Head to the Heart: Classes vs. Community
The Philosophy: Teach the Content, Keep the Kid, and Equip the Family
If a business had a one to three-year training program and, after finishing the program, the vast majority of the participants quit and never came back, the company leaders wouldn’t continue the program saying, “Well, it’s the way we’ve always done it.” They would fire the managers, cancel the program, and try something else. Or, they would simply go out of business.
Today, most churches are popping their buttons if 15% of their senior high youth remain regularly active in worship, service, and fellowship. Is your confirmation or junior high youth program growing kids or graduating kids? What does this mean for the future of the church?
Traditional programs fail not because they have bad pastors, bad parents, or bad kids. They fail because they keep trying to maintain the same ineffective system. Flashier materials, a flashier youth director or a flashier youth budget aren’t going to change things. Systems-problems demand systems-solutions.
At Faith Inkubators, we have been advocating for years about a serious systems overhaul of traditional confirmation and junior high youth ministry. If the church is going to retain both information and the teen, as well as equip parents to be the main faith mentors in the lives of their kids, we must shift from a focus on information to a focus on faith formation. We need to shift from simply instruction to ministry. This is not simply theory to us. We at Faith Inkubators are knee-deep in ministry ourselves, not only creating the materials, but using them ourselves in our own ministry settings.
The Theology
The Bible is the only source book you need for Christian education. That’s why each Head to the Heart (H2H) theme is built around one core scripture verse. That verse is unveiled in multiple ways during the theme event at church. We go from text to context by introducing the basic Bible theme at church, discussing it within a small group of friends, then bringing it on home where the real faith incubation happens every night.
The System and Resources
Head to the Heart harnesses the power of the small group in building a network of care at church and at home as the context for learning. Small groups learn, serve, and play as they bond together as living cells in the body of Christ.
We call the three parts of the H2H system the Theme Event (learning), Servant Event (serving), and Fellowship Event (playing). We encourage you to set up your schedule so that each month includes two Theme Events, one Servant or Fellowship Event (one every other month), plus one gathering of the small group Guides, youth leaders and volunteers called a Huddle. Incorporating all of these types of events into your confirmation or junior high youth program provides a framework for a comprehensive and complete ministry system. Supporting that framework are the H2H resources.
Annual Head to the Heart membership includes access to 100+ customizable themes (lessons). PowerPoint presentations, art, skits, stories and cartoons are provided as teaching tools. All of Faith Inkubators’ resources have been developed and refined using the latest research on teaching how the adolescent brain learns, and have been time-tested in thousands of churches coast to coast and around the world for over 25 years.
The Bottom Line
Head to the Heart is a tried-and-true ministry system with resources that helps churches:
Teach the content more effectively
Keep the kids around after Confirmation day, with an emphasis on small peer groups and service
Equip families with nightly faith talk rituals, to explore the topic at home
Remember: we at Faith Inkubators are knee-deep in ministry, just like you. We actually use these materials in our churches. If you have ay questions, or need any help, please let us know!