Strategic Parenting: 7 Practices for Passing Down Your Faith to the Next Generation OPTION 1

Every Christian parent wants their children to grow up knowing and loving Jesus. But how can we be intentional about passing down our faith in the middle of everyday family life? Strategic Parenting helps parents discover biblical principles and research-based practices that can make faith formation a more intentional part of their family’s everyday rhythms. 

At Lakewood, we believe parents play a vital role in discipling their children. Our goal isn’t to add more pressure or give parents another list of things they should be doing. It’s to help them recognize the opportunities God has already placed in their hands and equip them to make the most of them. Whether you’re raising preschoolers, elementary-aged children, or teenagers, it’s never too early or too late to be intentional and strategic about the faith you’re passing on.

Read below to learn more about the foundation of Strategic Parenting from God’s Word and also how research has shown the critical role of parents in the spiritual development of their kids. You’ll also find 7 key practices that you can begin implementing into your parenting strategy, no matter the age and stage of your kids. 

God’s Word (the Bible) is clear that parents are called to be the primary spiritual leaders of their children. The role of the church is to partner with parents in the spiritual development of their kids but parents are called to take the lead. Here is some of what the Bible says about the vital role of parents in the spiritual development of their children:

 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” – Deuteronomy 6:4-9

“We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.5 For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children,6 so the next generation might know them—even the children not yet born—and they in turn will teach their own children.7 So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.” – Psalm 78:4-7

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” – Ephesians 6:4

While Scripture is clear that parents are called to be the primary spiritual leaders of their kids, research has also revealed that parents are best positioned to have greater influence on the spiritual life of their sons and daughters.

In Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation, researchers Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk found: “Parents set a “glass ceiling” of religious commitment above which their children rarely rise. Parental religious investment and involvement is in almost all cases the necessary and even sometimes sufficient condition for children’s religious investment and involvement.”

Here’s their conclusion about the role of parents in the spiritual development of their kids:“All research in the United States today shows clearly that parents are by far the most important factor influencing their children’s religion, not only as youth but also after they leave home. Not clergy, religious schools, youth ministers, neighborhoods, Sunday school, mission trips, service projects, summer camp, peers, or the media. Parents.”

Research from George Barna has found that the primary window for parental discipleship takes place when children are young. In Raising Spiritual Champions: Nurturing Your Child’s Heart, Mind and Soul, Barna found, “A person’s worldview starts developing as early as the fifteenth to eighteenth month age range of a child’s life and becomes mostly intact by the age of thirteen.”

While parents should be intentional about investing in the spiritual life of their children from the time they are young, it’s never too late to start. Based on the research data, Barna concluded, “The bottom line, then, is that if you want your life to make an impact, you must be committed to being a disciple who makes disciples. And the research clearly indicates that the most effective approach to disciple-making is to focus on discipling children.

Beyond these sources, additional research about the role of parents in passing down their faith has come to the same conclusion: the role of parents is vital for the spiritual development of children both now and in the future. The Institute for Family Studies recently released the findings from their research in a report called Passing the Torch: How Faith Moves Across Generations. Many of the highlights from nationwide research and Lakewood specific research will be shared during the Strategic Parenting course.

In the book Religious Parenting: Transmitting Faith and Values in Contemporary America, researchers found, “Raising religious children should thus primarily be a practice-centered process, not chiefly a didactic teaching program. Parents modeling religious practices is primary, we have seen, and explaining belief systems is secondary.” Each practice is rooted in Scripture and shown to be effective through research. Read below to find a brief definition of practice. For more information, be sure to read the related articles or take the Strategic Parenting course. CLICK HERE to read an article about developing your parenting strategy.