Overview of Recent Research
I have recently been re-reading Karen Marie Yust's book Real Kids, Real Faith: Practices for Nurturing Children's Spiritual Lives. It is an excellent work ... I will write more about it some other time.
Yust is also the author of this overview of "emerging literature on children, youth and Christian formation." It provides a good summary of various books that form part of this growing field of study and research.
- Greg.
The Benefits of Family Religious Involvement
David Dollahite and Jennifer Thatcher provide a review of research literature indicating How Family Religious Involvement Benefits Adults, Youth and Children and Strengthens Families (Sutherland Institute, 2005). The abstract to their paper states:
"A growing body of empirical research demonstrates that a family’s religious involvement directly benefits adults, children and youth in many ways. Divorce rates are lower and marital satisfaction and quality scores highest among religiously involved couples. Religious practices are linked with family satisfaction, closer father-child relationships, and closer parent-child relationships. There is less domestic violence among more religious couples and religious parents are less likely to abuse or yell at their children. Religious involvement promotes involved and responsible fathering and is associated with more involved mothering. Greater religiosity in parents and youth is associated with a variety of protective factors for adolescents."
- Greg.
Family Advent Resources
Over the next couple of weeks I will post links to online Advent resources for homes and congregations. To begin with, have a look at this Family Advent Prayers resource offered by the Church of the Assumption in Ansonia, Connecticut and this Advent Home Devotional resource available through the Mennonite Church of Canada. There is also an Early Childhood Advent Narrative resource available through the Mennonite Church site. - Greg.
Childrens Stories Based on the RCL
The Mennonite Church of Canada website offers a series of Downloadable Children's Stories linked to the Revised Common Lectionary. A good resource for Sunday morning kids talks. - Greg.TV and Teenage Sexual Behaviour
Following on the from the last post, another study has linked viewing of "racy" television programming with risky sexual behaviour by teens, as well as violent video games to aggressive behaviour. In not dealing with the issue of "screen time" in our homes we reap what we sow. The words of Psalm 101 come to mind - 'I will walk in my house with blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing.'
- Greg.
TV and Young Children
Dr. Michael Rich works in paediatrics at Boston Childrens Hospital and is the Director of Harvard University's Center for Media and Child Health. He has been in Melbourne this past week and had some very interesting things to say about the merits of TV watching for children in the early years of life. Media use has been linked in research results to obesity, anxiety and aggression in children. It also has little or no value for the youngest of children, according to Dr. Rich: "My kids have had no screen time to 30 months because there is no evidence they can learn anything from TV that young. We know what strengthens brain architecture at that age. It's face-to-face dialogue with people, manipulating their physical environment such as stacking blocks or getting food into their own mouth, and open-ended problem solving using creative play such as time in a sandbox with a bucket of water." You can read media reports of Dr. Rich's comments in The Australian.
- Greg.
Roots and Wings
Roots & Wings Roots and Wings is a "ministry of the ELCA Virginia Synod for families of children from pre-birth through grade 5, based on sheltering and nurturing as well as giving wings to our children". There are some useful resources for families and congregations on the site, including access to a weekly resource called Nurturing Faith from Roots and Wings. It contains "readings for Monday through Saturday that have been specifically chosen with children in mind in terms of themes and length. A short explanatory sentence accompanies each reading to help connect the Scriptures with the prayers, which are written simply and are easy for children to understand. The daily readings will more or less walk through the Bible, focusing on those stories which are foundational to our Christian faith. A memory verse and family time ideas are also included." You can sign up for the weekly distribution list through a link on the site.
- Greg.
Family Resources for Sharing Faith
In addition to the Taking Faith Home resource that I prepare for distribution through the Youth and Family Institute, parents and those serving youth and children may also be interested in these at-home resources:
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Families Rock is produced weekly by Outer Eastern Lutheran Church in suburban Melbourne.
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Faith-at-Home is made available through the Uniting Church - Victoria and Tasmania.
I would be interested to know about any other similar resources that may be out there - please email me (pastorgreg@formingfaith.com) if you know of any.
- Greg.
Celebrating Reformation Day in Church and Home
October 31st is Reformation Day. Unfortunately, this great festival has been overshadowed by secular observance of Halloween, but there are many ways that congregations and homes can redirect attention to the "better things" of Reformation Day. I have found the following web resources:
A Brief History - a brief explanation of the history behind Reformation Day suitable for children.
Print and Colour Picture – a print and colour Martin Luther image.
Ideas for a Reformation Day Fair – ideas for a Reformation Day Fair that could be offered by a congregation as a cross-generational event.
Handouts for Reformation Day – Reformation Day handouts for families and children.
Key Reformation Day Statements – a list of the some of the most Important Reformation Day statements or slogans.
This article on Redeeming Reformation Day is also worth a read. If you are looking for practical examples of home/church initiatives, read these blog postings from the Accidental Pastors Wife and the Lutheran Moose.
- Greg.
Parents, Teenagers and THAT Talk
A report commissioned by the Australian healthcare organisation Marie Stopes International has revealed some interesting findings about teenage sexual activity and parent-teenage communication around issues of sex. Findings from the report Sex - Telling It Like It Is include:
- 22% of parents think that their teen is sexually active, but in reality 31% claim to be. At the same time, 13% of parents admit that they wouldn’t know whether their teen was sexually active or not.
- The large majority of parents (90%) rate themselves as approachable on the topic of sex, whereas only three-quarters (74%) of teens agree.
- Half of all teenagers (51%) say they either don’t talk about personal issues with their parents or don’t fully confide in their parents on some personal issues.
- In general more parents think they’ve had “the talk” about sexual health than teens do (80% vs. 73%), with 20% of parents admitting that they have never had the conversation with their teenager.
- Teenagers who have had “the talk” with their parent on average become sexually active later than those who haven’t had the talk (15.3yrs v 14.7yrs).
- Although 61% of teens rate their knowledge of sexual health issues as good/excellent:
- nearly half (45%) were not aware that they could be infected with Chlamydia but have no symptoms;
- 3 in 10 (30%) teens were unaware whether they could contract sexually transmitted infections (STIs) from oral sex; and
- over half (52%) think that by using a condom, they won’t contract herpes. - Less than half of teens who have received sex education at school claim to have been taught topics such as sexual decision making (51%), emotional aspects of sex (39%) and non-consensual sex (43%).
Media articles on the report were printed in The Herald Sun, The Age and The Daily Telegraph.
What does this mean for the church? It seems to me that there is both call and opportunity for Christian congregations to facilitate conversations between parents and teens around issues of sexual activity, with a positive Christian apologetic for teenage chastity. I wonder how these statistics would differ for church families - perhaps less than we might think!
- Greg.
