Passing On Faith

Our culture tells us we've done our job, and it is time to kick back and take it easy. But when we look to the Bible, we see that God has given us a job, and there is still more work to be done. What is the assignment God has given to grandparents? We are to pass a heritage of faith on to the next generations.Give a Blessing details one of the spiritual practices grandparents can employ as we work to carry out our role. This book helps the reader gain a better understanding of three forms of blessing -- encouragement, affirmation, and bestowing a blessing. Tips, ideas, and other helpful resources for implementing these powerful "blessing" tools are also included in the book.

From the beginning, the Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have stressed the importance of transmitting religious identity from one generation to the next. Today, that sustaining mission has never been more challenged. Will young people have a faith to guide them? How can faith traditions anchor religious attachments in this secular, skeptical culture? The fruit of a historic gathering of scholars and religious leaders across three faiths and many disciplines, this important book reports on the religious lives of young people in today’s world. It’s also a unique inventory of creative and thoughtful responses from churches, synagogues, and mosques working to keep religion a significant force in those lives. The essays are grouped thematically. Opening the book, Melchor Sanchez de Toca and Nancy Ammerman explore fundamental issues that have an impact on religion—from the cultural effects of global consumerism and personal technology to pluralism and individualism. In Part Two, leading investigators present three leading studies of religiosity among young people and college students in the United States, illuminating the gap between personal values and organized religion—and the emergence of new, different forms of spirituality and faith. How religious institutions deal with these challenges forms the heart of the book—in portraits of “best practices” developed to revitalize traditional institutions, from a synagogue in New York City and a Muslim youth camp in California to the famed French Catholic community of the late Brother John of Taizé. Finally, Jack Miles and Diane Winston weave the findings into a broader perspective of the future of religious belief, practice, and feeling in a changing world. Filled with real-world wisdom, Passing the Faith will be an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand what religions must, and can, do to inspire a vigorous faith in the next generation.

From the Introduction This book is about passing on the faith from generation to generation, throughout the milestones of a person's life. Faith is created and nurtured by the Holy Spirit through the Gospels. The vision underlying the RADICAL model was developed in light of the theological principle that faith is formed by the Holy Spirit through personal, trusted relationships, often, but not always, in our own homes. A youth and family ministry for the 21st century connects all the generations in the total ministry of the congregation and, through the cross of Christ, recognizes the work of the Holy Spirit shaping faith in all the circles of relationships. This revised edition expands on the authors' original model in an all-new chapter on the circle of creation. This edition has also been updated throughout in light of new ideas and research that have emerged during the past decade.

A new examination of how and why American religious parents seek to pass on religion to their children The most important influence shaping the religious and spiritual lives of children, youth, and teenagers is their parents. A myriad of studies show that the parents of American youth play the leading role in shaping the character of their religious and spiritual lives, even well after they leave home and often for the rest of their lives. We know a lot about the importance of parents in faith transmission. However we know much less about the actual beliefs, feelings, and activities of the parents themselves, what Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk call the "intergenerational transmission of religious faith and practice." To address that gap, this book reports the findings of a new national study of religious parents in the United States. The findings and conclusions in Handing Down the Faith are based on 215 in-depth, personal interviews with religious parents from many traditions and different parts of the country, and sophisticated analyses of two nationally representative surveys of American parents about their religious parenting. Handing Down the Faith explores the background beliefs informing how and why religious parents seek to pass on religion to their children; examines how parenting styles interact with parent religiousness to shape effective religious transmission; shows how parents have been influenced by their experiences as children influenced by their own parents; reveals how religious parents view their congregations and what they most seek out in a local church, synagogue, temple, or mosque; explores the experiences and outlooks of immigrant parents including Latino Catholics, East Asian Buddhists, South Asian Muslims, and Indian Hindus. Smith and Adamczyk step back to consider how American religion has transformed over the last 100 years and to explain why parents today shoulder such a huge responsibility in transmitting religious faith and practice to their children. The book is rich in empirical evidence and unique in many of the topics it explores and explains, providing a variety of sometimes counterintuitive findings that will interest scholars of religion, social scientists interested in the family, parenting, and socialization; clergy and religious educators and leaders; and religious parents themselves.

Winner of the Distinguished Book Award from American Sociology Association Sociology of Religion Section Winner of the Richard Kalish Best Publication Award from the Gerontological Society of America Few things are more likely to cause heartache to devout parents than seeing their child leave the faith. And it seems, from media portrayals, that this is happening more and more frequently. But is religious change between generations common? How does religion get passed down from one generation to the next? How do some families succeed in passing on their faith while others do not? Families and Faith: How Religion is Passed Down across Generations seeks to answer these questions and many more. For almost four decades, Vern Bengtson and his colleagues have been conducting the largest-ever study of religion and family across generations. Through war and social upheaval, depression and technological revolution, they have followed more than 350 families composed of more than 3,500 individuals whose lives span more than a century--the oldest was born in 1881, the youngest in 1988--to find out how religion is, or is not, passed down from one generation to the next. What they found may come as a surprise: despite enormous changes in American society, a child is actually more likely to remain within the fold than leave it, and even the nonreligious are more likely to follow their parents' example than to rebel. And while outside forces do play a role, the crucial factor in whether a child keeps the faith is the presence of a strong fatherly bond. Mixing unprecedented data with gripping interviews and sharp analysis, Families and Faith offers a fascinating exploration of what allows a family to pass on its most deeply-held tradition--its faith.

Exemption from a faith test is not an option, and at some point in our lives, we will have to take one. What if the test is trials experienced from bad relationships, adversities caused by health issues, or hardships as a result of financial challenges. Do you trust God enough to turn them completely over to Him first? When his three-year-old son Kendall was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, Eddie Johnson faced his biggest faith test. Friends asked him, "How can you have that much faith in such a challenging situation?" Not knowing how to answer this question, Eddie went in search of the foundation of his faith. In Passing the Test of Faith, Eddie shares compelling personal stories and three fundamental steps for overcoming the storms of life. These steps along with the activation of faith will help readers move their mountains positioning them to pass their faith test so that God can get the glory and they can receive the rewards He has promised through faith. As readers journey through this book of life experiences, they will be inspired and motivated to build a closer relationship with God, strengthen their trust and love for Him knowing that God can help them through their greatest challenges.

The purpose and nature of life -- Religion's value and truth -- Children, parenting, and family -- The whys and hows of religious transmission -- Theorizing cultural models -- Conclusion.