Faith and Practice
Get started on the right foot. Dedicating your child allows you to proclaim publicly your desire to raise him or her for the glory of God. Dedications serve as a vessel for parents to express gratitude to God and to acknowledge their responsibility before Him in raising their children.
Get started on the right foot. Dedicating your child allows you to proclaim publicly your desire to raise him or her for the glory of God. Dedications serve as a vessel for parents to express gratitude to God and to acknowledge their responsibility before Him in raising their children.
It’s time to begin to teach your child the broad strokes of the greatest story ever told. Storytime, prayer, and music are all powerful tools for you to employ for this task. A great place to start is with adding the Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones, to your reading time repertoire.
Bible Basics: A Baby Believer Counting Primer (book for infants and toddlers)
The Bible has some challenging passages and events, even for adults, but the wise parent helps their child understand these while they are still young. This collection of articles will help you tackle tough parts of scripture with your children.
Love, Sex, and Honor
Parents who are fearful of talking to their kids about sex leave a void of silence the world will be glad to fill. The problem is, many parents are too afraid to talk to their kids about sex because they don’t want to say “too much too soon.” Unfortunately, “too much too soon” often turns into “too little too late.” Here are some age appropriate resources to help you along the way to overcome confusion, secrecy, and embarrassment about our bodies with truth.
Wonderfully Made
Wise Living
God’s Wisdom for Little Boys and God’s Wisdom for Little Girls by Jim and Elizabeth George will cover many of the character traits you will want to begin building into your child while they are still young (ages 4-7).
Faith and Practice
Get started on the right foot. Dedicating your child allows you to proclaim publicly your desire to raise him or her for the glory of God. Dedications serve as a vessel for parents to express gratitude to God and to acknowledge their responsibility before Him in raising their children.
By age 7 children are increasingly curious about the world around them, are beginning to think more abstractly, and are developing the cognitive ability to grasp the deep things of God. This is the time to begin transitioning away from story bibles to an early reader translation of the Bible like the NIrV. Here are some other helpful tools as you guide them to see God.
The Bible Project videos
These engaging videos cover word studies, book overviews, and explanations of broad themes, in a way that will draw in you and your student alike.
The Bible has some challenging passages and events, even for adults, but the wise parent helps their child understand these while they are still young. This collection of articles will help you tackle tough parts of scripture with your children.
The Family, Children, and Missions ministries provide opportunities periodically for parents and their children from the 4th grade and up to experience international short-term missions. These are powerful trips for giving your child a vision for missions, the church of Jesus around the world, and parent-child bonding around the Gospel.
Love, Sex, and Honor
Parents who are fearful of talking to their kids about sex leave a void of silence the world will be glad to fill. The problem is, many parents are too afraid to talk to their kids about sex because they don’t want to say “too much too soon.” Unfortunately, “too much too soon” often turns into “too little too late.” Here are some age appropriate resources to help you along the way to overcome confusion, secrecy, and embarrassment about our bodies with truth.
It’s time to begin getting more intentional and direct with your child. Their friends will already be getting disinformation from the world, so you need to be sure to get there first with the truth.
The Talk: 7 Lessons to Introduce Your Child to Biblical Sexuality (book)
The Wonderful Way Babies Are Made (Bethany Backyard)
Wonderfully Made
Rites of Passage
Moving out of the Grade School and into the often confusing and turbulent Middle School years is a key moment for a “Rite of Passage” experience with your child. Be creative. This may include a father and son, or mom and daughter weekend away, or something that you spread out over several weeks and that culminates with an evening out. You may incorporate some type of physical challenge with some concentrated time to reinforce important spiritual and character traits that you want to speak into your child. If you need some assistance in developing your 5th Grade rite of passage, try Pass it On, by Jim Burns & Jeremy Lee. “Rites of Passage Experiences contained in Pass It On make it easy for your family to celebrate milestones from kindergarten through high school graduation.”
Has your child expressed a belief in their heart and declared with their mouth that Jesus is their Savior and Lord? Have they expressed their faith through believer’s baptism. Not sure if they’re ready? Contact one of the Pastors here!
Wise Living
God’s Wisdom for Little Boys and God’s Wisdom for Little Girls by Jim and Elizabeth George will cover many of the character traits you will want to begin building into your child while they are still young (ages 4-7).
Faith and Practice
The art and practice of verbally blessing our children has been largely lost in our culture. It is worthwhile to recapture it! How do you give your child your blessing? Here are some resources to get you started with this ancient, biblical practice:
Spiritual formation takes place in the context of everyday life, “as you walk along the way,” and through open, honest communication. As our children get older this becomes more difficult. No longer are they willing to simply sit and listen to our discourse (if they do, you can be pretty sure they are just waiting for you to be finished with the “lecture” so they can move on). They have their own thoughts, feelings, doubts, and questions. As parents, we need to make the shift from monologue to dialogue if we hope to see them grow spiritually. The following resources will help you keep the conversation going.
Discuss THIS!
Deeper Connections through Great Conversations: Open-ended questions are often just the thing to get families interacting – and Discuss THIS! has 52 of them! Anyone who wants to deepen relationships with the kids in their lives and encourage their faith, will love this card collection! Non-confrontational, Bible-based, and fun! Designed for ages 12 and up.
New City Catechism
The New City Catechism is a modern-day resource aimed at helping children and adults alike learn the core doctrines of the Christian faith via 52 questions and answers. This is a great dinnertime conversation starter for all ages.
Love, Sex, and Honor
Parents who are fearful of talking to their kids about sex leave a void of silence the world will be glad to fill. The problem is, many parents are too afraid to talk to their kids about sex because they don’t want to say “too much too soon.” Unfortunately, “too much too soon” often turns into “too little too late.” Here are some age appropriate resources to help you along the way.
Wonderfully Made
Middle school is a confusing time; a virtual “no man’s land” between childhood and the teen years. Helping your child discover more about how God has uniquely created and gifted them for service in His body the church, can provide your student with a sense of purpose that can help overcome many of the crisis they will face.
Rites of Passage
Both the Youth Ministry and the Missions Council of CenterPointe offer opportunities to get to the mission field with your student. This is a wonderful rite of passage experience.
Has your child expressed a belief in their heart and declared with their mouth that Jesus is their Savior and Lord? Have they expressed their faith through believer’s baptism. Not sure if they’re ready? Contact one of the Pastors here!
Wise Living
All of these traits are transmitted best by a multi-sensory approach; verbally, visually (example), and in practice.
- Maintaining healthy friendships (more asset friends than liability friends)
- Service
- Honesty
- Courtesy & Respect
- Developing a sense of the appropriate (situational awareness for clothing, speech, and conduct)
- Forgiveness & compassion
- Generosity & thankfulness
- Table-manners: eating out with class (how to speak to wait-staff, tipping, and more)
- Work ethic
- Honor (think chivalry, class, and integrity)
- Confidence in social situations
- Read “How to Win Friends & Influence People” – Dale Carnegie
- Meeting new people – shaking hands, eye contact, etc.
- Think before you speak. Proverbs 17:28
The Book of Virtues by William Bennett
Study Buddy Bible Study Guide: Proverbs – Growing in Wisdom by Amber Lia
Faith and Practice
The art and practice of verbally blessing our children has been largely lost in our culture. It is worthwhile to recapture it! How do you give your child your blessing? Here are some resources to get you started with this ancient, biblical practice:
Spiritual formation takes place in the context of everyday life, “as you walk along the way,” and through open, honest communication. As our children get older this becomes more difficult. No longer are they willing to simply sit and listen to our discourse (if they do, you can be pretty sure they are just waiting for you to be finished with the “lecture” so they can move on). They have their own thoughts, feelings, doubts, and questions. As parents, we need to make the shift from monologue to dialogue if we hope to see them grow spiritually. The following resources will help you keep the conversation going.
Discuss THIS!
Deeper Connections through Great Conversations: Open-ended questions are often just the thing to get families interacting – and Discuss THIS! has 52 of them! Anyone who wants to deepen relationships with the kids in their lives and encourage their faith, will love this card collection! Non-confrontational, Bible-based, and fun! Designed for ages 12 and up.
New City Catechism
The New City Catechism is a modern-day resource aimed at helping children and adults alike learn the core doctrines of the Christian faith via 52 questions and answers. This is a great dinnertime conversation starter for all ages.
As a parent you are the first and most important mentor your child will ever have. However, as they move in to their teen years, it is the wise parent who helps connect their children with other trustworthy, Christian adults who can help you put the finishing touches on their character, help them discover their God-given gifts, talents, and purpose, and be another listening ear and voice of reason on your team. Talk about the importance of mentorship with your child and be on the lookout for that Christian older brother for your son, or older sister for your daughter. If you need discipleship materials, please contact one of our pastors or staff.
You’ve followed the path of parenting, you’ve done your best, and prayed them through to this point. Now it’s time to release them to fly. Before you do, it is a wise pilot instructor who gives his student one more pre-flight briefing.
Preparing Your Teens for College (book by Alex Chediak)
Ravencrest – a Torchbearers International retreat center
Ask It (video study with Andy Stanley – available on RightNow Media)
Prepared (video study w/ Andy Stanley – available on RightNow Media)
Love, Sex, and Honor
Parents who are fearful of talking to their kids about sex leave a void of silence the world will be glad to fill. The problem is, many parents are too afraid to talk to their kids about sex because they don’t want to say “too much too soon.” Unfortunately, “too much too soon” often turns into “too little too late.” Here are some age appropriate resources to help you along the way.
Wonderfully Made
High school is a time of big decisions. What college, what major, what sports & activities, what are my strengths, what is my purpose in life? Helping your student discover more about how God has uniquely created and gifted them for service in His body the church, and in the world, can give them a sense of purpose and help to navigate some of these big life questions.
Helping your young person continue to discover the unique way God has shaped them for serving Him will be an important topic in these years as they begin to think about life after high school and consider their purpose as an increasingly autonomous child of God. These free spiritual gifts and personality tests may help spur on that conversation. One note of caution – God is not limited by our “personality.” Be sure to emphasize the appropriate use of this information and not deny the power of the Spirit to use, override, and even transform, our personalities for His purposes.
Rites of Passage
Consider sending your High School Junior or Senior on a CenterPointe mission trip without you. Mission trips, particularly overseas, can be transformative experiences for our teens as they move into young adulthood.
This important age coincides with more adult responsibilities like driving, holding a part-time job, and beginning to think of the post-high school years. Creating a special event, dinner, or weekend away in order to verbally bless your son or daughter, honor them, layout their new freedoms, responsibilities, and your expectations of them in this phase of life, and explain the changing relationship they have to you. This is a wonderful time for exhortation and encouragement of your young person.
Has your child expressed a belief in their heart and declared with their mouth that Jesus is their Savior and Lord? Have they expressed their faith through believer’s baptism. Not sure if they’re ready? Contact one of the Pastors here!
Wise Living
- Maintaining healthy friendships (more asset friends than liability friends)
- Finding and holding a job – creating a resume, first impressions, application and follow up, being on time, a teachable spirit, etc.
- Service
- Honesty
- Courtesy & Respect – Addressing authorities (law enforcement, elders, coaches, teachers), how to behave on a date or with friends of the opposite sex.
- Developing a sense of the appropriate (situational awareness for clothing, speech, and conduct)
- Forgiveness & compassion
- Generosity & thankfulness
- Table manners: eating out with class (how to speak to wait staff, tipping, and more)
- Work ethic
- Honor (think chivalry, class, and integrity)
- Confidence in social situations
- Read “How to Win Friends & Influence People” – Dale Carnegie
- Meeting new people – shaking hands, eye contact, etc.
- Think before you speak. Proverbs 17:28
Faith and Practice
Setting your child on a course for integrity.
Love, Sex, and Honor
Learning biblical truth, discovering God’s purpose, and living on His mission.
Wonderfully Made
How has God uniquely gifted and “wired” my child? Knowing will be helpful both to you and to them. Here you will find some age appropriate resources to help you help them.
Rites of Passage
There are milestones in all of our lives, and far too often they come upon us by surprise. This doesn’t have to be so. Here are some milestones that you can plan for with your child.
Wise Living
everything from learning to balance the demands of life, building wise and biblical financial principles into your child’s life, and the appropriate place of leisure activities, to skills such as etiquette and social interaction.
To learn more about CenterPointe’s Family Ministry, contact our Family Pastor Mike Meyers.
