Care for the Family launches new initiative

Christian charity launches initiative to help parents become more intentional about nurturing their children’s faith

Care for the Family, a national charity that aims to strengthen family life, and supports families of all faiths and none, is launching a new initiative in January aimed at encouraging Christian parents to nurture their children’s faith at home.

The Kitchen Table Project will target parents of children under 11, helping them to inspire a faith that lasts primarily by bringing God into everyday things they already do. It was launched in response to research carried out earlier in the year by the charity that revealed how, despite 95% of parents acknowledging it was largely their responsibility to teach their children about the Christian faith, 92% felt they could be doing more.

Care for the Family claims research demonstrates that parents, not church leaders, are the biggest influencers when it comes to encouraging a living faith in their children – but many feel ill-equipped or simply don’t know where to start. Barriers to nurturing faith include family time being devoted to other activities and lack of confidence.

According to Christian Research, the Church in the UK will have lost an estimated 1.1 million children between 1990 and 2020. They also predict that in the year 2020, 183,700 children aged under-15 will attend church compared to 375,300 in 2010, unless action is taken.

Katharine Hill, UK Director at Care for the Family, said: “Just 50% of children growing up in Christian homes keep their faith as adults. As parents, we can play our part in changing that. Many parents just haven’t thought about nurturing their children’s faith. By the time they have invested in their physical, emotional, social and intellectual development, there often isn’t much time or energy left to consider the spiritual. Even for those for whom spiritual development is a priority, it can be hard to know where to start – especially when family schedules are so busy.

There are lots of great materials and resources out there. But lots of parents don’t know about them, haven’t seen them or taken an interest.”

As part of the project the charity has produced a number of tools and resources, which will be available in the New Year, to encourage and support mums and dads to feel more confident about inspiring faith at home. These include: a website with top tips and a blog, free videos and podcasts, as well as an Inspire session - designed to encourage parents to get together and have valuable conversations that will help them think more intentionally about sharing faith at home.

Over the next couple of years the charity will also be producing further supporting resources, including a book, a toolkit for church leaders, an event tour and an easy to run video course.

The initiative will be officially launched on 20th January at an event to be attended by church-going families in Cardiff, where the charity is based.

“The Kitchen Table Project is a growing movement of mums and dads learning from each other and sharing ideas so we can all succeed in inspiring faith in our homes,” says Katharine, adding: “We’re really excited and hope parents will join us to inspire a faith that lasts in our children.”

To find out more about The Kitchen Table Project, as well as downlaod resources for rasing Chirstian children, visit kitchentable.org.uk