Wondering when to join a faith community?

pg15-4 kids playgroundA milestone occurs when children enter school and their relationship pool increases and deepens. They look for ways to connect with others and with God in new ways.

In grade school, you are still the one they most want to hear from about spirituality and the one they most watch to learn what it looks like to live with spirituality as part of daily life.

But now they act in a way that reveals their need to widen the circle to include their friends’ families and a faith community.

boy kidFor some parents this seems like the right time to affiliate with a religion or faith community.

Community involvement has to do with how a child practices their spirituality, as expressed through various beliefs, practices and rituals. It is an attractive option for millions of families for addressing the longing in children’s hearts for spiritual understanding.

A faith community links up with a child’s needs for attachment and for trust.

It moves them forward to explore the other relational issue of importance to them: how a connection forms between God and a person. One woman remembers when she began to look for this connection:

teen plays guitarJust because I was raised in a home in which God was never talked about, doesn’t mean that I never thought about God.

It is true that this influenced me to think that God was not a relevant part of how I go about living my life. And true that being raised in a home where relationship was deeply stunted influenced me to feel that God is distant, even non-existent.

However, these ideas about God being not relevant, non-existent or distant did not form a foundational belief in my core, even though my upbringing should have prescribed it.

There was nothing in my childhood experience to form in me a belief that God is relevant, real or near, but deep down inside these are precisely the attitudes that were rooted in my core, and even helped me to dig out of the relational laziness or isolation that I could have resigned myself to.

A faith Community is an attractive option for millions of families for addressing the longing in children’s hearts for spiritual understanding.

Tweetable: When is a good time to get my family involved in a faith community? Look here for a few thoughts about it. Click to Tweet

Volunteer work as destiny discovery for teens

Most university-bound teens engage in volunteer work of some kind—it’s almost a requirement for a good college application.

teensBut is there more to it than that?

Some teens say Yes! In addition to building their resume, some say that volunteering helped them:

  • see that their destiny can actually involve doing something that comes easily to them
  • develop compassion for others
  • discover what they’re good at
  • contribute to their quest for meaning

Help them think it through before they commit

One family attends a Presbyterian Church that expects all regular attenders (teens and adults) to volunteer in some way once a month. The idea is that the church belongs to all who call themselves a part of it, and if everyone does a little bit no one is stuck trying to do everything.

412022_4536 preschool activity

So this family is helping their kids think through how they can volunteer. Some of their choices include working in the baby nursery, teaching the younger kids’ classes, cleaning up the meeting area after the service, playing an instrument on the worship team once a month, helping with the community outreach to refugees by teaching English as a second language.

Significant conversations about destiny can occur

Having the teens think about volunteering has created interesting conversations about what each teen is good at, what they care about, what they have to contribute, and how they can feel like a contributing part of the community.

An astonishing ethical statement

1070365_68550240 teenage friends

Recent research indicates support for a possible universal desire: Human beings around the world derive [happiness] from using their financial resources to help others—a surprising ethical and spiritual statement. Even more astonishing is that our little acts of love are capable of producing passion in us that satisfies our thirst for meaning.

Consider the teens in your life. How could they engage in giving to others through loving, helpful acts? How might those actions help themselves as well?

Tweetable: A teen’s acts of charity are capable of producing passion that satisfies the thirst for meaning. Click to Tweet