Parenting for Faith – Courses, resources and more

Parenting for Faith Resources – parenting courses, tools, books, and Podcast.

You may have heard of Messy Church, which is a ministry of Christian charity BRF Ministries (Bible Reading Fellowship), they are also home to Parenting for Faith – which is what we are recommending in todays article. We had Anna Hawken on the Youthwork+ Podcast last year to share some of what is available from Parenting for Faith. We want to shout about their courses, podcast and key tools which will help equip you to engage better with kids and youth in your groups and also help you as a parent engage in faith with your own kids at home.

Since 2022, the Parenting for Faith team has been headed up by ministry lead Anna Hawken. Anna joined the Parenting for Faith team in 2018, prior to which she spent eight years in children’s and family ministry. Anna is the author of ‘Being God’s Child: A Parent’s Guide‘.
Anna and her team (Becky, Kate and Iona) support churches, equip parents, create new resources and put on events – both online and in person.
In addition, the Parenting for Faith speaking team is available to help deliver training within your church. They are all children’s and family leaders, with many years’ experience of Parenting for Faith.

These resources are really useful for parents and for equipping leaders who also play a key role in the lives of many youth and kids.  You could signpost these resources to parents in your church or context, or also host your own parenting course for your kids or youth parents in your church using their handbook and DVD.

Supporting, equipping and engaging parents is really vital for the lives of the children and young people we have in our groups. Equipping parents means giving them confidence and inspiring them to find ways to engage in faith at home to cultivate opportunities for every member of the family to grow in faith together as part of their everyday lives. Parenting is hard, we never really know if we are doing it right, and it can be even harder to find time to talk about faith as a family or engage with God together at home. Parenting for faith is an awesome tool and they have lots of courses, resources and tips to enable parents.

Parenting for Faith helps parents spiritually nurture children and teens to have a lasting, vibrant two-way relationship with God. Through groundbreaking courses, events and training, resources and a thriving social media community, they… help thousands of parents and carers to grow in confidence and skill, enable church workers to create communities that support them and support church leaders who are parents themselves.
We are recommending Parenting for faith as a great tool for leaders of kids and youth work or family ministry – as well as for those of us that are parents ourselves.

BRF’s Parenting for Faith team are working to inspire and equip parents to raise God-connected children and teens, as well as providing churches with the support they need.

As part of the ministry they run courses for parents called ‘Parenting for Faith courses’.  Heres what they say about them…“Our three courses (Parenting for Faith, Babies and Toddlers and Parenting as a Church Leader) are video-based resources for communities that can be downloaded or live-streamed. Use them on your own or in a group.”
The Parenting for Faith course is a video-based resource for parents, godparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, foster parents, children’s and youth leaders, church leaders and family friends – in fact, anyone who wants to support a child or teen (of any age) in their spiritual development.

Through eight practical sessions, you’ll explore how to create windows into your own faith, help children make sense of life through a spiritual lens, and coach them into a growing, two-way connection with God.

You don’t need to be an expert — just someone who wants to help the next generation live God-connected lives. Each session includes video teaching from Rachel Turner, reflection pauses, and group discussion questions, along with downloadable reflection sheets to help you put the ideas into practice.

The Parenting for Faith resources are now accessible offline in the form of a DVD, Leader’s  Handbook and Participant’s Handbook.  You can also access them online for free.

https://brfonline.org.uk/programs/parenting-for-faith

The Babies and Toddlers Bitesize Course

A short, engaging introduction to nurturing the spiritual life of babies and toddlers. Through brief, accessible video sessions rooted in Babies and Toddlers: Nurturing your child’s spiritual life, this course opens up simple, meaningful ways to encourage connection, prayer and faith with little ones. Great for families new to faith or those exploring how to make faith part of early years.

The Parenting Teens for a Life of Faith Course

Parenting teenagers throws up unique joys and challenges. This course helps you think deeply and practically about how to support teens in their relationship with God. Based on Parenting Teens for a Life of Faith, the content includes discussions, reflection prompts and insights to help you encourage faith conversations that matter.

The Parenting as a Church Leader Course

This isn’t just for vicars and pastors but for anyone serving in a role leading any church ministry for you and your team!  If you’re parenting while also serving in church leadership – in a formal role or in support – this course reflects on the specific joys and tensions that come with that context. Rooted in Parenting as a Church Leader by Rachel Turner, it offers space to reflect, learn and apply faith-filled parenting principles in your unique setting.

The Grandparenting for Faith Course

In these 6 one-hour sessions, grandparents & grandparent-figures will consider some of the foundational concepts and practical ideas applicable to their own context. This will boost confidence in faith sharing and empower you to develop new skills.

Online videos and downloadable resources for all of the above courses are also available at parentingforfaith.org. They range from £3.99 for the handbooks to £20 for the DVD, to £43.31 for a starter pack with everything included.
You can also book courses online which are delivered via Zoom from £15 to £30.

As well as this they have ‘Parenting for Faith resources, In addition to the three video courses, founder Rachel Turner has written a number of books to support Parenting for Faith, ministry lead Anna Hawken hosts a popular weekly podcast, and the team organises regular events, both online and in person.’ They have loads of useful books on their online shop – ranging from £4.99 to £45 for a bundle. There are all sorts of topics including ‘parenting teens for a life of faith’, ‘It takes a church to raise a parent’, ‘parenting as a church leader’, ‘Babies and toddlers – nurturing your child’s spiritual life’, ‘being God’s child, 10 things you can learn from your kids’.

Key Tools for bringing Faith to the forefront at home or in kids/youth groups

The Parenting for Faith website also features key tools for parents to use to bring faith into the forefront at home:  These easy-to-use tools are really practical and can easily become a normal part of everyday life with kids & youth.  Not just helpful for families but also would really help any kids or youth leader be equipped to bring faith into the lives of kids and youth in really engaging accessible ways through your group or activity.

Every family and situation is different. These five Key Tools from Parenting for Faith will equip you with what you need to help your family or any kids/youth in your life meet and know God. You will find them at the heart of each of their books, courses, podcast and other resources.  Read all 5 below.

Creating Windows – Showing kids an imperfect, real relationship with God.  This tool builds on the way God has designed our brains to learn best – by watching and trying things for

ourselves. Creating windows is a way to allow kids to glimpse what your relationship with God looks like, so they can learn how to have a real two-way connection with him themselves.

God has wired our brains, young and old, to learn by watching and trying things. Developing a relationship with God is no different. When parents give their children glimpses of their relationship with God in the everyday bits of life, it’s like creating a window for them to see a real two-way connection with Him.

Whether you‘ve been a Christian for years, or are just exploring for yourself, your ongoing journey is the most powerful tool you have to help your child grow their own relationship with God.

You can also learn more about Creating Windows in Session 1 of the Parenting for Faith course.

Framing – Seeing God in the big and small of life.  Framing is all about explaining – what God is doing, why things happen, who he is. Framing shows kids how God works in all of life,

helps them explore the Bible and relate it to everyday life and work through any question they might have.

Sometimes children know a lot about God, but don’t necessarily see what he has to do with everyday life. One of our jobs is to give them a spiritual framework for life – to help them learn to see the world with God’s eyes. Framing helps your child see how God works in all of life, tackling tough questions and preparing them for things to come.

Framing applies in the little things and the really big things, like disaster and death, providing simple steps to see God working in the world.

You can also learn more about Framing in Session 2 of the Parenting for Faith course.

Unwinding – Joining the dots to find a big picture of God.  This is an important tool for helping kids to grow a balanced and healthy view of God. It can be easy to slip into a lopsided view, and this tool helps to gently unwind misconceptions, building in a broad and balanced understanding of who God is.

Children’s experiences can sometimes lead them to a false perception of God, making him seem unlikeable or unappealing. When they are bullied, for example, they can’t reconcile that experience with the idea that God loves them – if he does, why did he allow that to happen? Or if they have seen drawings of God in a cloud, looking down on the world, they may see him as a distant figure, only interested in the big things, not the tiny things that make up much of their world.

Unwinding is the process of spotting and gently correcting any misconceptions your child may have about God. There are two stages to this: understanding what might have contributed to their wrong view, and then helping them unwind it.

You can also learn more about Unwinding in Session 3 of the Parenting for Faith course.

Chat and Catch – Helping kids hear God’s voice and speak to him in their own way. This tool encourages children in prayer and hearing God’s voice – chatting to him about everything that is on their hearts and catching his response, however he chooses to speak. Chat and catch helps children and teens to connect directly with God at any time, in all circumstances, wherever they are.

For children to grow in their own faith they need to find their own pattern of being with God, and prayer is at the heart of that.

‘Chatting’ encourages children to use informal language, as well as non-verbal forms, to communicate with God.

‘Catching’ is simply training them to recognise and respond to God’s voice – however he chooses to speak – meaning that they can easily, naturally and directly connect with God in a two-way, ongoing conversation about anything, whenever and wherever they are.

Because we all have our own individual relationship with God, chat and catch will look different for each of us.

You can also learn more about Chat and Catch in Session 4 and Session 5 of the Parenting for Faith course.

Surfing the Waves – Joining kids as their interests and emotions flow in new directions. This tool helps us spot what God is doing in a child or young person’s life. All kids are different,

and God’s purposes for them are different. Learn to identify their ‘waves’ and support them as interests and passions come and go.

 

There’s a lot to discover about the excitement of a relationship with God! As we continue to disciple our children, we will find that their interest in spiritual things comes and goes in waves. One minute they love reading their Bible; the next it’s discarded in favour of YouTube worship videos; then you discover they are full of outrage about modern slavery.

Childhood and adolescence are periods of discovery, when children try different things before discovering what suits them best. We need to learn to ‘surf the waves’ of their interests, supporting and enabling them along the way.

You can also learn more about Surfing the Waves in Session 6 of the course.

 

Parenting for Faith podcast
Listen to the weekly podcast with Anna Hawken, designed for parents, carers and all who work with children and families.  This features loads of useful topics and help and advice for parents and those who work with children or young people

for everything we’ve mentioned and more:

https://www.parentingforfaith.brf.org.uk/