Faith family members are critical in our lives. Pastor David and I have experienced this first hand for our children. Having served in congregations that are distant from blood relatives, our children have had multiple church grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. The members of the faith communities have stepped up and partnered with us on caring about our kids and making sure they felt welcome and included in the church.

For youth this kind of investment by an adult makes a significant impact on their continued participation in a faith community if they know there are caring adults outside of their family who are invested in them and miss them if they are not there. 

After blood relatives, solid, dependable adult connections within a congregation are among the next most important things in helping children and youth internalize and own their religious faith and identity. These adults are people who genuinely care about children, are willing to engage them in talk on serious topics beyond superficial chitchat. The more adults like this that our youth are connected with the more our faith community feels like an extended family. To help create these connections we are starting an "Adopt a faith family member." Our hope is that we can connect all of our youth with an adult.

How can you participate? First, know that there is no age limit on creating intergenerational connections. Second, fill out a form that is available in person and online. There are forms for both the adults to complete but also for our youth. For our adults this will ask for your name, hobbies, address, age of youth with which you feel the most comfortable, level of interaction you are interested in, your willingness to be background checked, and if you have any background / knowledge with differently abled or neurodivergent youth. For our youth it will ask many of the same questions but also anything they want their adopted faith family member to know about them. We will then try to connect youth and adults with similar indications.

So please, take 5 minutes and complete a form so we can get to making our adopted faith families!

The links for our online forms are:

Youth = https://forms.gle/yLC6rg4aQKL9zjAn9

Adults = https://forms.gle/wxfUCVs5LW5PvW4T9

Thank you for your partnership in this program!

Blessings,

Pastor Robyn