Hello Friends!

Here we are at Episode 20 of the Familying the Faith Podcast.

Rick, Jim, and Nancy thought the time was right to do an end of year reflection on what we’ve learned from the people we’ve talked with in 2024 as we all further this work of taking seriously the power of parents for the formation of faith and the thriving of our churches.

You’ll hear us thinking about words that we’ve come to understand as critical for that process, like Familying (again!), Embedding, and Transformation. Start your 2025 with greater focus on what really matters, and be able to take that next faithful step! We thank you for the great feedback and your support for this work.

Hello Friends,

Here we are! It's Episode 19 of the Familying the Faith Podcast by Vibrant Faith.

We’re in this to connect with ministry leaders who want to dig into THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB in today’s church, and that is connecting with and uplifting parents—the primary faith-forming agents in our world—and helping them grow in their capacity and confidence as they share a vibrant faith in Jesus with the next generation.

We have another great conversation to share with you today. While at a recent conference, Rick and I both attended a workshop on story sharing—a commitment for Vibrant Faith. We both loved what Craig Gould had to say about the importance of that process for our families and our world and asked him to join us for a conversation with you right away. This is that conversation.

Craig has a particular passion for helping youth, young adults, and parents understand their own story, and how it connects to the story of Jesus. He is a long-time youth minister who has built his ministry around the power of storytelling in families. Craig Gould approaches his work as a parent of 8 children, and serves as the Program Director of the McGrath Institute at Notre Dame, where he helps nourish the Catholic imagination and vocational call of the young church through the Notre Dame Vision summer conferences for high school students and their campus and youth ministry leaders.

He assists in aspects of planning, recruitment, program management and the formation of undergraduates who serve as Mentors within the high school Vision program. He has a particular passion for helping youth and young adults understand their own story as it connects to the story of Jesus.

Rick and Nancy had such a great conversation Craig about:

• His own family of 10(!), and the simple ways that they have leaned into nurturing faith at home.

• Craig also affirms that families are living stories, and part of their development as families is telling and normalizing all aspects of those stories (the good AND the bad!) AND connecting their stories to the Jesus stories.

• Craig also sees the adolescent tasks of “Identity, Purpose and Belonging” as story-based, and the developmental task included making sure that FORGIVENESS is a central thread to those stories.

We were so excited by what Craig Gould had to share. We think you will be too.

Hello Friends!

Welcome to Episode 18 of Vibrant Faith’s Familying the Faith Podcast. Today, we’re going to listen together about what supporting the faith life of kids through parents looks like for leaders at a large Catholic church in Ohio.

We’re so happy to welcome our guests for our conversation: They are Joan Stoltz and Mary Lou Baker—both serve on the family ministry team at St. Maximilian Church in Liberty Township, Ohio. They have been on staff and working this turf together for many years. They are here to talk with us about their efforts to plant a Familying the Faith environment in their church.

You’ll love hearing their very practical reflections on their pre-COVID and post-COVID church realities of family life and the process of formation. You’ll hear how they are experimenting with working with parents and kids together, and their focus on faith conversations while helping parents develop habits and faith experiences.

You'll love hearing their honest struggles and passion for the faith of children. They are such a great example of people who have taken that next faithful step!