Family Faith Project — Forming Faith in Your Child for Life

Family is God's original design for passing faith from one generation to the next. In the same way that Christians are commanded by Christ to “make disciples of all the nations,” Christian parents are commanded to “bring up [your children] in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” The Great Commission begins at home. Faithful and faith-filled families are a key part of preserving the message, ministry, and presence of Christ in the world through their children. That's why "keeping faith in the family" has been the central message and teaching of Whole Heart Ministries from the day we began.

Family Faith Project will bring together familiar and reliable Whole Heart messages and parenting resources, along with new materials and media to be developed, to focus on the task of family faith formation—how biblical faith is formed, fed, and grown within a family. As Christian faith seems to be waning in these times, the need couldn’t be more timely and critical to help Christian parents understand the biblical basis for family faith formation, and begin to implement a model and plan to ensure their faith will be formed in their children.

Faith-full parenting is about much more than just "living like a Christian." It is about encountering the living and lifegiving God at home with your children. The goal of Family Faith Project will be to offer “Parent for the Heart,” an online course and companion workbook that will teach five key biblical priorities of family faith formation—Influence, Nurture, Discipleship, Instruction, and Discipline. It will include biblical and practical teaching and resources for implementing the model and making a plan for faith formation in your family.

You are inviting your children to walk with you and with Jesus, who lives within you, so they can begin to follow, learn from, and be like Jesus. … You walk with your children on the path, and they look to you to be their guide. That is what it means to disciple your children—to help them stay on the path. —Clay Clarkson (Educating the WholeHearted Child)

ABOUT FAMILY FAITH PROJECT

Clay Clarkson has faith that Family Faith Project will help parents form faith in their children. After all, he wrote the Whole Heart slogan, “Keeping Faith in the Family,” and has spent his adult life learning how to help make that happen, both as a father of four and as a student of the Word. Ironically, although Clay was raised in a Christian home, he learned only facts about faith there, and his own faith was not fully formed by his home experience. It wasn’t until going away to college that he found true faith in Christ and his life was radically changed and redirected. His new faith was shaped and formed by ministry, people, books, and church until 1980 when he began studies at Denver Seminary, graduating in 1985 with an MDiv in biblical studies. After serving with church staffs overseas and in several US cities, he and Sally started Whole Heart Ministries in 1994. Since then, Clay’s passion has been to write and publish books and resources, especially through Whole Heart Press, to give help and hope to Christian parents to raise wholehearted children who follow Christ. His books have focused on creating a strong, biblical framework for the Christian home and for parenting by faith, not formula. The Parent for the Heart course and workbook that he will develop will draw from all of his books and resources written for Whole Heart Press and other publishers. It will be a practical theology of family faith formation—a summary of all that he has learned from Scripture about family and Christian parenting, and that he has written and taught about through Whole Heart Ministries.

This is a book about what Sally and I did to bring God’s life into our home for our children to see and believe. That’s what it means to be a lifegiving parent—to introduce our children to the living God of Scripture and to give them the life that we have found in Him. —Clay Clarkson (The Lifegiving Parent)

Family Faith Books

Educating the WholeHearted Child
by Clay Clarkson (with Sally Clarkson) (Whole Heart Press, 4th edition, 2019)

Originally written in to help new homeschooling families see education as part of God’s divine design for the home and family. It has grown fourfold in the amount of content since the first edition in 1994 to become a robust vision not just for home education, but for the Christian home and faith formation. This is our first book in a new 2019 edition, continuously in print for 25 years.

Our 24 Family Ways — A Family Devotional Guide
by Clay Clarkson (Whole Heart Press, 4th edition, 2014)

A family devotional, discipline, and discipleship tool—24 statements of biblical family values in six categories of family life; 120 full Bible devotional outlines; 24 character quality definitions; 24 memory scriptures; mini-stories about each “way”; line-art illustrations of each way for coloring by younger children. This is not a curriculum, but an interactive family resource. It’s all about family faith formation.

Heartfelt Discipline — Following God’s Path of Life to the Heart of Your Child
by Clay Clarkson (Whole Heart Press, 3rd edition, 2014)

We have only a few years with our children, so it’s critical that Christian parents start with a biblical understanding of childhood discipline. This book is both pastoral and exegetical, re-examining oft-cited OT passages through the corrective lens of God’s path of life, and following that path of life into the heart of a child. Discipline is at the core of every other factor in childhood faith formation.

The Lifegiving Parent — Giving Your Child a Life Worth Living for Christ
by Clay (& Sally) Clarkson (Tyndale Momentum, 2018)

Christian parents too often settle for a Christian home that is about the “Christian life,” but not about the “life of Christ.” This book attempts to shed light on what it means to create a home where your children will experience the living God alive in your home. Faith is not a lifestyle, but a life—there is no faith formation in your child apart from the life of Christ in your home. This book brings that to life.

The Lifegiving Parent Experience — A 10-Week Journey of Parenting for Life
by Clay (& Sally) Clarkson (Tyndale Momentum, 2018)

This is a 10-week discussion and Bible study guide to accompany The Lifegiving Parent, suitable to use with a spouse or a group of parents. In addition to insightful scripture studies, and thoughtful discussion questions, there is also a read-aloud serialized story of a fictional family you’ll enjoy getting to know, working through the principles studied. This is a study and a story of family faith formation.

Awaking Wonder — Opening Your Child’s Heart to the Beauty of Learning
by Sally Clarkson (Bethany House, 2020)

Parents worldwide have asked Sally how she and Clay ignited a love for learning and a deep faith in their children. They want to know how the Clarksons launched their children to live such flourishing lives as adults. Awaking Wonder is her answer to those questions. This book is 36 years in the making and provides a deep dive into Sally's most profound legacy: guiding her four children into a wonder-filled life.

The Awaking Wonder Experience — A Guided Companion
by Sally Clarkson and Clay Clarkson (Bethany House, 2020)

Sally and Clay Clarkson learned the secret to raising children who live vibrant, flourishing lives as adults. It all begins with awaking your child's heart, mind, and strength to the wonder of God's Word and work in the world. This companion guide to Sally’s book Awaking Wonder provides practical ideas, insights, and suggestions to direct you and your children along the path of wonder and learning.