Latest / Growing Disciples: Faith at Home with Chatham Families / Nurturing Faith at Home: Simple Ways to Engage Your Kids
Transcript
- Elizabeth: What if some of the most meaningful moments of discipleship in your child's life happen not at church, but around your kitchen table, in the car on the way to school, at bedtime, or even in the middle of a hard day? Welcome to Growing Disciples, Faith at Home with Chatham Families, a podcast for parents and caregivers who want to follow Jesus faithfully and nurture faith at home with confidence and joy. I'm Elizabeth Lindbergh, the Director of Family Ministries at Chatham Community Church, and I'm so glad you've joined us. Around here, we believe faith formation is not about getting every moment right or adding one more overwhelming thing to your family schedule. It's about learning to recognize the ordinary, even the messy, moments of family life as invitations to point the people we love towards Jesus. And in today's episode, we're talking about one of the simplest and most powerful ways families can help faith take root, opening God's word together. Research continues to show that when children experience scripture at home with their parents or caregivers, it can shape a faith that becomes personal and lasts into adulthood. And to help us think practically about this, I'm joined by someone who loves Jesus. loves children and serves our Chatham Kids families so faithfully each week. Our Chatham Kids director, Cynthia Decaney. Cynthia, thanks so much for being back with us. Thank you for having me back. So Cynthia, before we jump into that conversation about helping children engage with God's word at home, I'd love to hear a little bit of an update on what's been happening in Chatham Kids. The last time you joined us, you shared about the new curriculum you launched this fall. And the way it's helping our children encounter the big story of scripture each week. And now that you've had some time with it, what have you been seeing? How are those teachers and the kids responding to the curriculum so far? I would love to tell you what I've been seeing, specifically what I saw this past Sunday. So as we do in while service is going on, we're walking up and down the hall, checking on the kids and really checking on the classes and just to see is everything okay. But when I peeked into multiple classrooms, What I saw was kids gathered around a table, Bibles open in front of them, the leader, teacher, Bible in front of her, leaning forward, engaged with these kids and with the scripture. And this was multiple age groups, the same thing happening. Sometimes when it it's the little kids, it's the it's sitting in the circle on the floor with the Bible open in front of them. Love seeing that engagement is the word that keeps coming up. One of the volunteers said she specifically likes the way The curriculum guides them through interacting with the scripture with the kids. And so it says, read this section, ask these questions, engage in this conversation, read a little bit more, ask another question, pause for them to ask questions, turn to another book in the Bible and see, you know, what maybe Paul's writings, how that relates to this story that we read here in the Old Testament. It's super fun to see that. It's what we wanted to have happen. And it's it's happening for our volunteers and our kids. We still have the fun video element from what I hear and from what I've seen when I'm in the classroom. The videos, there's less fluff, there's less noise, a lot more depth to the videos. So with the kids that we have, in the crib. culture that we have today and that video and that stuff is fun for them. That's but if we're gonna do that, I want it to be to be quality. And I feel like these are quality videos. Yeah, I have found in the fourth and fifth grade classroom that that video will reinforce what we've already talked about in our discussion and looking through the scripture. So I'll re look through the scripture first, have a conversation, and then we'll watch the video and it totally reinforces it. So I think it's a great tool as well. but just a little funny story. We're having great engagement, great conversation opening up the word. They're turning our Bibles, they're like grown-up Bibles. You know, they're they're small print. It's really tiny print. Yeah. But not too bad. We're finding the books of the Bible and finding those passages together. We're going around the table and we're reading one verse at a time. If a child doesn't feel confident reading, they can pass. But it's just great to h hear everybody participating. And recently we were talking about Solomon and one of the kids blurted out He had 300 wives and 700 concubines. And someone else yelled, What's a concubine? And then the someone else said, How does he remember all their names? So they're engaged with scripture here. Absolutely. But that's the thing. There's space for them to ask these these reasonable questions, quite frankly. It it just makes it fun and everyone's participating and answering and all all the things. So I just find it an absolute delight. To be in the classroom, engaging scripture with the kids. Well, good. We we've really enjoyed the structure of it as well. So each week there's a what, you know, what are we learning? So what? Why does that matter? And then now what? So I've been in the word, I've heard the story now. What does this mean for me when I take it and go home? And I love that we have that structure to fall back on every Sunday. I love that parents can take that same structure. And ask about it at home. What did you learn today? So what does that mean? And well, now what are you gonna do with that? Right. I mean, that can start some conversations at home. And then over the course of a month, the structure then also goes out to these four spiritual habits. So over the course of the month, they should come away with a a new way that they can spend time with God, spend time with others, way that they can use their gifts, share their stories, and all those those four habits are gonna come through throughout the month. So I love that that's the basis. We've got that that structure, love structure, love a routine. and that ultimately they're engaged with the Bible in a way that means something to them, gives them a chance to ask questions and engage in conversation, even if it means we're trying to contemplate how you remember the names of 700 concubines. And then that they can take that home and and have those conversations continue at home. Right. Right. And speaking of at home, we've mentioned the parent devotional on this podcast a couple of times, but it's worth mentioning again. So each month there's a parent devotional. that is released and we'll always put a link in the show notes about those, but they also get distributed through the family ministry's newsletter. And I think Cynthia might send them out too in her email to families each month for Chatham Kids. So hopefully you're getting your hands on them. If not, just don't hesitate to tap one of us on the shoulder at church and we'll make sure you get one. We will get them to you. Mm-hmm. But it's just a nice way for like for instance in November we're gonna be in the book of Esther. And so, you know, maybe it's something you wanna sit down and read through yourself or read through together as a family, just to sort of refresh your memory on the story and then being able to just have conversations about what they talked about in Chatham Kids that week. That would be fair. Yeah. Yeah. okay, so hearing about the curriculum may encourage some parents and some others might be thinking, hmm I want to help my kids grow in God's word at home, but I'm not sure how. And that's not an uncommon question. And the good news is that nurturing faith at home, it's not about having a perfect plan, for sure, or being a Bible expert or getting every moment right. It's just about creating those small opportunities for our children to see us return to Jesus and his word again and again. So Cynthia for Parents who want to help their kids grow in God's word, but might feel busy or unsure, or maybe even a little intimidated. What are some simple ways they can begin? I know you you're a mom of five kids. What are some ways you share scripture in the everyday rhythms of your own home? Well, sure. So, of course, when the kids were little, they had Chatham kids on Sundays, some of them went to Iwanas, and we, you know, we put the Bible verse everywhere. We put the Bible verse on the fridge, we we practiced it there, we practiced in the car. we did a lot with Bible stories, a lot of veggie tail watching. We talked you and I talked about a little before about C Ds in the car, scripture music that we would have in the car. And as they grew, we found different ways to keep those opportunities open. Some of our kids were youth group kids and loved being here on Sundays. A couple of our kids were not youth group kids, but they did enjoy a smaller Bible study, whether it was with a group from our church or a group that they met. through school or through a friend and we kept those opportunities open and in front of them. And then as they grew too, it was about modeling for them how we make decisions and how we answer their questions. And and things like, well, in that sort of situation, this is a scripture that's helpful for me, or this is a prayer that I pray over that kind of situation. I think something that's very special about our congregation and about our church family is that there are other church leaders that we can point them to and other families in the church. that are trusted adults who model that same behavior and that same response for them. And that has been such a huge help for us in in raising our kids and especially as as they become young adults and having those other adults in their church family in their life. For sure. When when our kids were a little speaking of you know driving in the car and listening, we used to listen to Adventures in Odyssey. The church we used to go to was forty five minutes from our house. This is a long time ago. And yes, focus on the family. This is something that they produce. And for those that don't know it, it's it's like radio theater. So it's engaging for the whole family. And frankly, I know some teens that listen to it into their, you know, into high school still listen to Adventures in Odyssey because it was so captivating. And it illustrated a biblical story in just in a fun, creative way. They have an app and I mean we still have lots of CDs, but nowhere to play them. But Right. We'll have to look and see if the yeah. Adventure Jonathan Park adventures are still around. My kids listen to those. We talked a little bit about similar idea. It's an adventure story that this family's on, but biblical principles brought in and super fun to listen to in the when you live in rural Chatham County and have to get places. Right. Right. So yeah, sometimes the carb time can just be a great place to to pass along the stories of scripture. Another one I wanted to point out for folks who want to have an age appropriate Way to pass along the story of scripture to your children in a playful way is the biggest story. And I'll put a link in the show notes for it. But they have over a hundred four-minute videos that tell the story of Scripture chapter by chapter, goes to the whole Bible, and it helps kids just learn the story of Scripture. So, you know, we talked about maybe some folks might not feel comfortable sitting and reading the Bible, or maybe their kids, they don't feel like the kids would be engaged long enough. It's just it might be a a cool way to to begin to say, Hey, let's sit down together and watch this video and then you can have a conversation. Yeah. So would it be weird if I wanted to try to borrow somebody's kids so I can sit down and watch these videos with them? I I'm I'm kind of excited now about that. This is a thing. Yes. Yeah. Just just a couple ideas of ways to begin a practice of incorporating scripture into those everyday moments. And Cynthia mentioned worship music. And I'm on a journey right now to do some scripture memory. And it's easier for me if I learn it to music. And so I have found I'll look up the passage that I'm supposed to be memorizing and I'll see if I can find a worship song or the actual verses put to music. And I found several. There's seeds of worship. There's jump start four, I think. Yes, yeah. I'll put some links there too. So maybe it's just driving to school and listening to a verse to music and then that just gets repeated as you go through the day. And next thing you know, the your child is hiding God's word in their heart and God's word does not return void. So it's a good investment. Amen. For sure. So what's coming up, Cynthia? What's happening for Chatham kids in the coming weeks? Well, we've got we've got the community festival coming up. Right. So it's Adam Kids pumpkin painting is our table. So come see us, bring a friend. It's a low stress invite, right? If you have neighbors or friends who maybe haven't been to a church event, the ball community festival is a great one to start with. And we put the pumpkin painting right outside that the front porch. And we have, I don't know, a hundred and Forty little mini pumpkins coming and some amazing volunteers who love kids and love Jesus and would love to chat with their neighbors while their kids paint pumpkins. So do I'm sure there's other things happening at the community festival. But come by the pumpkin painting table. There's no candy or anything like that, is there? Right. Yeah. So for for those of you who haven't come to the epic Chatham community festival at at our North Chatham campus, there's trunker treating, pumpkin painting, there's popcorn. think there's even cotton candy and the nonprofits that we partner with are here with games. There's live music. There's a costume parade. There's a costume parade. I mean, how can you be beat walking around dressed in their costumes to live music? Adorbs. It the best. Yes. Yes. And where I live nobody comes to us. So I have to go to the kids to see the fun. So please do join us. well thank you, Cynthia, for being part of this podcast once again. Love it. Thank you for having me. Yes, and we look forward to having you back. And maybe we can talk about what's happening around Christmas time. I would love to bring a Christmas update. We'll do it. We'll do it. All right. Well, thanks for joining us today on Growing Disciples, Faith at Home with Chatham families. And I hope you walk away with maybe one thing that you can try this week. Something simple, something that brings a little more peace into your home, perhaps. And remember, you don't have to do it perfectly. Just keep taking the next step. Step. And until next time, may the Lord bless you while you nurture faith at home.