Sometimes our children need a bit of help connecting with God. This could be because they are having a hard day or because they are struggling to connect. Sometimes they just need someone alongside them. On those days, we as parents can help our children meet with God face-to-face. In this session, we will be looking at a simple model of prayer ministry designed for use with children and teens to ensure we keep our high-priest hats off and our coach heads on, and we will be giving it a go ourselves.

Session outline

Main session

  • Not praying for them, but helping them to pray
  • A child- and teen-friendly model
  • Six steps
  • What if I’ve caught from God?
  • What if my child’s stuck?
  • It’s designed to be an everyday part of life

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Session 8: Helping Children Connect with Church

Key idea

Thriving, not just surviving!

Summary

For most Christians, getting our children to church and hoping they love it occupies a large part of our brains! But our kids don’t always enjoy church and often don’t want to be there, and we can feel powerless to help them engage. In this session, we will look at how we can help our children grow in the biblical values of what church is and their place in it, so they feel connected, powerful and loved in their communities.

Session outline

Introduction

  • A bleak picture?

Main session

  • Your secret weapon: no matter what the church is doing, I can…
  • Applying the six-stage circle – worship
  • Applying the six-stage circle – radical love
  • Doesn’t the church need to change?

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Acknowledgements

Question mark image © Veronique Debord-Lazaro licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 / cropped and blurred