New Tools Available from Faith Formation Ministries

Churches interested in finding new and creative ways to engage people of all ages and to inspire the practice of professing our faith to each other now have some new resources to turn to.

Two new online toolkits were released by Faith Formation Ministries this month, adding to a growing number of resources available free to CRC churches to assist with the spiritual formation of their members.

The Intergenerational Church toolkit focuses on helping congregations cultivate a culture “in which faith is nurtured and relationships are fostered as all ages learn, serve, and worship together.”

This new toolkit offers churches dozens of ideas for integrating intergenerational practices into ministries, activities, and programs in which a church is already involved.

The new Professing Our Faith toolkit arises out of the CRC’s decision to open the Lord’s Supper to children, which means that the traditional process of making a public profession of faith before taking communion is no longer required.

Nonetheless, making a profession of faith, and doing it in fresh and creative ways under the supervision of a congregation’s elders, is still important.

“We want to help create a culture in which we feel comfortable professing our faith to one another,” said Sandy Swartzentruber, resource coordinator for Faith Formation Ministries (FFM), which was launched in 2014 to provide coaching and resources to enhance the faith life of people in CRC congregations.

“Profession of faith is an important milestone, part of our lifelong faith formation pattern,” she said.

FFM toolkits that were introduced earlier were focused on Faith Storytelling, the Building Blocks of Faith, and Welcoming Children to the Lord’s Supper. All of the toolkits are available free at the FFM website (crcna.org/faithformation/toolkits).

“We are making these toolkits practical rather than conceptual. We want you to be able to pick these up and start to use them,” said Swartzentruber. “These are carefully curated resources from trusted sources that can serve a variety of churches in a Reformed setting.”

Many of the resources within the toolkits come from CRC churches themselves, and, above all, they respond to needs that churches have expressed in asking for materials that can help to inspire and cultivate the faith of people in congregations.

“FFM comes at this from the perspective that faith is a lifelong journey and you never stop,” added Paola Fuentes Gleghorn, FFM’s communications strategist.

“Forming faith and discipleship is one of the main callings of the church. We have put together these toolkits to walk alongside churches as they go about this journey.”

A popular toolkit is the one on storytelling. This resource suggests many easy ways to share faith stories in congregations.

“Whether it is in a small group, in worship, or in a youth group, there is no aspect of church life in which you can’t incorporate storytelling,” said Fuentes Gleghorn. “In telling stories, people can share some amazing, life-transforming things.”

These toolkits are not an attempt to tell churches how to do ministry. Instead, the intent is to provide churches with an array of resources that they can consider for use in their context.

“We have utilized some of the toolkits, like the Building Blocks and Children at the Lord's Table kits,” said Anthony Elenbaas, pastor of youth and discipleship/outreach at Immanuel CRC of Hamilton, Ont.

“We do very much appreciate the work of Faith Formation Ministries; it's enriched the life of our congregation in a number of ways and continues to do so as we embark on other FFM-sponsored projects.”

In addition to providing resources, FFM offers coaching by regional catalyzers and a variety of workshops and seminars.

“We believe that growing in faith is a communal, not a personal or private, thing,” said Swartzentruber. “We all need each other. The body of Christ is richer when we are all at the table.”