Faith at Home: A Handbook for Cautiously Christian Parents - Softcover

Home (not the congregation) and parents (not clergy, youth ministers, or Sunday School) are the key mechanisms by which religious faith and practice are transmitted intergenerationally. Recent studies indicate that the single most important factor in youth becoming committed and engaged in their religious faith as young adults is that the family talks about religion at home. However, for many parents in the United States, religious language is a foreign language.

Faith at Home will help parents learn this "second language" and introduce it to their children in simple, meaningful, concrete ways. Parents often ask: How do we introduce prayer to our children if we do not necessarily believe prayer changes outcomes? How do we approach reading the Bible with our children when our own relationship with it is mixed or complicated? How do we talk about difficult things and where do we find God in the midst of them? How do we teach our children to make a difference in the world? How do we connect what happens at church to what happens at home? These questions and many more are addressed with talking points, practices, and resources provided for each subject.

Wendy Claire Barrie has directed programs for children, youth, and families since 1989 in seven Episcopal congregations large and small on both coasts, presently at Trinity Wall Street. A former Vice-President and board member of Forma, a network of Christian formation professionals, she began her career teaching preschool and drama. A storyteller by nature and an actor by training, leading workshops and preaching are two activities she enjoys more than she ever expected. Wendy is also the exhausted mother of an especially curious son. She lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York.