Teens and Parents

I found this resource to be an invaluable implement in my youth ministry toolbox. Filled with practical, ready-to-go strategies, built-in flexibility, and sound praxis, Teens and Parents provides skills for communication and faith sharing and then focuses those skills on urgent issues facing families with adolescents today: discernment, conflict resolution, service, communication, and faith. What a timely tool for Catholic families as they strive to grow together in their faith. This resource helps youth ministry leaders establish a safe and structured environment to help families grow in their relationship-building skills and then bring those skills to the heart of life's important questions about careers, discernment, vocation, relationships, and faith sharing. The process is solid, easy to use, adaptable, and fun. I believe families will greatly appreciate the experience, and the leaders will find the resource very practical and complete.

Teens and Parents: Sessions for Growing in Faith Together is an easy-to-follow how-to guide for directors of religious education, youth ministers, and pastoral ministers for facilitating communication between parents and their teens. It tackles the major family issues of adolescence in a nonthreatening way through icebreakers, rituals, and family conversations. Teens and Parents is an excellent synthesis of sound theology and active learning techniques. Whoever thought vocations, the trinity, or the Holy Family could be so interesting and relevant for adolescent families! This book should be in the hands of every minister or educator who struggles with fostering the faith development of parents and their adolescents. It affirms that parents are the primary educators of their children's faith, even in the teen years, and gives ministers the tools to empower faith-filled adolescent families.

All of us in ministry have struggled with finding the proper tools to help facilitate the conversation between adolescents and their parents. Lisa-Marie Calderone-Stewart's Teen and Parents Sessions for Growing in Faith Together is a practical "how to" book toward establishing parent/teen conversation. For practitioners in adolescent catechetical ministry this book should not be considered a textbook, but rather a supplementary book that leads to a deepening of a teen's understanding of faith. The sessions are structured, in a "Study It! Pray It! Live It!®" model, a holistic approach to learning, exploring and living the faith.

I had the opportunity to use one of the sessions in a parent/confirmation candidate meeting. It was a wonderful tool to help adolescents and their parents communicate in a non-threatening manner. Lisa-Marie Calderone-Stewart uses simple, practical conversation starters to put both parents and their adolescents at ease. One example is the Teen-Parent Guessing Game, where the participants are asked questions about each other Conversation moves from "What is the teen's/parent's favorite meal?" to "What is the teen's/parent's favorite memory of a family time together?" Once the questions are answered, participants face each other and share their responses. It was obvious that both teens and parents learned from each other during this exercise.

As the session continues it incorporates prayer and connection with others in the community. Each session is presented in a way that both new and seasoned adolescent catechetical leaders would be comfortable in facilitating the session.

There are five sessions of faith-growth opportunities, beginning with teen/parent relationship building and progressing to college, career discernment. These sessions offer a wonderful way to move from one stage to the next, through communication, prayer activity and commitment to the family and community.

I know that this book will be an asset to my work in adolescent ministry, and I highly recommend it as a tool for others in the field.

This resource has five sessions for your young people and their parents to experience together that can deepen their relationships with Christ and with each other. Each session follows a three-part format of formation, prayer, and application which are well-laid-out, easy-to-follow, and solid in content. The sessions are easily adaptable to fit the dynamics of any group and could be great material for a student/parent retreat.