Spiritual Formation & the Family
How can we bring our family into holistic spiritual growth?
Spiritual Formation is communal in nature. The nature of Christianity and following Jesus is inherently communal. Jesus lived amongst humanity: taught them, ate with them, cared for them, healed them, mentored them, and loved them. And the development of the early church came about through the necessity to be together with others in a shared experience to support and care for each other (Acts 2). The apostles, disciples, and early church survived because of the support and prayers of the church community.
With the family being the first and natural community into which each of us is born, the family provides the greatest opportunity to nurture spiritual formation. So how can parents foster healthy expressions of spiritual formation?
Pay attention to how each of your children expresses or talks about God or their relationship with Him. This will help you identify where each child is at and what he or she needs to understand God better.
Encourage both corporate and individual opportunities for growth. Help the child understand how to walk with Christ individually, and then how to live that out in community with the family and the world at large. Each person needs to be given space and opportunities to follow Jesus in the way that works for them.
Provide opportunities to dialogue with your kids about spiritual growth, the Bible, and God in daily life. This can be done on a scheduled way but also in natural conversations or experiences. Family devotional times can be helpful, but children need to see how faith is lived out in real life as well.
Continue to grow yourselves in order to encourage growth in your children. We cannot lead people past where we are ourselves. In order to foster spiritual growth in our children, we too need to be growing.
Emphasize God’s love and grace above rules, demands, and commands. Obedience flows from trust and love and from safe relationships. Help your children see God’s love first and then to build the relationship from there.
The more we can invite God into our own awareness and into the reality of our family experiences, the more we can trust that our children will truly walk with God into adulthood.