Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids

"How we interacted with a homeless person, for instance, will probably make a more indelible impression on our kids' faith than the size of the check we wrote to our church that week."It's a story we have heard all too often. A good kid grows up in the church, reads his Bible regularly, is heavily involved in the youth group, he knows the Lord's Prayer like the back of his hand, yet he goes off to college and his faith goes out the window. He no longer goes to church, no desire to do devotions, no interest in pursuing a deep faith. And the numbers don't lie: the majority of young men and women will abandon their faith soon in the young adulthood.Sticky Faith attempts to find the solution. What makes faith stick? The authors go through a mound of research to expose what works and what doesn't work. They balance out their research with practical tips for parents and youth group leaders.I have read a handful of books and articles about "keeping the faith" but I was really impressed with this work. In my opinion, Christians tend to regularly shy away from research probably because research rarely gives us the news we want to hear. So instead believers utilize vague clichés and formulas such as "let the Holy Spirit work" or "just pray and the results will follow." In this work, the authors use their resources from Fuller Seminary to show how we can help young men and women form a faith that is deep, true, and enduring.

We are using this curriculum for our Middle School Parents small group. My pastor had mentioned the book in his series on parenting a few months ago. I was thrilled there was a DVD, being the visual person that I am. Kara E Powell gives some frightening statistics on the falling away of our children when they go off to college. She herself being a youth leader thinking she was reaching these kids realized there was something missing.I love Kara's honesty and openess and the testimonies of teens out of school and what their struggles were like. They share what their parents did that stuck with them and where they may have missed the mark. These teens in no way blame their parents, they understand they made choices to lead them down a certain path but being a parent of a child who is almost 21, been thru Teen Challenge and is now on fire for the Lord I can look back and see where my faults lie. Now raising a 13 and 15 year old I wanted to share with other parents what I've learned and use Sticky Faith as a tool for us to glean from.

Good book for small group, used workers and parents. They relevant for our culture in times.

Sticky Faith is a book that describes a process of raising children that love Jesus. Authors Dr. Kara E. Powell and Dr. Chap Clark take a statistical look at the characteristics of young adults who follow Christ. Their studies reveal a series of sticky practices that parents can incorporate to build everlasting faith into their kids. Topics such as identity, social justice, and relationships describe some of the important conversations that parents need to be having with their children. Sticky Faith serves as a guide to these conversations and offers insight into what is most important for the spiritual life of your kids.Clark and Powell speak frankly with their audience and offer great parenting insight and advice. Their statistical approach can feel matter-of-fact but they do not neglect the many nuances behind parenting. The sticky metaphor became a bit grating and the constant drive towards stickyfaith.org sounded like a commercial for more sticky products. The overall tone of the book is helpful and the style of publication didn't obfuscate my experience.I would recommend this book to parents. The scope of Sticky Faith leans towards older elementary aged kids. The principles are relevant to anyone who works with children but the target audience is definitely mom and dad.Check out more book reviews at brentcolby.com

This book explains how to build a lasting or "sticky faith in your kids with concrete, practical ideas that you can easily implement into your life right now to make a difference with your kids. Great read and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do their best to keep their kids walking with God, even after they've left home.

In the last five years, there have been a host of solid books published that lay out comprehensive, big picture thinking for why it's critical parents get engaged in the spiritual formation of their kids.This book is set apart from others for two reasons: 1. It is rooted in research from Fuller Youth Institute that helps parents focus on the areas of their child's life that are disproportionately important to developing a long-term, lasting Christian faith. 2. It offers practical, easy-to-apply insight that is often lacking in other books which cast vision for a parent's Deuteronomy 6 role to "train up children in the way they should go" so that when they are older they will not fall away from it.I recommend Sticky Faith to parents who are looking for practical ways to pass down lasting faith to their children in the areas that matter most.

I consumed this book in a day; underlining phases and paragraphs on nearly every page. I loved the fact that this book is backed by what appears to be great data - it blends the experiences of the authors (well trained in their own right and leaders of Fuller Youth Institute)as well as a variety of research results on the lives of teenagers. It is a roadmap to help parents and ministry leaders understand how to help our kids move from childhood faith to a faith that is uniquely theirs. The tools provided to help these kids navigate their high school years and transition to college is exactly what I was looking for, and then some. This is a book that will be well worn by the time I've journeyed with my son through college. I highly recommend this resource and the [...] web site.

This is another very informative book about how to reach out to the next Generations to install Sticky Faith, and how to make it stick like glue. This is very informative if read together with Faith for Exiles.

A must read for Christian parents who want to disciple their kids away from behaviour modification and toward living faith.

Very insightful and helpful book for family ministry

Really helpful, thorough research, largely applicable to a UK setting even though the transitions in schooling are slightly different. Really practical ideas and great questions at the end of the chapters to help you get to grips with the material and apply it personally.

Really interesting study on why young people leave their faith behind and how we can prevent that happening.

Great book!