Welcome to Lifelong Faith
Providing the resources, training, & assistance to help leaders
develop faith formation for all ages and generations
New: Three Collections of Lifelong Faith Articles
In 2021 and 2022 I wrote a series of articles on lifelong learning and faith formation, on planning faith formation, and on the importance of Christian practices for all ages and generations. I have organized the articles into three collections to make it easy to use and download.
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New: Digital Ministry & Leadership in Today's Church
$16.95 in paper
Published by Liturgical Press |
Digital Ministry and Leadership in Today's Church is designed for pastors and parish leaders who wish to initiate or enhance their use of digital tools and methods to further their mission and ministries. No matter your level of confidence, comfort, and competency in digital ministry, you will find ideas, strategies, and next steps for you and for your church community.
Digital Ministry and Leadership in Today's Church provides concrete ways to create and foster digitally integrated ministry and faith formation, extending the ministry of the local church into online spaces and communities where more and more people gather to nurture, explore, and share their faith today. Digital Ministry and Leadership in Today's Church was created by a team of experienced leaders who bring years of experience in utilizing digital tools, methods, and media in church life and especially faith formation. Margaret Babcock brings a special focus and experience in curation and website development for a Catholic diocese. Deanna G. Bartalini is a parish minister and writes about how to use technology to spread the Gospel. Claudia McIvor is the cofounder of Digital Discipleship Boot Camp. Bill Miller brings decades of experience in faith formation at the local and national levels and is an author and spiritual director. John Roberto is an author, teacher, and founder of Lifelong Faith Associates, and he has over a decade of experience in applying digital tools, methods, and media in lifelong faith formation. Tim Welch is an author and has served as the specialist in educational media/technology for a Catholic diocese. To order go to:
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The Lifelong Faith Book
$26.95
Available Now Order from . . . . |
The mission of making disciples and forming faith for a lifetime can seem over-whelming. Leaders want to make lifelong faith formation a reality. They want to nurture, sustain, and deepen the Christian faith for a lifetime. What if we could identify the essential elements that make lifelong faith formation work—key elements that could guide decision-making and planning in every single church?
My efforts to identify these essentials has been inspired by the marvelous book and Netflix series Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, by Samin Nosrat. The whole idea behind Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is that if we can learn how to use those four elements—which play a role in everything that we cook—we can learn how, why, and when to use them, and make anything taste good with or without a recipe. The rest, she says, is just a combination of cultural, seasonal, or technical details, for which we could consult cookbooks and experts, histories, and maps. For her this insight was a “revelation.” What if we took the same approach in lifelong faith formation? What if we could develop lifelong faith formation by using several essential elements that could be contextualized and customized in any setting? These elements would need to reflect the best thinking and practice in faith formation and education. They would also need to address the challenges we are facing today. My new book from Church Publishing, Lifelong Faith: Formation for All Ages and Generations, and the new updated Lifelong Faith Website present seven elements that I believe are essential for developing lifelong faith formation.
In addition to chapters on the seven elements, the Lifelong Faith book describes how to integrate the elements into a network plan and how to create your church's model of lifelong faith formation. The book concludes with chapters on building capacity for lifelong faith formation and the emerging roles for leaders in lifelong faith formation. The Lifelong Faith book and website work together to guide you in developing lifelong faith formation in your church community. |
The LifelongFaith.com Website
Goals for Maturing
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Practices for Forming a Christian Life
Networks for Forming Faith with All Ages
Playlists for Engaging All Ages in Faith Formation |
Intergenerational
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All of the Lifelong Faith Websites
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LifelongFaithTraining.com provides free video-based training developed by the Lifelong Faith Team of veteran faith formation leaders. Our goal is to equip leaders with the knowledge, practices, and skills for designing, leading, and organizing lifelong faith formation in their churches. Each video program is one hour in length, presented in multiple parts for easy viewing, and includes a "Resources" page with articles and design tools.
The videos are design to inform and equip leaders and teams to design and lead faith formation. The video programs are designed for "just in time" learning so that you and your team can watch a video presentation and use the tools to design programming. The videos can be used in a variety of ways: 1) For personal enrichment and on-your-own learning, 2) For training your team(s), 3) For preparation to design faith formation initiatives and programming, 4) For facilitating a course or workshop, and more. |
Training Programs & Presenters
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The Lifelong Faith Studio provides curated digital resources - from a variety of Christian faith traditions - for children, adolescents, adults, and families to assist leaders in building networks of faith formation and playlists of learning.
We have selected a variety of digital resources that are either free or low cost that you can use to develop online faith formation programming for all ages in your faith community in virtual and blended settings. The resources listed can be used in designing online and hybrid faith formation programming and playlists, and adding content to faith formation websites for children, adolescents, adults, families, and all generations. |
Content Areas
The curated resources in the Studio are organized around the ten goals for maturing in faith described in the Lifelong Faith book.
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Learning Programs designed for Intergenerational & Family Faith Formation
All Resources Are Free for Church Use The Intergenerational Faith website provides dozens of learning programs on a variety of faith themes for churches to use in intergenerational and family faith formation programming. All churches have permission to download, print, and adapt the materials for their use. The learning session comes in a PDF and a Word file; handouts are in Word files.
The learning model for each of the sessions incorporates four movements.
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Intergenerational and Family Sessions
Christian Practices (10 sessions) The Creed and Christian Beliefs (6 sessions) Jesus and Discipleship (6 sessions) Justice, Peace, and Care for Creation (6 sessions) Moral Living (6 sessions) Prayer (6 sessions) Sacraments [Catholic] (6 sessions) |
