It is a privilege for the church to work with your children as Sunday School teachers and youth leaders to communicate the gospel to them in terms that they can understand. As great an honor as that is, we recognize that we are not the primary influence in your child’s life. You are. We are the assistants, but you are the primary teachers. Deuteronomy 6 lays out a vision of how the faith was to be passed down from generation to generation.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 These commands that I give today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

In other words, the faith wasn’t to be learned exclusively in a classroom, but in families as they lived life together. Your child spends an hour and a half a week at church, but they live life with you.  As a parent who has struggled with teaching the faith at home, I know full well that it is one thing to know what we should do, it is quite another to know what to do.

That’s where this blog comes in.  We want to provide you with ideas to try and  resources to empower your important mission to disciple your family.  Our hope is that this will become a two way conversation.  Leave comments.  Let us know what works and what doesn’t.  Have an idea?  Feel free to pass it along.  None of us are experts.  We are all journeying and struggling together to work out what it means to pass on the faith to the next generation.

Psalm 78:3-7 … what our fathers have told us.  We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done … so the next generation would know them … Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but keep his commands.

Pastor Nate Hall

Pacific Union Congregational Church

Westport, MA