Parent-Child Bible Studies: A Form for Facilitation

Shawn McEvoy

Audio By Carbonatix

By Shawn McEvoy, Crosswalk.com

For several years now, I've tried to meet once a week with each of my kids for what we call our Discipleship Sessions. But now that one of them's a teenager and the other one sure seems like it, I began looking for ways to really make our times more meaningful than just going to Starbucks or Panera with Dad before school. I wanted to do something to make our times more consistent, more impactful, more scheduled, and more memorable.

That was the birth of the form you see here, which began in a much more rudimentary style of 3-hole-punched pages the kids could keep in binders, until I asked our Design Editor Rachel Dawson to improve upon the layout.

Today, in our Inside the Editor's Room podcast, we discussed the topics of teenage spiritual growth, mentoring and discipleship, so I shared the successes my family has had with this form. Feel free to print it off, send it around, or customize it to meet your own needs for important times with your kids!

For us, it was important that each session cover about 45 minutes to one hour, and involve the following: readings in a book by a Christian author, Old Testament reading, New Testament reading, a devotional (either from one of the many devotional books they own, or maybe even one Dad has written for the Crosswalk devo), time to freely talk about anything, prayer requests, and, yes, HOMEWORK (in the form of next week's readings, a memory verse, and a service or evangelism opportunity to be done during that week).

It's worked so well for us, this format. It keeps us looking forward to meeting, keeps us targeted, gives us something to look back on as well.

I pray that you can find a time with your kids during the week to read God's Word and talk/listen about the important things in life! Let me know if you can make any use of this printable form, and what other things might have worked well for you!

Blessings,
shawn

PRINTABLE DISCIPLESHIP FORM HERE