Hello Friends!   Welcome to episode 6 of Vibrant Faith’s Podcast, Familying the Faith. Our purpose is to connect with ministry leaders who are ready to dig into engaging and uplifting parents, the primary faith-forming agents in our world, grow in their capacity and confidence as they share a vibrant faith in Jesus with the next generation.    This episode is an exciting one for Rick and Nancy as they had the opportunity to re-connect with a ministry colleague and friend that each of them worked with over two decades ago!      Join us as Ben Freudenburg reflects on his years and years of experience with Familying the Faith in churches. Most recently, Ben served as the Director of the Concordia Center for the Family and Director of Family Life Studies at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Michigan. From the early 1970’s he was a Director of Christian Education serving children, youth, and families in Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and Arizona. He and Rick are the co-authors of The Family-Friendly Church—Ben used the message and strategy of this book to launch the Family-Friendly Partners Network (FFPN) in 2005. Since then, FFPN has trained many churches to adopt a home-centered, church-supported strategy throughout the U.S. and Internationally.      We asked Ben about his perspective on:  Why Familying the Faith matters so much.  What has worked, what hasn’t, over the 25+ years he’s been pursuing this passion.  Why it’s so hard for churches in the U.S. to make the shift to “home-centered, church supported” discipling.  And how do you connect with homes?     This was such a great conversation—you’re going to love it! Some of our takeaways include:    Familying the Faith is about helping the next generation grow to know and love Jesus—it’s not merely about nurturing happy families or happy marriages.  This is a foundational faith-formation approach, not a program. The primary thing that parents NEED to do pass on their faith is to claim their role as the faith-formers.   One way to begin is to help kids to see their parents’ faith lived out in everyday circumstances.    Join us as we help you take that next faithful step!