The Parenting for Faith podcast

As Christian parents we long to see our children meet and know God for themselves and so we bring them up learning about God, going to church, praying and reading the bible. But sometimes others say that we are brainwashing our kids. Is that true, or are we simply sharing things we know are good and important for them? Here to help us unpick the difference between brainwashing and discipling is Ra...

This term, we have been thinking about curveballs to family life, and what they mean for our children’s (and our) discipleship journey. To end the season, we wanted to speak - more generally (or perhaps more specifically?) - on the topic of disappointment. How do we coach our children through disappointment - whether it’s a theme park that didn’t live up to expectations, or school grades which wer...

Whether you have much or little, finances are always a key part of family life. How do we frame Christian principles around money with our children? How can we raise them to be responsible stewards of what God has given them? And when a financial curveball hits - perhaps a job loss or mortgage hike - how do we navigate our families through this season? Here to help us today is CAP UK’s Philanthrop...

Stephanie Foster has been married for 7 years and has 3 young children. Despite having a background in Law and International Public Policy, she has had the privilege of working as a Youth Leader and it remains her most meaningful role to date. Stephanie enjoy worship and spending time with her family amongst other things. She is also a fully accredited local preacher of the Methodist Church U.K. L...

Curveballs aren’t necessarily ‘negative’ in nature. Sometimes our families can be thrown off track by something positive and joyful, if it arrives unexpectedly. One example is when you have a high-achieving child, whose opportunities require you to make some sacrifices as a family. Our guests today, Carey and Frances Simon, know a lot about this, having nurtured their daughter Naomi’s gift of sing...

What happens when you’re trying to parent ‘well’, but your own upbringing was challenging? How do you break the cycle of generational trauma? And where does journeying with Jesus fit into it all? Sharing her wisdom today is author and teacher Fran Hill. Fran had a turbulent childhood and entered foster care at the age of 14. In her late teens, she came to faith through the witness of her foster fa...

Disability can be a huge curveball to family life - particularly if it occurs suddenly. At the age of 12, Jade Reynolds was struck by an extremely rare, debilitating virus which left her unable to walk again. How she walked through this curveball, and how her parents walked through it, give us much hope and encouragement if this is something happening to our family or those we love. Jade talks wit...

Regardless of our situation, the challenge of balancing work and family life will always be a curveball in our parenting journey, throwing up new and interesting problems that we never expected before we became parents. So we’re delighted to welcome Naomi Aidoo onto today’s podcast, to share wisdom about managing the different aspects of our lives well and finding peace through that. Naomi is a fo...

Arguably the biggest curveball life can throw at us as parents is losing our child. On today’s podcast, we hear from Rebecca Fogarty, who lost her son Leo to cancer shortly before his 4th birthday. With candour and honesty, Bec walks us through the challenges of his illness and the social isolation it created for her and her husband as they travelled to a hospital hundreds of miles away in order t...

Mental illness affects a huge proportion of families, whether in the life of a parent/carer or a child/teen. So how can we navigate our way through this as Christian families? How can we frame mental health and mental illness for our children, from the time they’re born through to when they’re teens and young adults? What are the healthy practices we can model, and what do we do when they’re not e...

There’s not a family alive who hasn’t experienced the curveball of big emotions at some point or other - sometimes from the child, sometimes from the grown-up! Helping us to navigate the emotions that crop up in family life with Biblical wisdom is Lisa Campbell. Lisa is a freelance children, youth and family ministry consultant who specialises in inclusion. She’s a former SENCO (in both primary an...

In this longer episode, we chat to Russ De Vos - husband, father and creator of LIFELINE - about the curveball of addiction. Russ is open about the many challenges he and his family have been through over the past 20 years, and the incredible grace of God in bringing his heart to repentance and healing. Together with his wife Heather, Russ has equipped hundreds of couples across the United States...

This season, we’re looking at the ‘curveballs’ that enter our parenting journey and threaten to derail family life. In today’s episode, we’re thinking about early life trauma. Whether we’re parenting adopted or fostered kids, or whether our birth kids have been through traumatic events, what are the obstacles to discipleship, and what are the practices which help our kids see Jesus? Sharing her nu...

As we head towards Easter, today’s episode - the Season 8 finale - looks at how we can help our families connect with God through the major (and minor) festivals throughout the year. Do we have to set up multiple exhausting family traditions? What about secular festivities? Where do they fit in? And how do we talk about the tricky bits of Easter? Joining us to share her wisdom from many years’ exp...

What does it mean to be creative? Whether our kids enjoy visual art like painting or drawing, or whether their creativity can be seen in music, cooking or problem-solving, today’s episode is all about how we can connect with God through art. We look at how to encourage our kids to be creative, whether or not they consider themselves ‘arty’ - and also how looking at, interpreting and responding to...

Many of our children enjoy dance, formally or informally, and today’s episode is all about how we can connect with God through the bodies he’s given us, whether that’s in dance, exercise or any kind of movement. To guide us through, we’re delighted to be joined by Ruth Carpenter, founder of Psalms and Stretches. Ruth is a professionally-trained contemporary dancer, Pilates teacher and mum of two l...

Fashion is something all of our children experience in various ways. At the very least, all our kids have to choose something to wear each day! But for many of our children and young people, fashion is a hobby, a way they can express themselves, and a mark of their God-given creativity. So how can we help our kids to connect with God through fashion? How do we help them navigate body image and con...

Many of our children and teens will ask big questions about God, faith and the church at some point in their childhood. Some of our kids ask 100 questions a day, every day! How should we answer these questions? How can we help our kids seek Jesus through their questions? Here to help us think through how we approach these questions is none other than Canon J.John: an experienced evangelist, minist...

Sport is a large part of life for many of our children and young people, and there is a bigger range than ever for them to get involved in. Even our children who don’t enjoy sport will usually be taking part in school PE lessons or active extra-curricular clubs. So what are the lessons we can learn from sport to help us as we draw closer to Jesus? How can we enjoy the bodies and opportunities God...

In this episode of the Parenting for Faith podcast we are joined by Ben Jones from Missional Generation. We asked Ben all about connecting with God through gaming and how we can talk to our kids and teens about God through the games that they are playing. We also touched on AI and Ben shared some really helpful ideas on how we can have helpful and important conversations with our children about it...

In this episode of the Parenting for Faith podcast we chatted to Bob Hartman all about connecting with God through writing. He shared some amazing thoughts and suggestions on how we can encourage our kids and teens with writing as well as helping them to develop their skills and use them in a way to connect with God. Bob has travelled the world, telling Bible stories, for over 30 years. He has wri...

If our kids really enjoy cooking and baking and preparing food, how can we leverage that into something which draws them closer to Jesus? How can food and hospitality impact your faith journey? Jo Swinney joined us to discuss hospitality and these questions today. Jo works for A Rocha International and is the author of eight books, most recently “A Place at the Table: faith, hope & hospitality”, c...

How can a love of performing be directed in a way that glorifies God? Are there points of conflict between our faith and the TV/theatre industries? And how should we nurture the faith of our stage-loving kids? Joanna Adeyinka-Burford is with us today to answer these questions and more. Joanna is a cbeebies presenter, stage and screen actress and voiceover artist. She’s also a Christian, a wife and...

Our next podcast episode is now available! This week we chatted to Liz Cole all about how our kids can connect with God through Science. How do faith and science interact with each other and how can we help our kids and teens see that they go together rather than separately? We chatted to Liz all about this and more. Christians in science - https://www.cis.org.uk/ Faraday Institute - https://www.f...

How do we nurture our children’s love of music in a way that glorifies God? How do we frame the difference between performance and worship - or is there a difference? And what about our kids who don’t identify as musicians, who feel self-conscious of their voices - how can we help them into a spirit of worship too? Our guest today is the fabulous Samuel Nwachukwu (Called Out Music), a British-Nige...