WHAT IF HELPING FAITH GROW in children and teenagers didn’t mean adding more to your already full week — but learning how to recognise and use the moments that are already there?
Across churches, families, and ministries, the same challenges keep surfacing. Church leaders wonder if what happens on Sundays is truly shaping lasting faith. Those involved in children’s, youth and family ministry feel the pressure of trying to do it all with limited time and energy… and never enough volunteers. Parents and carers often feel overwhelmed with day-to-day life and a bit guilty that they don’t make time to do more ‘faith stuff’.
Parenting for Faith, one of the four ministries of BRF Ministries, exists to meet these challenges in a different way.
A simpler, more sustainable vision
At its heart, Parenting for Faith is built on a simple conviction: faith grows best in everyday family life — and parents and carers are uniquely placed to nurture it.
Rather than creating more programmes or adding more pressure, Parenting for Faith helps churches equip parents and carers as the primary faith influencers in their children and teenagers’ lives.
This is not about making everyone a Bible expert.
It’s not about running more activities.
And it’s not about achieving an idealised version of family life.
Instead, it’s about learning how to notice and use the small, ordinary moments where faith can naturally grow.
What actually helps: simple tools for real life
Parenting for Faith equips parents and carers with five key tools. These are simple, practical and flexible — designed to help with navigating real life, not an ideal version of it.
They help address the most common barriers people face:
- “I don’t know what to say” → they give parents and carers confidence.
- “We’re so busy” → this isn’t another thing to add in but part of everyday life.
- “We start things but can’t seem to keep them up” → this isn’t about a set routine or resource but helps families grow faith as part of everyday life so they don’t give up when life gets busy or hard stuff happens.
These five key tools are taught through the Parenting for Faith courses (available in bitesize chunks on the app), podcast, books and website. They give parents and carers simple ways to tweak what they already do so faith becomes part of everyday life. They help them develop skills so that when life happens, whether it’s a friendship fallout, a nightmare, or a big question, they feel confident and know how to respond. They are also flexible recognising that all children, teenagers and families are different and parents and carers are the ones that know them best.
Why this matters for churches
When churches focus on equipping parents and carers, the impact of everything they do multiplies.
Instead of faith being primarily nurtured in church settings, it becomes part of daily life — at home, in conversations, and in ordinary routines. So that what church does on Sunday adds to that, rather than trying to do it all.
This approach:
- Works in any context — large or small, with many children or very few
- Requires minimal additional resources
- Can be embedded into existing church life (services, baptisms, toddler groups, schools work etc)
- Leads to deeper, more lasting discipleship
It’s not another programme to run, but a shift in how ministry happens.
A clear and flexible plan
Whether you’re a church leader, volunteer, or parent/carer, there are simple next steps you can take – depending on what fits your context and capacity.
For churches and leaders:
- Deeper Rooted Lasting: A flexible, on-demand guide you can work through as a leader or team, at your own pace, to implement this in your church.
- The Forge (November residential): A three-day gathering to step away from the everyday and learn alongside like-minded leaders.
- The Foundry (monthly online learning community): A manageable commitment of just two hours a month, offering ongoing support, topic-specific learning, and encouragement in community.
For parents and carers:
- Parenting for Faith podcast: Weekly encouragement and practical ideas for everyday life.
- BRF Online Courses: Access a range of courses (Babies & toddlers, Teens, Five Key Tools, Parenting as a Church Leader, Grandparenting) to watch on demand — on your own, with a partner or friend, or use as material for a small group. For the next two years, generous Church of England funding, enables anyone from a Church of England parish to get a free membership.
- Searchable website: On a wide range of topics and real-life support for everyday situations.
What difference could this make?
Imagine:
- Parents and carers feeling confident to nurture faith, not guilty or unsure.
- Faith conversations and God-connection happening naturally in everyday moments.
- Children and young people developing a two-way, lasting relationship with God.
- Churches seeing deeper impact without increasing workload.
This is about a shift from pressure to confidence, from programmes to people, and from one-off moments to a faith that is deeper, more rooted and that will last.
Take a step today
You don’t need to have it all figured out. You don’t need more time. You just need a place to begin.
Parenting for Faith offers a simple, realistic, and sustainable way to help faith grow — in your family, in your church, and in everyday life.
