The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family {a BookLook review}

You've undoubtedly seen the statistics, read the books, or heard discussions about how many kids from Christian homes are turning away from the faith of their families once they hit high school, college, or adulthood.

Some of that is some pretty scary-sounding stuff.

The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family by Dr. Kara E. Powell is one answer for parents regarding this issue.

From the publisher:

The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family addresses one of the top current concerns about youth and the church: the reality that nearly half of all young people raised in Christian families walk away from their faith when they graduate from high school. That's the bad news. But here's the good news: research also shows that parents are one of the primary influences on their child's faith.

This book arises from the innovative, research-based, and extensively field-tested project known as "Sticky Faith," designed to equip parents with insights and ideas for nurturing long-term faith in children and young people. Grounded in academically verified data, The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family is a positive and practical resource that empowers parents to take the small steps that can translate into big progress in their kids' spiritual journeys.

Even busy families will find the "guidebook" format accessible and easy to use. More importantly, they'll be equipped with research-tested tools to nurture a strong faith in the next generation.

My thoughts:

This isn't a fast book to get through.  I had this impression I'd be able to breeze through it, picking up some ideas in the process.  Because I certainly am aware that we do not have this parenting gig down just right.

Instead, I found myself moving pretty slowly through the materials.  I'm thinking a second read would go faster.

Powell tries really hard not to make you feel guilty about what you are not doing.  She encourages you in each chapter to think about what you are doing well, where you could improve, and to think about which suggestions from that chapter do appeal to you.

And in reading through the entire book, she encourages you to come up with no more than five suggestions that you are going to attempt to implement.  No. More. Than. Five.

She does not want you biting off more than you can chew, nor does she want you to feel inadequate.  I appreciate that a lot.

There are some amazing suggestions in here.  There are suggestions I cannot imagine doing in a million years.  I am quite certain some of those "not in a million years" suggestions would be fabulous for a different family.

Bottom Line:

This is a book I will be pulling out and mulling over, probably just a chapter at a time, in the future.  I like the idea of re-reading one chapter at the start of each month, and really thinking about what one thing I can do this month.






Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”