What is Stepping Stones?

Stepping Stones gathers families during eight significant times in a child’s life to provide a supportive place to nurture our faith and examine key developmental stages.

Early Parenting Skills: Stones 1, 2 and 3

The first three courses, Raising a Healthy Baby, Raising a Healthy Preschooler, and Entering School, are designed to provide practical parenting advice at each stage of early family life. The courses help parents understand physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of their young children. Parents add a simple faith practice to their nightly bedtime routine at each step. They learn to bless their babies, pray with their preschoolers, and share the highs and lows each night with kindergartners. These three-session courses also provide a great way for young families to connect with others who are in similar stages of parenting.

Elementary Family Faith Practices: Stones 4 and 5

The next two courses, My Bible, and Holy Communion, shift the focus from early parenting skills to initiating two key faith practices every night in every home. In My Bible, young readers receive new Bibles and begin to add a verse of scripture each night to the family ritual. The concept of living a forgiven, forgiving lifestyle is explored in the fifth Stepping Stone, along with a study of Holy Communion. This course gives families a review of Christ’s gift, as well as a means of implementing an “I’m sorry” practice every night in every home. (Confession/Absolution is a great thing to get started before adolescent hormones kick in!)

Later Parenting & Spiritual Disciplines: Stones 6, 7 and 8

The last years of a young person’s life at home can be marked and marred with frustration, anger, and pain. Parents often find themselves walking a thin line between their need to guide the child and their child’s need for independence. Some parents feel crowded out of their teen’s life, schedule, and confidence. Others abdicate parental roles at the first sign their child wants them out of their face and space. This is not the time for the parent to cease being the parent! This is a time to bond together with other parents going through the same transition from child to adult and help one another cope with hope. The church can be the best ally a family has at this critical moment. It commits to helping parents and teens keep communication open, deepen their prayer life, and enjoy the ride.

On the doorstep of adolescence, as traditional confirmation years begin, the Surviving Adolescence Stepping Stone teaches families how to grow together at a time that could tear them apart. Families spend two sessions learning how to set goals and practices in place for healthy family communication. The Confirmation Stepping Stone includes a look at the faith a young Christian confesses on confirmation day, the promises they are making to God, and the concept of call. The final Faith Stepping Stone, Graduation, leads parents and seniors to look back at the blessings and gifts of family life, and ahead to the new calling God has for both parent and young adult.