Note: this and other blogs can be found on our sister site the David Caleb Cook Foundation.
Parents play an incredibly important role in their children’s lives. In fact, scripture teaches us that parents are called to be the primary spiritual teachers of their children. One of the best ways parents can do this is by modeling their faith and teaching the next generation what it looks like to follow God.
Ministry leaders around the globe have been asking for ways they can better equip the parents in their churches and communities to share their faith with their children. They want to raise children who love and follow God, but they feel ill-equipped to accomplish this goal. And as young adults around the world begin to move away from the church, helping parents learn to create a legacy of faith with their children is more important than ever.
In response to this need, the David Caleb Cook Foundation staff developed a brand-new training resource—Spiritual Parenting: A School for Parents and Guardians. The purpose of this training is to equip parents to be intentional about the ways they share their faith with their children. In the same ways they make sure their children are fed, clothed, and get enough sleep at night, they can make discipling their children an intentional part of their everyday lives.
Through topics such as storytelling, identity in Christ, faith community, and service, parents learn how to actively share their faith with their children. And through topics such as love and respect, responsibility, and knowing and being known by God, parents model for their children what it means to be faithful followers of Jesus. As parents develop environments in their home that provide opportunities to share their faith with and model their faith for their children, they will begin to see the fruits of God’s work in their children’s lives.
While course correction is one of the topics discussed in this training, it is important to note that spiritual parenting is not about changing children’s hearts or even their behavior. Only God can change a child’s heart. But when parents point their children toward God and help them understand what it means to be closer to Him, their behavior will change as a natural outflowing of their desire to obey God.
DCCF’s Latin America has begun testing this training as a webinar for ministry leaders, who will receive the training, tools, and vision they need to host Spiritual Parenting schools in their own churches—and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. “This is exactly what we need to prepare the parents in our church to raise up a new generation of disciples!” shared one of the participants.
Please join us in praying that this new training resource will bless, guide, and encourage the parents of Latin America and around the globe and that God will use Spiritual Parenting: A School for Parents and Guardians to raise up a new generation of children whose lives are transformed by His love.
