Ministering to Parents

Does your congregation try to engage parents in practicing faith at home? In today’s world, many parents did not grow up with any faith practices or traditions that they can pass on to their children or practice as a family. Why not place one of these questions on your church’s website or Sunday bulletin each week as a point of reflection? Or perhaps they could serve as a starting point for conversation at a parents’ forum.

8 Questions to Get Parents Talking

1. If mealtimes with parents and children could be just right, what do you think they would look like? How do your ideals compare with your actual experiences of family meals? What is the importance of meals to the life of Christian faith?
2. What are your biggest challenges as a parent? What are your greatest joys?
3. When you were growing up, how did your family pray? How do you pray in your home today? How do you invite children to pray in your family?
4. What are the effects of play on relationships in the family? How do you feel after playing? How do your children (or other children in your life) experience play?
5. How do you keep from feeling isolated if you are a stay-at-home parent? What have you seen parents do to keep from feeling isolated? How well did those ideas work? As a parent, think about who helps or helped you with the work of parenting. How do you (or did you) share the responsibility?
6. What does the pattern of household work look like in your family? What responsibilities do children have in those patterns of work?
7. What were the patterns of discipline in your home when you were a child? What challenges of disciplining do you see yourself or other parents struggling with today? What is the purpose of discipline?
8. How do you negotiate your responsibilities to your children and the Christian call to love and serve your neighbor?

These questions were taken from “Parenting” by David H. Jensen from the Compass series: Christian Explorations of Daily Living (Augsburg Fortress, 2011).