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Faith Begins at Home
A book for parents that will inspire, motivate and equip them to establish their home as the primary place where faith is nurtured. This book is filled with inspirational stories and practical ideas that families can begin implementing today to bring Christ and Christ-like living into the center of their home. This resource isa perfect gift to give to new parents and it also has discussion questions at the end of each chapter which also makes it a perfect resource for family small groups.
136 pages, Paperback
First published March 21, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 11, 2021
"George Barna's Thoughts on Faith and Family" would have been a better title. So many great thinkers the author could have quoted from that I don't know why he was so fixated on George Barna.
First off, any book about faith that takes Jeremiah 29:11 out of context within the first two chapters automatically gets knocked two stars. If you're a "pastor" you ought to know better.
Second... Maybe I'm just not the target audience for this book. Maybe, just maybe, this would be a decent resource to hand a family that was not raised in church and has no idea what to do. Perhaps for the family that says, "pastor, I know I shouldn't just drop my kids off at church and run errands while they're there, but I don't know what else to do," this might be helpful.
But for me, it was far too formulaic. Say this, do this, ask this question, and your family will be transformed. His "faith talk" was a good point, and I know many families struggle with that because my childhood family did. My current family does "faith talk" all the time, but when my kid asks why there is rain I'm giving them the scientific answer, not the "because God made this just for you cause He knows you love to splash in puddles" answer.
Theologically, I disagree with his answer. I understand why he gives it. He wants his daughter to know how much God loves and cares for her. But, when she goes through pain and suffering, is that kind of answer going to make her doubt everything her dad said about God? I teach my kids God's involvement in the scientific processes and that the world doesn't revolve around them. When tornadoes and pain happen, and you can't twist it into "because God wants you to be happy," hopefully their foundation will be made more solid, not less.
Which leads me to the main problem I have with this book and every other book like it. This man has not successfully raised his children to adulthood and seen them walking in truth. I don't know how old his daughter is, but he speaks of her as if she's still young. Why do we consider someone with, at the time of writing, 15 years of experience, an expert in family faith when he hasn't raised his own family successfully yet?
Also, while he gives a nod to elderly advice, his view of the Boomer generation seems misguided. If they know so much about how to raise faithful families, why are we in the situation we're in now? His example of the grandmother calling to ask if her grandson was signed up for confirmation class made me cringe. I wanted to yell, "Maybe the fact you're going behind your son's back to get info might be part of the problem?!" Why wasn't she instructed to communicate directly with her son?!
This was a minor point, but I found it interesting that in one of his tables it lists pastors as more influential than grandparents. He didn't even comment on this. He mentioned that parents and grandparents are more important than youth pastors, which was good, but he totally left out the number two influence which was a pastor. I have no good ideas for why he didn't address that. That high spot on the list was why I didn't intervene when my children swarmed our head pastor after the sermon this week. I love knowing that he's just as willing to hear them out as he is all the adults in the church.
Overall, meh. Not horrific enough to throw in the trash. Not worth taking up space on my shelf. It's heading for the donate box.
First off, any book about faith that takes Jeremiah 29:11 out of context within the first two chapters automatically gets knocked two stars. If you're a "pastor" you ought to know better.
Second... Maybe I'm just not the target audience for this book. Maybe, just maybe, this would be a decent resource to hand a family that was not raised in church and has no idea what to do. Perhaps for the family that says, "pastor, I know I shouldn't just drop my kids off at church and run errands while they're there, but I don't know what else to do," this might be helpful.
But for me, it was far too formulaic. Say this, do this, ask this question, and your family will be transformed. His "faith talk" was a good point, and I know many families struggle with that because my childhood family did. My current family does "faith talk" all the time, but when my kid asks why there is rain I'm giving them the scientific answer, not the "because God made this just for you cause He knows you love to splash in puddles" answer.
Theologically, I disagree with his answer. I understand why he gives it. He wants his daughter to know how much God loves and cares for her. But, when she goes through pain and suffering, is that kind of answer going to make her doubt everything her dad said about God? I teach my kids God's involvement in the scientific processes and that the world doesn't revolve around them. When tornadoes and pain happen, and you can't twist it into "because God wants you to be happy," hopefully their foundation will be made more solid, not less.
Which leads me to the main problem I have with this book and every other book like it. This man has not successfully raised his children to adulthood and seen them walking in truth. I don't know how old his daughter is, but he speaks of her as if she's still young. Why do we consider someone with, at the time of writing, 15 years of experience, an expert in family faith when he hasn't raised his own family successfully yet?
Also, while he gives a nod to elderly advice, his view of the Boomer generation seems misguided. If they know so much about how to raise faithful families, why are we in the situation we're in now? His example of the grandmother calling to ask if her grandson was signed up for confirmation class made me cringe. I wanted to yell, "Maybe the fact you're going behind your son's back to get info might be part of the problem?!" Why wasn't she instructed to communicate directly with her son?!
This was a minor point, but I found it interesting that in one of his tables it lists pastors as more influential than grandparents. He didn't even comment on this. He mentioned that parents and grandparents are more important than youth pastors, which was good, but he totally left out the number two influence which was a pastor. I have no good ideas for why he didn't address that. That high spot on the list was why I didn't intervene when my children swarmed our head pastor after the sermon this week. I love knowing that he's just as willing to hear them out as he is all the adults in the church.
Overall, meh. Not horrific enough to throw in the trash. Not worth taking up space on my shelf. It's heading for the donate box.
September 13, 2018
Great book! I am looking forward to working with it more practically in the very near future
April 20, 2023
Very practical and easy to read. Highly recommend!
May 20, 2014
Activities for growth
Activities for growth
This is an excellent book the includes scriptures and activities the a family can do separately and together to grow in their faith.
Activities for growth
This is an excellent book the includes scriptures and activities the a family can do separately and together to grow in their faith.
March 7, 2019
I appreciate that this book is about being a Christian family rather than about Christian parenting. It has some dualist (sacred/secular split) language, but if you can get past that it has some helpful information and ideas.
January 11, 2011
Great resource for all parents!
July 28, 2011
A good book to introduce the faith at home concept to families.
August 7, 2011
Tremendous book. I may get a copy for my elders and board of education to encourage us to do more of this intentionally. Will use Building Faith at Home for myself as pastor, along with Take it Home.
April 21, 2014
Simple, practical, and essential for parents to read!
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April 17, 2012This resource is for families who desire to nurture faith in their homes. Most of the material will appeal to families with children still at home.
March 21, 2016
Principles were good, but the writing and examples were ordinary.
March 1, 2013
Great for young families and for a small group.
May 30, 2014
Too thin, not enough there to really be helpful.
September 27, 2015
Read this book for a class - I would not have picked it up - but I did find a couple of nuggets in it. As a single person nearly half the book did not directly apply to my life.
March 29, 2017
Good overview of the vitality of faith beginning at home - but more practical details about developing faith would have been helpful. The TRAIN acronym, Time, Repetition, Acceptance, Intentiionaliyt and Neverending however was a deeply helpful principle
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews