Faith Formation and the GenOn Christian Parenting Project: Building Connection and Wonder

By Joanna Goodwin, Director of Faith Formation at Mayflower Congregational UCC Church

Faith Formation Through the GenOn Christian Parenting Project at Mayflower UCC

I am the Director of Faith Formation at Mayflower UCC in Oklahoma City. I got connected to GenOn and the Christian Parenting Project because Brittany and I went to undergrad together at Oklahoma City University where we were graduates of the School of Religion. When I saw the call for applicants to participate in the cohort, I knew the resources would be intentional, inclusive, theologically sound, and would be full of love and wonder. Over the years, I’ve had grownups of students looking for spiritual formation or parenting resources and while I had been able to recommend some, there was a distinct void. So, knowing the Christian Parenting Project was in development was really exciting. 

Mayflower’s timeline for rolling out the resources looked a little different, but it worked for our context. The GenOn resources launched in June, so the initial families started receiving those emails. Rather than try to launch something in the summer, we waited to do a broad launch to align with Faith Formation Sunday in Mid-August. (School tends to start in mid-August here).  Faith formation is a lifelong journey, so this Sunday celebrates the ways everyone learns and grows and is also the time when the congregation gifts the third graders their bibles.  

Launching Faith Formation Resources Aligned with Church Community Needs 

As part of launching the project to the congregation, the senior minister and I thought offering an intergenerational workshop about GenOn and this project would be a good way to invite folks to explore and engage the project. People of all ages gathered both in person and online. To begin, we shared our yays, nays, and okays with each other, I gave a brief overview of the project and themes, and then played Brittany's introductory video. Afterwards, participants did the activity from Respect Week 2.  People were invited to write a letter or a card to someone they respect telling them why they respect them. As people worked, they shared more about what respect feels like and the different ways of showing respect.  To set up the space, I had the cards and writing utensils available. I also had some fidget toys, playdoh, and coloring sheets for people to use while we talked. At each table, I also had a place where people could write their name and email if they were interested in signing up to receive the weekly emails from Brittany.  

GenOn helped shape the worship service, too. 1 Kings 19:4-8 and the story of Elijah and the angel was the text of focus. For the homily, Elijah was having a tough time, and the angel showed up and just fed Elijah, gave him some water, and encouraged him to rest. The Olympics were also happening during this time, so there were stories of the athletes, their obstacles, and how they got to Paris because of the community around them. The sermon ended with some congregational participation that borrowed from the Love module resources and Mr. Rogers. I invited everyone to pause and think about who loves them and then to turn and share that with the person near them or in the comment thread online. They really got into it! It was a powerful way too for people to connect with each other beyond just passing the peace in the pews. People were sharing about someone special to them, creating a moment of connection and building a foundation to continue connecting. 

While GenOn helped provide the structure and theme for that entire Sunday, it is also hard to do all the things for all the seasons with everything else happening. While we haven’t utilized the resources as part of worship since, that is something we hope to try. I will also be utilizing the text message content to both message families directly and to turn into social media posts for the church to share. Whether that is part of a call to worship, community or individual prayer, sermon topics, or even doing GenOn moment of reflection and congregational response, or offering another workshop, the beauty of the resources is that they work with everyone no matter their age or stage in life. To continue encouraging sign-ups to participate in the resources, I’ve included a question in the church’s faith formation registration form. In addition to demographic and learning preferences and interests, I asked the grownup if they would like to receive spiritual formation resources from GenOn. Every adult who has filled out the form so far has answered yes to that question! 

Integrating GenOn Resources into Everyday Life and Conversations

While aspects of the project and the research are looking at specific demographics, these resources are helpful for everyone. It’s great when things work well, AND it is great when things aren’t the smoothest. Each provides a time to learn and even get to know the congregation in different ways. What works for one church may work for yours with some adjustment, or you might need to go a completely different direction. I feel like the new format of the emails makes it a much smoother process for people to engage the materials. It’s streamlined but still impactful. Even if I just glance at the email, I can read the topic and get some questions to think about. That then creates ideas for questions to ask while my family and I have dinner or are driving somewhere. In the tear-jerker that is the movie  Russell says in Up, Russell describes a “boring” game where he and his dad sit on a curb eating ice cream and count the blue and red cars. He says “it might sound boring, but I think the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most.” These GenOn Christian Parenting Project resources are helping us all come up with our version of the Russell’s car and ice cream game, creating the moments of connection, love, and time.