Faith Stepping Stones + FAQs

What is FSS?

Faith Stepping Stones is a family ministry system that pulls parents into the role of primary faith mentors for their own children every night in every home.

How does Faith Stepping Stones Family Ministry acheive this?

Faith Stepping Stones Family Ministry teaches a simple set of nightly faith practices over time that give parents the tools and motivation to bless their babies, pray with their toddlers, share Highs & Lows with five year olds, read a Bible verse every night with young readers, say "I’m sorry" (confession/absolution) with preadolescents, reflect theologically on how their Highs & Lows relate to the Bible verse with early adolescents, recommit to deeper discussion and prayer with mid-adolescents, and commit to continued nightly prayer and care between parents and graduating Year 12s or school leavers..

Why eight Stones?

You can do more. You can do fewer. It is a great idea to celebrate passage points in a person’s life at church. Faith Stepping Stones, however, are designed around key physiological changes in a child’s brain. These transition points for the child also happen to be key tension points in parenting. The brain actually goes through six major phases where billions of neurons are added. Between these times of neural growth, there is a plateau where new nerve cells need to connect, hook up, and solidify their connections. We build our Stones to teach a new faith practice at each passage point, and then spend the next couple years solidifying that faith practice as part of the family ritual - every night in every home.

What is a faith practice?

A faith practice in the Faith Stepping Stones system is a simple way of bringing God into the nightly ritual in the home. Most parents have a certain nightly routine to put their children to sleep. We want to take advantage of that, inject the DNA of faith into it, and grow it over time into something that looks like a little worship service every night in every home, with parents as spiritual leaders of the event. When children hit 13 in our society, the raw time spent in communications between teenagers and parents diminishes significantly. We don’t think this is smart or safe. We want to grow faith talk and family communication into something so normal and natural, that it kicks into high gear during adolescence rather than bottoming out. The faith practices we teach gradually grow the nightly ritual into something that families do naturally.

What are the Blessing Services like?

Faith Stepping Stones includes complete Blessing Liturgies for each Stone, designed to be done in worship. They include all new Scripture songs, readings done by young people and parents, and a "laying on of hands" blessing ritual at the altar. You can cut these services up and use them at the close of a regular worship service, or they can become the theme and focus of the entire worship event. (That’s our bias. They are beautiful, meaningful, and thick with symbolism, promise and parental commitment.) Before you decide which way to use these Blessings, you would do well to ask yourself: "Is this the time and place to initiate multiple significant passage points in the faith life of each child and family?" If so, then don’t just make these blessings a break in the action. Make the full worship service the action! (By the way, liturgy literally means the "action of the people" - not just their work.)

I‘ve used Milestones Ministries before. How are Faith Stepping Stones and Milestone Ministries different?

Faith Stepping Stones Family Ministry and Milestone Ministries are cousins of the same family, aiming toward the same goal of parental involvement in the life of faith, and working on the same team.

The Youth and Family Institute who developed Milestones Ministries has some marvelous ideas and resources that can supplement Faith Stepping Stones, and vice versa. We especially like their "Faith Box" idea, which is a wonderful place to keep the Faith Stepping Stones gifts and "18 year quilt" we suggest each family creates for each child.

Faith Stepping Stones and Milestones Ministries are incredible family ministry systems that help churches become the support system for parents, not the replacement in faith nurturing. In our opinion, a congregation that does both ministries will have the most effective family ministry system in place.

What Faith Stepping Stones will offer you are 29 Theme Events that include music, gameshows, prayers, Images & Analogies, Bible time, and more. Faith Stepping Stones also provides you with a Blessing Service for every Stone for you to use. Of course, everything we offer you is customisable and adaptable once you get it. In reality, we provide you with more tools than you will ever find time to use in the time you have!

Do you have to do all eight stones at once?

Short Answer: No. Each stone stands on its own as a unique, complete experience to help parents at a specific moment of parenting.

Long Answer: Because each Stone builds on the last, the real power of Faith Stepping Stones Family Ministry is the gradual growth and depth in communication and faith dialogue in families that adds the faith practices into their nightly ritual.

What kind of a team do I need to pull this off?

You don’t need eight different staff to create Faith Stepping Stones, but you will want a ministry team or task force for each stone that includes:

1. Host & Theme Team: The events are coordinated by a Host/MC type who can teach and coach the Theme Team, lead opening review games, facilitate discussion between groups, and close with quiet reverence. The Theme Team will share faith stories, act out skits, teach key points from PowerPoint slides and outlines, and make the theme come alive.

2. Music Team: Music plays a key part of FSS. A musician or team that can open with energy and fun, teach the key theme verse using the karaoke PowerPoint slides and group interaction, and close with quiet reverence is essential. Also, music during skits, prayers, and other transition times is helpful and beneficial.

3. Tech Team: You wouldn’t think of doing theatre without good tech people. Since all FSS courses have a PowerPoint component, a good tech team to run the tech, oversee sound and lights, and make sure everything flows smoothly is vital.

4. Care Team: Every small group of guests or table full of participants should be cared for by a Table Host or Guide (a Sacred Agent). This person makes sure everyone is included, feels comfortable, and is invited back for subsequent sessions personally. In a church using FSS as an outreach ministry, these Table Hosts also invite all participants for dessert or dinner following the three sessions to see if they would like to be involved in a small group.

How do I start?

The first thing you must do is collect a group of like-minded change agents who are tired of the "drop off child" syndrome at your church and want to explore changing Christian education from something done once a week at church to a process that happens every night in every home., Show them some of the FSS philosophy from this website and cast a huge vision before them: "What would happen to this church if, three years from now, most of the parents were talking faith, praying, reading Scripture and blessing their children every night?" Call key leaders into the process of exploring how to help parents at every phase of family life.

Is training mandatory?

Short Answer: No. Take it and run.

Long Answer: This isn’t just a parenting education program. It is evangelism, outreach, inreach, home worship, marriage enrichment, and an 18-year confirmation program where parents become the teachers and class is held every night in every home. If you want to maximise your success, you’ll bring a team to training or host one in your own church. Faith Inkubators Australia may be able to assist you in this area.

What are the computer system requirements?

If all you want to do is print out your Themes from your CD-ROMs, you really don’t need a computer of recent vintage. Most older computers handle this task just fine. If you are looking to run PowerPoint presentations, you will need a more recent computer. Here are our suggested computer requirements.