The formation of lived faith in children: a partnership between congregation and home

[摘要] English: Youth ministry within the congregation is at peril. The old paradigm is notproducing the spiritual leaders and followers of Christ that we hoped for. Even thecongregations that invest much of their resources, efforts, labours and time in theiryouth ministry invest in areas where it is least effective. This deplorable situationappears to be rife, although the research reveals to us a way to address this neglect.The focus of this research is to show where the current youth ministry modelfalls short, and why it should be changed. We take an in-depth look at the mostrecent research concerning families and ministry focused on the home. The state ofscholarship also encompasses the development of lived faith and best practices toachieve this.From this solid, theoretical framework, this study will proceed to do qualitativeanalysis research via Focused Group Interviews in three diverse congregations todiscern what the current philosophy for faith formation is, and how the parentsperceive this. This study will then proceed by applying grounded theory to developknowledge of the problem, and to formulate a theory that may answer thepragmatic question as to how congregations and parents can be more effective informing lived faith in their young.This practice-oriented theological project hopes to highlight the partnershipbetween the congregation and the home. Similar to dance partners on a dance floor,the aim of both dancers is to bring to the fore the best in each other. Partners inspireeach other to render both of them fluent in the language of faith formation. Webelieve that this will inspire the next generation to join the dance because of themodel presented to them. Lastly, we hope to deduce the transferable concepts thatcan be applied in congregations everywhere.

[发布机构] University of the Free State