In this together

Coming together with others who share our interests and passions is so powerful. We join small groups at church, sports clubs or our kids’ school PTA because we want to journey with others who have similar interests. We feel part of a bigger picture, and are inspired, encouraged and supported.

So how as leaders can we help the parents in our churches to join together and talk about their common interest in building their children’s faith?

And how can the Kitchen Table Project help us to do this?

Acts 2:42
“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” The Greek word used here for fellowship is koinōnia, which refers to a close association or sharing in mutual interests.

Ideas this month

Join the community!
Encourage the parents in your church to follow the Kitchen Table Project on social media by following @ktpcampaign and sign up for the monthly emails here. You could also use content from some of the social media posts or the emails in your sermons.

Resources
Identify and ask individuals if they would gather a small group of parents together and run an Inspire session or our brand new Raising Faith DVD resource. Perhaps you have young parents who are confident to host a session, or maybe others whose children are older now would like to get alongside some of the younger parents.

Encourage prayer
Think about how you could encourage parents to come together to pray for their children. It may be that a meeting during school hours might help some parents who struggle with babysitters during the evening.

What parents are saying
Could you look at ways of encouraging groups of parents of similar aged children to meet together. They may even benefit from having an older member of the congregation join them.

Take a look at this week's blog to see what some parents have been saying how meeting with others has helped them.

Reflection

As a church leader I want every person in my congregation to feel encouraged and supported in all aspects of life. Over recent months, I’ve spoken to a number of parents of young children who have been honest enough to tell me that sharing their faith with their children is not something they find easy.

Some are so busy juggling the demands of work and family life that they feel they aren’t doing enough, while others have said they don’t really know what to do. Some feel that as they didn’t grow up in Christian families they have no idea where to start, while others have said that although their parents had faith, they want to try a different approach.

When we launched the Kitchen Table Project, we wanted to create a community of mums, dads and carers who didn’t have to feel this way, but who could come together with their mutual interest of building their children’s faith and encourage each other in that journey.

Over the past 16 months so many parents, carers and church leaders have joined with us to start talking about how they can build their children’s faith. We’ve seen nearly 3,000 join our Facebook community, over 2,000 sign up for this monthly email and nearly 700 people download the small-group Inspire session. The feedback we’ve received shows that hearing real stories and ideas from other parents, either online or through meeting in small groups, has really encouraged people.

And we want to see those numbers continue to grow. We want parents and carers all across the country to inspire one another as they have the amazing opportunity to disciple their children.

So how can you help? Take a look at the suggestions above, and consider how you could encourage parents in your churches to join together in this journey.

Blessings

Claire and the Kitchen Table Project team

Please send us your stories of inspiring faith at home – good and bad – we know it’s a rollercoaster! We’d love to include them in our emails and on the blog.

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