Welcome to Lifelong Faith
Providing the resources, training, & assistance to help leaders
develop faith formation for all ages and generations
New - Insights & Practices Reports
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This Fall NCCL will be publishing the Insights & Practices from Research and Theory Series - exploring the latest research and thinking on forming faith with families and age groups, and proposing practical strategies for forming faith that reflect the current research and thinking. Each report explores:
Now available in the "Insights and Practices" section of the NCCL Catholic website:
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2023 Family & Intergenerational Faith Formation Survey Report
Download the Report in PDF and share it with your leaders and colleagues.
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In the Spring of 2023, Lifelong Faith conducted a national survey to identify how well churches are implementing practices of family faith formation and intergenerational (all ages together) faith formation. A total of 408 churches completed the survey.
This is the first report of the survey findings. The second phase of the research will include reports on the churches that are offering family and/or intergenerational faith formation programming. These reports will be available beginning in September 2023 on the Lifelong Faith website: https://www.lifelongfaith.com. #1. Family Faith Formation Practices The survey asked churches to rate eight practices in family faith formation. The top three responses include 1) providing experiences for the whole family that promote growth in faith and discipleship, 2) providing resources to nurture growth in faith and practice at home, and 3) helping parents grow in faith and discipleship, and practice a vital and informed Christian faith. The second question asked about the type of family programming their church offers. The top three responses were 1) family programs at church, 2) family sacramental preparation programs, and 3) at-home family faith practice activities. #2. Intergenerational Faith Formation Practices The survey asked churches to rate nine practices in intergenerational faith formation. The top two responses (Sunday worship) describe settings that are more multi-generational (multiple generations gathered together) than intergenerational. When we speak of intergenerational we mean an intentional approach or strategy to engage people with other generations: building relationships, learning together, sharing stories, praying with each other, serving together, and more. Sunday worship has the potential for becoming much more intentionally intergenerational when the generations have the opportunity to interact in meaningful ways. The responses to the next top responses focused on building intergenerational relationships and doing activities together – practices that are more intentionally intergenerational. The second question asked about the type of intergenerational programming their church offers. The top responses were seasonal or occasional intergenerational programs, followed by intergenerational service projects, and monthly intergenerational learning. #3. Challenges in Offering Family or Intergenerational Faith Formation The final question asked about the challenges leaders faced in offering family or intergenerational faith formation. Nineteen responses surfaced repeatedly in the 486 individual responses to the question. Among the most mentioned challenges were the following:
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Resources to Guide You in Developing Lifelong Faith Formation
Goals for Maturing
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Intergenerational
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Family Faith Formation
Hybrid
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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) |
