Leadership is a team sport.
Connect to inspire and encourage.

Notice what is present. Define reality.
List what's working and not working.

• What specific expectations do you communicate to members about growing in faith Helping others grow?
• What role do parents and grandparents to play in young people’s spiritual lives?
• What role do you want godparents/sponsors/faith mentors to play?
• What role do you want members/ministry partners to play?
• How are you equipping and supporting people who serve as faith mentors?
• Do paid paid and unpaid church leaders see themselves as spiritual elders?

SPRINTER TASK: List ways to help grandparents form faith in their grandchildren.

• What activities seem to have the greatest spiritual impact at church?
• How might every church function be designed to help people grow in faith?
• What is your vision for helping people form faith in their homes and daily lives?
• How might you use your communication platforms and social media sites to nurture faith for all ages?
• How do you help people become living expressions of Jesus Christ in the world
• What would be some initial steps for broadening the scope of your faith forming efforts?

SPRINTER TASK: List ways to use your website/Facebook page to form faith.

• Which spiritual practices would you like to see members embed more intentionally into their daily lives?
• When do you share these hopes with your congregation?
• When and where do you share stories about people’s practices?
• What practices do you want your staff and elected leaders to embed in their lives?
• What are three possibilities for introducing new spiritual practices to people
• Which spiritual practices need further reinforcing? What would that look like?

SPRINTER TASK:  List ways you will help people form faith during meals; in the car.

Introduction
The Faith Formation Blueprint provides an overview of how our faith community intends to support and equip individuals in becoming lifelong followers of Christ and to help households practice faith every day, everywhere and with everyone living into our tagline, “Where faith and life connect”. The blueprint underscores that Christian faith formation is a life-long process that takes place in the home, the congregation and in the community. It also assumes that everyone is at a different place in their life and faith journey. Our blueprint engages five principles, five faith practices, and eight pathways of lifelong faith formation—faith for every age and every stage.

Five Principles for Faith Formation

• Faith is formed by the power of the Holy Spirit through personal, trusted relationships, often in our own homes.
• The Church is a living partnership between the ministry of the congregation and the ministry of the home.
• Where Christ is present in faith, the home is church, too.
• Faith is caught more than it is taught.
• If we want spiritual children and youth, we need spiritual adults/parents.

1 | Gathering in Grace
Caring conversations express an interest in others, their hurts, their joys, their concerns and dreams, their values and faith. Caring conversation requires time to be available to listen and to speak. Congregations are encouraged to help families identify the holy ground of their lives where precious, caring conversations take place and where lives are strengthened and nurtured by the love and mercy of God through the support, guidance and genuine interest of others.

2 | Growing in Faith
A devotional life is a way to practice the presence of God through the word of God. Many families and individuals need help with the language of prayer and faith in daily life. A devotional life is more of a consciousness and way of life than a formula to accomplish a certain task. Family devotions connect the generations with faith, hope and love in a world that speaks and operates on a different basis than the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Giving Generously Generosity is a response to the goodness and generous nature of God. Learning to give our time, our unique gifts, and our money we see how this is an act of stewarding what God has already given to us. Giving generously is a hallmark of a growing Christian and a growing church.

3 | Going to Serve
Service to one’s neighbor is the calling we all are given through the life and message of Jesus Christ. For a Christian, service is motivated out of love we have first received from God. Service communicates that love to others and is a concrete expression of one’s own faith and values. Family service projects have been shown to be a vital way to pass on faith from generation to generation. Children and youth are greatly influenced by what they see in the lives of others, especially parents and other family members.

4 | Gratefully Sharing ‘God Sightings’
Gratitude directly impacts the deep joy that grows in us as we learn to trust God’s faithfulness more and more. An essential component to seeing God’s faithfulness is the ability to see God in action both in our past and in our present. God promises that when we seek God, we will find God. (Jer. 29:13). Furthermore, God promises that we will find him. In essence, we will find what we are looking for. When we look for God’s action our lives we are better equipped to help other’s see God’s action in their lives. As we see God’s faithfulness to us, we become deeply and profoundly grateful and we are filled with an unspeakable joy. God’s unspeakable joy in our lives changed everything.