NASHVILLE (BP) – Awana, the non-profit ministry focused on children’s discipleship, has announced the release of a new resource designed for biblically based family discipleship titled “Talk About.”
The resource is designed to assist parents with family devotions through a variety of means such as weekly Scripture conversation guides, shareable lesson plans and family activities charts.
For those who sign up, all resources are sent out every week on Thursday through email and on the website.
Shawna Murlin, content developer for the “Talk About” resource, told Baptist Press the resource’s name and foundation came out of Deuteronomy 6:6-7.
“Through this passage, Scripture is telling us that parents are to be talking about God’s Word non-stop, we’re supposed to be having conversations constantly with our children about God’s Word,” Murlin said. “Deuteronomy 6 gives us the why and how of children’s discipleship.”
She continued that the resource is designed to not only benefit children, but help equip parents as well.
“If parents know they’re supposed to be doing this, we thought ‘how do we equip the parent?,’” Murlin said.
“We wanted a resource that would help communicate a beautiful vision of family discipleship. Our main goal is that children know, love and serve Jesus, so the win is the family grows closer together and that family grows closer to God.”
Matt Markins, President and CEO of Awana, echoed the sentiment that the backbone of family discipleship is relational communication.
“We’re being commanded from the Scriptures to talk to our kids, and it’s clear that parents who are disciple-making parents talk to their children,” Markins said.
“If a basic foundation to an intimate relationship with their children is dialogue, then talk related to Christianity should not be a second language, but a heart language for families.”
Markins said he hopes this resource can assist local churches, including many Southern Baptist Churches that use Awana programming, with “becoming an equipping community that trains parents in discipleship.
