Passing On the Faith
A Radical New Model for Youth and Family Ministry
Overview
What a radically new (yet ancient) model of faith formation—the family is restored to the center of the faith growth process, with the congregation and community as integral, active partners!
The authors of this book present this new model based on the extensive research of Search Institute and the Youth and Family Institute of Augsburg College, including the fact that only 10 percent of church families (both Protestant and Catholic) discuss their faith on a regular basis. In Passing On the Faith, Strommen and Hardel draw on their pastoral experiences to relate research and theory to Catholic daily life.
The book addresses topics including strengthening family relationships, congregations as family, creating a Christian youth subculture, and transforming today's culture. It also gives concrete advice for translating the strategies from vision into action.
With its helpful chapter notes, bibliography, list of resource contacts, and index, Passing On the Faith is an important text for college and seminary courses in youth and family ministry, and is a useful reference book for community and school libraries. With its narrative style, ideas, anecdotes, charts, graphs, and activities, it is also an essential resource for pastors, youth ministers, family ministers, and community leaders. This book will encourage dialogue about an essential tenet of Christian teachings—that the family is central to faith formation.
Product Details
Copyright: Jan. 1, 2000
Format: Paperback
Size: 6 x 9
Length: 368 pages
Weight: 1.430lbs
Item number: 5468
ISBN: 978-0-88489-606-7
ISBN-10: 0-88489-606-4
Contents
Foreword
Preface
1. What Is Youth and Family Ministry?
2. Strengthening Family Relationships.
3. Fostering Close Relationships with God.
4. Faith-Focused Christian Education.
5. Congregations as Family.
6. Creating a Christian Youth Subculture.
7. Healthy Communities, Healthy Children.
8. Transforming Today's Culture.
9. From Vision to Action.
Chapter Notes
Resource Contact List
Additional Works Consulted
Index
Customer Reviews
By Richard McCord, director of U.S. Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Family, Laity, Women and Youth
Passing On the Faith makes an effective, credible case for partnership between families and their churches in the faith formation of young people. It is extensively researched, well organized, and filled with models and ideas for the home and the parish or congregation. Catholic readers especially will find in it a strong echo and practical reinforcement of what the U.S. bishops have proposed about an integral and collaborative approach to youth ministry that honors the role of family as domestic church.
By Dr. Roland Martinson, professor of pastoral care and theology, Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Passing On the Faith is the most comprehensive conceptualization of youth and family ministry to date. Strommen's solid research combined with Hardel's imaginative ministry experience provide scholars and practitioners a rich resource for both academia and congregations. Longstanding wisdom and fresh ideas come together in an honest, holistic approach to ministry applicable in a wide variety of settings and faith traditions.
By Rev. Kendra Creasy Dean, assistant professor of youth, church, and culture, Princeton Theological Seminary
Parents, pastors, community leaders, parents, and seminarians will cheer the arrival of this book. Merton Strommen and Richard Hardel—venerable voices in the movement to reclaim the ministry of families—have teamed up to write a wise and weighty volume that puts family in the forefront of faith formation. This is no naive treatise on family values; Strommen and Hardel approach their task as veterans, and have composed a tome of theological sensitivity and practical wisdom brimming with powerful, concrete examples from communities that already enact the kind of ministry they espouse. I recommend this book wholeheartedly—and with high hopes the Church may listen.
