How can we help teens find faith in the midst of it all 

Mary Douglas introduces the Parenting for Faith Course with a teen focus

Parents and carers of teenagers may be tempted to think that they have no spiritual influence in their teens' lives, and church leaders may wonder how best to support them. You may know Parenting for Faith as a powerful approach to help children develop a connection with God. But does it work for teenagers?
 
The answer is a resounding Yes! 
 
God’s plan for discipleship in everyday life does not change when children become teenagers. Parents still spend more hours with their teens than anyone or anything else – even social media! We’re here to help you encourage parents to keep going, to invest in the spiritual life of their teens, and to experience the deep joy that God desires for all parents as they walk alongside their teens in the journey of faith.
 
 
The Parenting for Faith Course - Teens Focus 

This autumn Rachel Turner is running an 8-week online Parenting for Faith course specifically for the parents, grandparents and carers of teens, or people who work with or have teens in their life. You can sign up as an individual or as a church group.
 

What's covered

Positioning for Influence. We as parents of teens are still called to help our children in their journey with God. How do we position ourselves well in the lives of our teens to continue to influence and encourage them spiritually?
                                                                                   
Making Sense of Life. As teens try to figure out who they are and to make sense of the increasingly complex world around them, how can we help them find where God is in the midst of it all?
 
Unwinding Wrong Views. We all get skewed ideas about God - that he is distant, or angry or just incomprehensible.  How can we help when our teens are struggling to understand who God is?
 
Chat and Catch. As our teens grow into the fullness of who God has made them to be, we want them to discover their unique patterns of connecting with God in prayer and to 'catch' God's voice confidently.
 
Surfing the Waves. The teenage years are a voyage of discovery! How can we proactively disciple the gifts, passions and skills God is growing in them as they explore their unique purpose in God's kingdom?
 
Prayer Ministry with Teens. Teen life can be hard, and sometimes, however closely they are walking with God, they may need a bit of help connecting with God. As parents and carers, we can help them meet with God face-to-face. We will be looking at a simple model of prayer ministry designed for use with teens to ensure that we keep our ‘high-priest’ hats off and our ‘coach’ heads on.
 
Helping Teens Connect with Church. We explore five biblical values of church and how we can help our teens understand and grow in them so they feel connected, powerful and loved in their communities.
 
 
 
How to sign up
 
The 8-week course will run on Wednesday nights during the autumn term, from 29 September to 24 November (excluding 27th October), 7.30 - 9pm.  Rachel will be delivering the content live, so the examples will be tailored to teens and she can dynamically respond to questions from course participants. It also means that you’ll need to do very little prep!
 
While people can sign up as individuals, we’re really hoping that churches will gather their parents and carers together, in person or online, and do the course together. We want to make that as easy as possible for you, so you can sign up as a ‘church host’ for the price of £50, allowing you to invite an unlimited number of families to join you on the course. 
 
We’ll also invite Church hosts to an optional training event in September to chat about how to come alongside the families and carers well as they participate in the course.
 
As well as providing a place for parents and carers to hear from each other and to explore what Parenting for Faith looks like with a teen, the course will act as a focus group to help us gather stories and facilitate conversations.  You will be contributing to our research and learning so we can develop more resources that will be helpful to parents of teenagers.
 
This is a fabulous opportunity for your teens’ families to really get to grips with Parenting for Faith and we’d love you and your church to be involved. 
 
Find out more: parentingforfaith.org
 
We can do this!
 
 

Mary Douglas is a Parenting for Faith Networker with The Bible Reading Fellowship