Our Family Life Class, aimed at adults of a younger age and their families, we is studying new course, Alpha for Families. This is the well-known Alpha Course designed to encourage family conversations with your spouse or children about some of the ‘big’ questions of faith.

Every Sunday, we will watch a 15-20 minute video about a big question (e.g. “How do I have faith?” or “Does God heal today?”). You can watch alone or with your spouse, kids or friends! There’ll be a few ‘pauses’ in the message for you to think about what you believe and discuss it with whomever you’re watching.

For younger children, you will find a conversation starter guide in the email and on the website. So, after you watch the teaching, you can start having deeper faith conversations with your younger kids who might not sit through the video.

The Rev. Dr. Suse E. McBay
Associate for Adult Christian Education and Prayer Ministries

The Rev. Alex D. Graham III
Associate for Children and Family Ministries
Please do not reply to this email.
To respond to this Bible study, please email
the Rev. Chad Martin at cmartin@stmartinsepiscopal.org.
A Guide for Discussion with Younger Children

Welcome!

We encourage you to use this guide to have a conversation with your children. Maybe over dinner, before bed or on a drive somewhere, there are always opportunities to start talking with our kids about some of these basic beliefs of Christians, and to help them think it through for themselves. You, as their parents, have an important role to play in giving them permission to ask these questions, and you do not have to have all of the answers!

Why and how do I pray?

Why do we pray? We recite the Lord’s Prayer in church and might hear a priest talk about the ‘collect of the day’, but we know that’s not the only way to pray. Prayer is really just a conversation, but with the God of everything rather than a person. We have learned that Jesus taught his followers how to pray and used the Lord’s Prayer as the example. Do you ever wonder why he taught us to pray? Can you discuss the above questions about prayer with your family? 

Questions for discussion with your children
  • Why do you think prayer is important?
  • Have you seen God answer your prayers? What happened?
  • If God always answers our prayers, why do you think we don’t always get what we want?