July 2007

Welcome to WWM Talk, the e-newsletter for Walk With Me coordinators and teachers. If you have any questions about information in this issue (or anything else), give us a call at 1-800-333-8300 or e-mail us.

In This Issue

Faithwalking with parents—ideas for helping families pass along faith

Teacher Talk

While most Sunday school teachers get a break during the summer, parents and caregivers are faith teachers 24-7! As you teach, you can help kids and parents faith-talk by tapping into kids’ natural curiosities and feeding them questions to ask parents, grandparents, or siblings after class.

When your class talks about how amazing it is that God kept his promise to give Abraham a family even when he and Sarah seemed impossibly old, encourage the kids to ask a grown-up in their house about a time when they saw God do something that seemed impossible.

As you wonder what Jacob felt like when he was tricked into working seven more years to marry Rachel, invite kids to ask their parents about a time when someone was mean to them but they knew God was still with them.

Simple questions like these can give parents opportunities to share stories that may shape the lives of their kids.

Coordinator’s Corner

Plan a Sunday school kickoff that sends the signal to families that your faith formation programs are a partnership between home and church. Invite parents and kids to an event they won’t want to miss: an ice-cream social after the worship service or a pancake breakfast before, a picnic in the park with games or a pool party at someone’s house. Use the event for family bonding and for communicating your vision for the year. Then support parents throughout the year with one of these ideas for encouraging family faith-talk:

• Include a Walk With Me section in your church bulletin, updated weekly or monthly, that highlights the themes from the current units and offers some wondering questions to try at home, or suggests book and storybook ideas that deal with the same themes.
• Post a “question of the week” on a bulletin board or send it out through e-mail. For example, What is your favorite hymn, and why? or Which person in the Bible do you most relate to?
• Talk to your worship committee about incorporating family testimonies into worship. Whether it’s singing along to a WOW worship CD on the ride to school, or reviewing Bible verses over breakfast, encourage kids and parents to share their stories of how they connect with God in meaningful ways.

Resources for Families

	Faith Alive’s new family magazine GUESS WHAT! is a great tool to provide for parents who are looking for ways to pass on faith to their kids. To view a sample, click here.
	Making a Home for Faith by Elizabeth F. Caldwell addresses the how-to's of being faithful parents who, in their words and actions, show what it means to live the Christian faith.
	For more ideas, visit the Connecting with Families workshop at the Faith Alive Conference, August 10-11, at Kuyper College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

You are subscribed as %%emailaddr%%. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to %%email.unsub%%. If you have questions or comments about this list, contact us at: WWMTalk@FaithAliveResources.org or 1-800-333-8300.