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Owning Faith: Reimagining the Role of Church and Family in the Faith of Teenagers
More than ever, young disciples want relationships with their parents and other adults; Owning Faith helps older disciples understand how to honor and nurture relationships that last a lifetime.
Today’s adolescents face an uphill climb as they seek to own their faith. And while it’s easy to think that what they really need is an expert, Owning Faith lets you in on God’s big secret: what they need more than anything else is you.
Owning Faith is an accessible guide into the adventure-filled spiritual journey of adolescents. If you would like to learn how to be a wise and compassionate companion who can make an eternal difference in the lives of youth, Owning Faith will show you how.
Today’s adolescents face an uphill climb as they seek to own their faith. And while it’s easy to think that what they really need is an expert, Owning Faith lets you in on God’s big secret: what they need more than anything else is you.
Owning Faith is an accessible guide into the adventure-filled spiritual journey of adolescents. If you would like to learn how to be a wise and compassionate companion who can make an eternal difference in the lives of youth, Owning Faith will show you how.
- GenresParenting
307 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 6, 2017
9 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 17, 2019
This book is comprised of several chapters, each written by a different person. But it provides a wide array of experience and insight into the concept of the church and family developing the faith of teenagers.
I didn’t necessarily agree 100% with everything written, and there were sections that I felt I needed to clarify a statement based on my own experience and church setting. But everyone can use their own perspective to apply something from this book to their unique situation.
Get a highlighter or make notes as you read because there is way too much information to retain from reading alone. There are huge lessons for youth ministers as well as for parents.
The book begins with a more generalized theme of the influence of parents on the faith of their children and how youth ministers can adapt to support parents. But it also gets more specific in areas such as adoption, sexuality, loss and comfort, influence of the church, influence of peers, intergenerational relationships, and making connections with those outside of the church.
Instead of working in isolation from each other, families can expect the church to work with them and support them in their role as the primary influence on a child’s faith. Parents are not the enemy of the youth minister and neither is youth ministry working against parents - or at least it shouldn’t be that way. Families shouldn’t expect youth ministers to do everything for their son or daughter in the area of developing faith. Parents need to accept that responsibility, and youth ministers need to acknowledge and reinforce the parents. I agree with the book about the need for other adults and intergenerational relationships for teens, but that can and should include as many parents as possible. Someone else’s parent can have a major impact on my child. Plus parents will benefit from being directly involved with their teen’s youth group and having a better understanding of the kids and what they are being taught.
For anyone wanting to explore this new approach to youth ministry, this is an excellent book. It is also a good book for reminding you why you wanted to make the change in the first place if you have been down this road awhile now.
I didn’t necessarily agree 100% with everything written, and there were sections that I felt I needed to clarify a statement based on my own experience and church setting. But everyone can use their own perspective to apply something from this book to their unique situation.
Get a highlighter or make notes as you read because there is way too much information to retain from reading alone. There are huge lessons for youth ministers as well as for parents.
The book begins with a more generalized theme of the influence of parents on the faith of their children and how youth ministers can adapt to support parents. But it also gets more specific in areas such as adoption, sexuality, loss and comfort, influence of the church, influence of peers, intergenerational relationships, and making connections with those outside of the church.
Instead of working in isolation from each other, families can expect the church to work with them and support them in their role as the primary influence on a child’s faith. Parents are not the enemy of the youth minister and neither is youth ministry working against parents - or at least it shouldn’t be that way. Families shouldn’t expect youth ministers to do everything for their son or daughter in the area of developing faith. Parents need to accept that responsibility, and youth ministers need to acknowledge and reinforce the parents. I agree with the book about the need for other adults and intergenerational relationships for teens, but that can and should include as many parents as possible. Someone else’s parent can have a major impact on my child. Plus parents will benefit from being directly involved with their teen’s youth group and having a better understanding of the kids and what they are being taught.
For anyone wanting to explore this new approach to youth ministry, this is an excellent book. It is also a good book for reminding you why you wanted to make the change in the first place if you have been down this road awhile now.
March 12, 2020
As a full-time paid youth worker, I wasn’t the key audience of this book. It was definitely geared towards parents.... that said, it was a great and challenging read.
It had great information, presented by various authors, about a variety of issues... the role of youth ministry, issues facing teens, and the importance of Christian community in their development.
It had great information, presented by various authors, about a variety of issues... the role of youth ministry, issues facing teens, and the importance of Christian community in their development.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews