Prayer Walk Activities

On a prayer walk, you can focus on specific themes such as your church, the Psalms, or your neighborhood, using visual cues for prayer prompts, such as praying for people in the homes you pass. You can incorporate worship music and pray for key people, such as your family or classmates, or the location you are walking, such as around your church, your school, or your neighborhood. Stay present and listen for God’s guidance. Either silently or out loud, you can pray for your community’s peace and needs, for individuals, such as teachers, students, and neighbors, for spiritual health, or use scripture as a guide.

Themed Prayer Walks

Focus on Your Church: Walk around your church building and grounds, praying for staff,ministries, members’ health (spiritual, physical, and emotional), and unity

Neighborhood Focus: Pray for salvation, peace, justice, and the needs of residents as you see their homes; pray for local businesses and schools

Scripture-Based: Take a walk in nature, using a Psalm or a book of the Bible as a guide, turning verses into personal prayers

Key Locations: Visit hospitals, nursing homes, parks, or government buildings and pray for protection and God’s will for those places and people

Techniques & Prompts

Use Your Senses: Notice things around you, such as a rundown yard, a busy school) to prompt specific prayers for those people or situations.

Listen & Journal: Be quiet and listen for the Holy Spirit’s guidance; write down prompts in a journal or on cards.

Worship & Scripture: Play worship music or listen to scripture as you walk to set the tone. The “Ps”: Structure prayers around themes like Presence, Praise, Purpose, Petition, Pardon, Protection, and Persistence.

Practical Tips

Walk Slowly: Give yourself time to notice and pray.
Pray Out Loud or Silently: Praying out loud with others can be powerful.
Stay Aware: Keep your eyes open and stay aware of your surroundings for safety.
Make it a Habit: Spread a prayer walk over multiple days or weeks, or do it daily.

Articles and Videos

FINANCIAL LITERACY, EMPOWERMENT, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

How to Open a Roth IRA: A Roth IRA can help you earn tax-free growth on your investments.

How to Lead Online Worship Without Losing Your Soul-Or Body: 8 tips for stewarding church technology in a time of social distancing.

A North Carolina Nonprofit Helps Churches Convert Property from Liabilities into Assets: Leaders of a community development corporation believe that even struggling congregations can survive and thrive if members take stock of their assets and put them to use as resources for their communities.

John McKnight: Low-Income Communities Are Not Needy – They Have Assets: People who want to help low-income communities should see them as “half-full glasses,” places with strengths and capacities that can be built upon, says the codeveloper of the asset-based community development strategy.

SUSTAINABILITY

A Network of Black Farmers and Black Churches Delivers Fresh Food from Soil to Sanctuary: The Black Church Food Security Network promotes long-term economic empowerment among black farmers and congregations while addressing issues of health, food accessibility, and self-determination.

A Nonprofit Works to “Green” the Black Church: “Green the Church” encourages African American congregations to commit to an environmental theology that promotes sustainable practices and helps build economic and political change.

CREATING SAFE SPACES

Alternatives to Calling the Police: Unpack the reasons why a congregation might call the police and highlight alternatives that are less harmful to people of color.

Opioid Epidemic Practical Toolkit: Helping Faith and Community Leaders Bring

Hope and Healing to Our Communities: This 24-page toolkit from the Department of Health offers opioid-awareness resources for faith-based organizations.

Welcoming All Abilities
Hospitality and inclusion for members with developmental disabilities.

MENTAL HEALTH

Mental Health & The Church
Learn about and promote a more holistic understanding of mental illness. Use the provided material within small groups to provide for personal and ministry development.

Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective
Utilize online training highlighting subjects such as healing and justice, masculinity, and restorative justice, toolkits, Covid-19 resources, and online events such as Heart Space and Decompress.

Mental Health Tips for African Americans to Heal after Collectively Witnessing an Injustice
This video was created as a Covid-19 resource to provide mental health ideas and resources to cope with racial trauma and social distancing.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
Explore free mental health courses, support programs, and resources for individuals and families, as well as education courses, peer support groups, downloadable awareness toolkits, NAMI FaithNet advisory group and worship tools, articles, and resources for African American and Latinx communities. Also find interfaith resources for congregational leaders.

Mental Health Grace Alliance
Join support groups, access affordable recovery care, find resources for family members, and other resources for those with mental illnesses. Experience a support group, with a 14-week curriculum for family members, training seminars on the clinical and biblical understanding of mental illness, and affordable access to mental health recovery care.

Cultural Somatics Institute: Racialized Trauma Course
This online course explains racialized trauma that stays in the body, especially as it relates to Black people, White people, police, and communities. Utilize the free five-session e-course for people of faith exploring the intersection of racism and trauma.

Healing the Healers
This series of short videos offers peer support for faith leaders who respond to community-level trauma such as gun violence, disaster, and suicide, offering 20-minute episodes, interviews with faith leaders, discussion questions, and reflections from scholars.

Spirituality, Neuroplasticity, and Personal Growth
YouTube lecture “Spirituality, Neuroplasticity, and Personal Growth” instructs the audience to explore relational and psychological problem-solving from the perspective of recent findings in neuroscience.

LEADERSHIP

Take a Look At Yourself: Self-in-System Sensitizers: The purpose of the Self-in-System Sensitizers is to help us become more aware of our typical patterns of organizational behavior.

Framing The Conversation: Essential Characteristics of Ecclesial Leadership: Bishop Frank Caggiano proposes “empowered humility” and “commitment to creativity in ministry” as two fundamental qualities for ecclesial leadership.

Leading Spiritual Growth
Promoting health, vitality, and lifelong faith in communities

Church Management and Administration
Manage your congregation effectively with resources on budgeting tips, software, and leadership strategies.

Better Leaders, Better Parishes
Explore the theme in the free 8-part webinar series. This series is presented by Dr. Dan Ebener, and the series content is based on his book, Pastoral Leadership: Best Practices for Church Leaders.

ReFocus Ministry
This organization helps clergy and discipleship leaders of faith communities foster intergenerational discipleship, by providing training and information for communal worship and faith formation at home. Explore their coaching and consulting for family faith formation: online webinars; book lists, blogs, links to family ministry, Facebook pages, and an Intergenerational Toolkit for practical discipleship at home.

Theology Crawl
Offers questions, guidelines, applicable scriptures, and links to resources. This online guide can be used to facilitate difficult conversations about faith and life and is best for small groups and young adults, (especially progressive or nondenominational Christians).

Reading Lists and Online Book Clubs

SOCIAL JUSTICE, BLACK HISTORY, GENERATIONAL HEALING AND HISTORICAL ACTIVISM
Witnessing and Testifying: Black Women, Religion, and Civil Rights
Rosetta E. Ross
The Civil Rights Movement was not only an epochal social and political event but also a profound moral turning point in American history. Here, for the first time, social ethicist Rosetta Ross examines the religiously motivated activism of Black women in the movement and its moral import.

This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us
Cole Arthur Riley
In her stunning debut, the creator of Black Liturgies weaves stories from three generations of her family alongside contemplative reflections to discover the “necessary rituals” that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation.

Call Us What We Carry
Amanda Gorman
Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning. Call Us What We Carry reveals that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future.

Something, Someday
Amanda Gorman
Sometimes the world feels broken. And problems seem too big to fix. But somehow, we all have the power to make a difference. With a little faith, and maybe the help of a friend, together we can find beauty and create change. With intimate and inspiring text and powerfully stunning illustrations, Something, Someday reveals how even the smallest gesture can have a lasting impact.

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters
Priya Parker
In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive—which they don’t have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play.

Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn’t, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings—conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp—and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience.

The result is a book that’s both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue—and how you host and attend them.

Radical Belonging: How to Survive and Thrive in an Unjust World (While Transforming it for the Better)
Lindo Bacon and Ijeoma Oluo
“Belonging has been a formative struggle for me. Like most people with marginalized identities, my experience has taught me that it’s hard to be yourself and feel like you belong in a culture that is hostile to your existence. That’s why my body of work as a scientist, author, professor, speaker, and advocate for body liberation always comes back to the impact of belonging or not belonging.

Radical Belonging is my manifesto, helping us heal from the individual and collective trauma of injustice and support our transition from a culture of othering to one of belonging.”

Plus…
● The Body Keeps the Score
● My Grandmother’s Hands
● African American Folk Healing, by Stephanie Mitchem
● Working The Roots: 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing, by Michele E. Lee
● Black Women’s Liberatory Pedagogies: Resistance, Transformation, and Healing Within and Beyond the Academy
● The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
● Assata, by Assata Shakur
● Sisters of the Yam
● Sister Outsider (Different Family Structures)
● Citizen, by Claudia Rankin
● Behind the Mask of the Strong Black Woman, by Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant

SOMATIC THERAPY BREATHING: SPIRITUALITY AND WHOLENESS

The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection through Embodied Living
Hillary L. PhD McBride
Learn how your body can also be your teacher. Experience this gentle and powerful voice as it calls us back home to ourselves.

The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary

Clark Strand and Perdita Finn
Weaving together their own remarkable story of how they came to the rosary, their discoveries about the eco-feminist wisdom at the heart of this ancient devotion, and the life-changing revelations of the Lady herself, the authors reveal an ancestral path – available to everyone, religious or not – that returns us to the powerful healing rhythms of the natural world.

● Returning Home to Our Bodies, by Abigail Rose Clarke
● The Wisdom of Your Body, by Hillary L. McBride PdD

CHRISTIAN PARENTING
The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices Casper ter Kuile
This book explores how we can nourish our souls by transforming common, everyday practices – such as yoga, reading, and walking the dog – into sacred rituals that can heal our crisis of social isolation and struggle to find purpose.

Little Steps, Big Faith: How the Science of Early Childhood Development Can Help You Grow Your Child’s Faith
Dawn Rundman Ph.D. (Families/Shaping ministries/ Creating Communities)
From brain science to language development and social skills, we’ve never known more about how children’s minds develop in the first five years of life. Yet with all the information available, Christian parents may find themselves confused about how to apply these learnings to daily life with their children. In Little Steps, Big Faith, early childhood expert Dr. Dawn Rundman navigates the research to arrive at surprising insights about how very young children experience God, and how parents can use science to teach faith.

● How to Do the Work, by Dr. Nicole Lepera (Genheal) (S)
● It Didn’t Start with You, by Mark Wolynn (genHeal) (S)

SUSTAINABILITY AND EMPOWERMENT
You Need a Budget: The Proven System for Breaking the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle, Getting Out of Debt, and Living the Life You Want
Jesse Mecham
A guide based on the tenets of the award-winning financial platform, “You Need a Budget,” argues that a well-planned budget does not involve deprivation and counsels readers on how to prioritize financial goals, reduce stress through strategic cash flow allocations, and meet the challenges of unplanned expenses.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich
Ramit Sethi
This book will show you:
● How to crush your debt and student loans faster than you thought possible
● How to set up no-fee, high-interest bank accounts that won’t gouge you for every penny
● How you can automate your finances so your money goes exactly where you want it to
● How to talk your way out of late fees (with word-for-word scripts)
● How to save hundreds or even thousands per month (and still buy what you love)
● A set-it-and-forget-it investment strategy that’s dead simple and beats financial advisors at their own game
● How to handle buying a car or a house, paying for a wedding, having kids, and other big expenses – stress free
● The exact words to use to negotiate a big raise at work

Sacred Economics
Charles Eisenstein
Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme—but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.

This book is about how the money system will have to change—and is already changing—to embody this transition. A broadly integrated synthesis of theory, policy, and practice, Sacred Economics explores avant-garde concepts of the New Economics, including negative-interest currencies, local currencies, resource-based economics, gift economies, and the restoration of the commons. Author Charles Eisenstein also considers the personal dimensions of this transition, speaking to those concerned with “right livelihood” and how to live according to their ideals in a world seemingly ruled by money. Tapping into a rich lineage of conventional and unconventional economic thought, Sacred Economics presents a vision that is original yet commonsense, radical yet gentle, and increasingly relevant as the crises of our civilization deepen.

Imagining Abundance: Fundraising, Philanthropy, and a Spiritual Call to Service
Kerry Alys Robinson
Fundraising is ministry—a transformative ministry that challenges all people to realize their own gifts and how they can be used for the benefit of the church. In Imagining Abundance, Kerry Robinson focuses on reasons why each of us are called to be stewards. We act because we’re excited about what it is that we do for the church and where we’re called by God to be, we want others to be just as excited about what that is, and we want people to be partners with us in that ministry.In Imagining Abundance, Kerry Robinson offers an inspirational and practical guide to effective fundraising that is ideal for anyone invested in a faith community. Bishops, provincials, pastors, ministers, executive and development directors and trustees of faith-based organizations will benefit from this healthy approach to the activity of fundraising that situates successful development in the context of ministry and mission.

A Spirituality of Fundraising: The Henri Nouwen Spirituality Series
Henry Nouwen
Do you serve on your church’s stewardship committee or need to raise money for a mission trip or some other faith-based cause? Perhaps the thought of asking people for money intimidates you. It’s time to change the way you think about fundraising.

“Fundraising is, first and foremost, a ministry,” best-selling author and renowned spiritual
teacher
Henri Nouwen writes. “It’s a way of announcing our vision and inviting other people into our mission.”

Nouwen encourages us to see fundraising as spiritual work and approach it confidently. “Fundraising is precisely the opposite of begging,” he points out.

The Sacred Exchange: Creating a Jewish Money Ethic
Edited by Rabbi Mary L. Zamore
A rich and varied discussion about the ethics of money and how our use of and relationship with money must reflect our religious values.

CHURCH MANAGEMENT AND SHAPING MINISTRIES: BUILDING COMMUNITIES

Speaking Across Generations
Darrell E. Hall
Different generations communicate differently. If you are speaking across generations, you need to understand how different generations hear. Pastor Darrell Hall (a millennial) harnesses the insights of generational science to explore how generations are distinct people groups with their own cultures and languages. With fresh research from the Barna Group on how generations communicate, Hall sheds light on how each generation receives verbal messages, from boomers and Xers to millennials and Gen Z and those not yet named.

Lost Connections
Johann Hari
What really causes depression and anxiety–and how can we really solve them? Award-winning journalist Johann Hari suffered from depression since he was a child and started taking antidepressants when he was a teenager. He was told that his problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate whether this was true-and he learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong.

Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are not caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains. In fact, they are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today. Hari’s journey took him from a mind-blowing series of experiments in Baltimore, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin. Once he had uncovered nine real causes of depression and anxiety, they led him to scientists who are discovering seven very different solutions–ones that work.

It is an epic journey that will change how we think about one of the biggest crises in our culture today. His TED talk, “Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong,” has been viewed more than eight million times and revolutionized the global debate. This book will do the same.

Unlacing the Heart: Connecting with What Really Matters
Henry B. Freeman PhD
Unlacing the Heart is a book of true-life stories that capture moments of deep personal connection between people living very different lives. Of Alfredo, a homeless man who invited Henry Freeman into his life; of Jane, a Yale student who needed help coming out from under the burden of a high society family; of Sister Margaret, a Franciscan nun who joyfully shared her gift for uncovering the good in people we often fear and hate; of Mary, a person trapped in the body of a bag lady with only one true friend; and of an elderly woman also named Margaret who found in a meal of Omaha steak and asparagus a safe space to share her joys, her fears and the news of her pending death. Henry Freeman shares with us a rare gift that extends far beyond his professional expertise as a fundraising consultant. It is a gift he, a Quaker, received from his mentor and friend Henri Nouwen, an author and Catholic theologian whose writings on spirituality and the human condition touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Indeed, the author’s most powerful stories—the ones that lead readers on an inner journey and exploration of their own vulnerable spaces—reflect the presence of Nouwen in the author’s life and the words he shares in this book’s pages. In his Foreword to Unlacing the Heart noted author John Stewart reminds us that for thousands of years Jewish scholars have lifted up the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes as wisdom literature because they contain important reflections on the human condition and clarify how we as human beings are to live in the world. He then goes on to embrace Unlacing the Heart as a modern-day example of wisdom literature. What more compelling introduction could be offered to a first-time author’s work?

MENTAL HEALTH
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harai

From renowned historian Yuval Noah Harari comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

The Storytelling Animal
Jonathan Gottschall
Humans live in landscapes of make-believe. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It’s easy to say that humans are “wired” for story, but “why”?
In this delightful and original book, Jonathan Gottschall offers the first unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life’s complex social problems–just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival.

Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, Gottschall tells us what it means to be a storytelling animal. Did you know that the more absorbed you are in a story, the more it changes your behavior? That all children act out the same kinds of stories, whether they grow up in a slum or a suburb? That people who read more fiction are more empathetic?

Of course, our story instinct has a darker side. It makes us vulnerable to conspiracy theories, advertisements, and narratives about ourselves that are more “truthy” than true. National myths can also be terribly dangerous: Hitler’s ambitions were partly fueled by a story.

But as Gottschall shows in this remarkable book, stories can also change the world for the better. Most successful stories are moral–they teach us how to live, whether explicitly or implicitly, and bind us together around common values. We know we are master shapers of story. “The Storytelling Animal” finally reveals how stories shape “us.”

Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
Robert D. Putnam

*The basis for the documentary Join or Die—now streaming on Netflix!*

Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today’s fractured America.

Twenty years ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called “a very important book” and Putnam, “the de Tocqueville of our generation.”

Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans’ changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it’s with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the “social capital” that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection—as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation.

At the time of its publication, Putnam’s then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.

Unlacing the Heart: Connecting with What Really Matters
Henry B. Freeman PhD
Unlacing the Heart is a book of true-life stories that capture moments of deep personal connection between people living very different lives. Of Alfredo, a homeless man who invited Henry Freeman into his life; of Jane, a Yale student who needed help coming out from under the burden of a high society family; of Sister Margaret, a Franciscan nun who joyfully shared her gift for uncovering the good in people we often fear and hate; of Mary, a person trapped in the body of a bag lady with only one true friend; and of an elderly woman also named Margaret who found in a meal of Omaha steak and asparagus a safe space to share her joys, her fears and the news of her pending death. Henry Freeman shares with us a rare gift that extends far beyond his professional expertise as a fundraising consultant. It is a gift he, a Quaker, received from his mentor and friend Henri Nouwen, an author and Catholic theologian whose writings on spirituality and the human condition touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Indeed, the author’s most powerful stories—the ones that lead readers on an inner journey and exploration of their own vulnerable spaces—reflect the presence of Nouwen in the author’s life and the words he shares in this book’s pages. In his Foreword to Unlacing the Heart noted author John Stewart reminds us that for thousands of years Jewish scholars have lifted up the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes as wisdom literature because they contain important reflections on the human condition and clarify how we as human beings are to live in the world. He then goes on to embrace Unlacing the Heart as a modern-day example of wisdom literature. What more compelling introduction could be offered to a first-time author’s work?

Plus…
● The Power of Ritual, by Casper ter Kuile
● The Artists Way, by Julia Cameron
● Atlas of the Heart, by Brene Brown

Ability and Accessibility
● Small Talk, by Richard Pink and Roxanne Pink

Mary Magdalene Book Club: a place to explore one’s identity inside and outside and in relation to Church spaces:
● The Way of the Rose, by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn
● The Madonna Secret, by Sophie Strand
● Mary Magdalene Revealed, by Meggan Watterson

SUSTAINABILITY

A Network of Black Farmers and Black Churches Delivers Fresh Food from Soil to Sanctuary: The Black Church Food Security Network promotes long-term economic empowerment among black farmers and congregations while addressing issues of health, food accessibility, and self-determination.

A Nonprofit Works to “Green” the Black Church: “Green the Church” encourages African American congregations to commit to an environmental theology that promotes sustainable practices and helps build economic and political change.

CREATING SAFE SPACES

Alternatives to Calling the Police: Unpack the reasons why a congregation might call the police and highlight alternatives that are less harmful to people of color.

Opioid Epidemic Practical Toolkit: Helping Faith and Community Leaders Bring

Hope and Healing to Our Communities: This 24-page toolkit from the Department of Health offers opioid-awareness resources for faith-based organizations.

Welcoming All Abilities
Hospitality and inclusion for members with developmental disabilities.

MENTAL HEALTH

Mental Health & The Church
Learn about and promote a more holistic understanding of mental illness. Use the provided material within small groups to provide for personal and ministry development.

Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective
Utilize online training highlighting subjects such as healing and justice, masculinity, and restorative justice, toolkits, Covid-19 resources, and online events such as Heart Space and Decompress.

Mental Health Tips for African Americans to Heal after Collectively Witnessing an Injustice
This video was created as a Covid-19 resource to provide mental health ideas and resources to cope with racial trauma and social distancing.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
Explore free mental health courses, support programs, and resources for individuals and families, as well as education courses, peer support groups, downloadable awareness toolkits, NAMI FaithNet advisory group and worship tools, articles, and resources for African American and Latinx communities. Also find interfaith resources for congregational leaders.

Mental Health Grace Alliance
Join support groups, access affordable recovery care, find resources for family members, and other resources for those with mental illnesses. Experience a support group, with a 14-week curriculum for family members, training seminars on the clinical and biblical understanding of mental illness, and affordable access to mental health recovery care.

Cultural Somatics Institute: Racialized Trauma Course
This online course explains racialized trauma that stays in the body, especially as it relates to Black people, White people, police, and communities. Utilize the free five-session e-course for people of faith exploring the intersection of racism and trauma.

Healing the Healers
This series of short videos offers peer support for faith leaders who respond to community-level trauma such as gun violence, disaster, and suicide, offering 20-minute episodes, interviews with faith leaders, discussion questions, and reflections from scholars.

Spirituality, Neuroplasticity, and Personal Growth
YouTube lecture “Spirituality, Neuroplasticity, and Personal Growth” instructs the audience to explore relational and psychological problem-solving from the perspective of recent findings in neuroscience.

LEADERSHIP

Take a Look At Yourself: Self-in-System Sensitizers: The purpose of the Self-in-System Sensitizers is to help us become more aware of our typical patterns of organizational behavior.

Framing The Conversation: Essential Characteristics of Ecclesial Leadership: Bishop Frank Caggiano proposes “empowered humility” and “commitment to creativity in ministry” as two fundamental qualities for ecclesial leadership.

Leading Spiritual Growth
Promoting health, vitality, and lifelong faith in communities

Church Management and Administration
Manage your congregation effectively with resources on budgeting tips, software, and leadership strategies.

Better Leaders, Better Parishes
Explore the theme in the free 8-part webinar series. This series is presented by Dr. Dan Ebener, and the series content is based on his book, Pastoral Leadership: Best Practices for Church Leaders.

ReFocus Ministry
This organization helps clergy and discipleship leaders of faith communities foster intergenerational discipleship, by providing training and information for communal worship and faith formation at home. Explore their coaching and consulting for family faith formation: online webinars; book lists, blogs, links to family ministry, Facebook pages, and an Intergenerational Toolkit for practical discipleship at home.

Theology Crawl
Offers questions, guidelines, applicable scriptures, and links to resources. This online guide can be used to facilitate difficult conversations about faith and life and is best for small groups and young adults, (especially progressive or nondenominational Christians).

Pray Through Art

Coloring Prayer: First, gather coloring utensils and coloring sheets. Second, decide what you’ll pray for with each color. For example, use purple while praying aloud for animals, green for family members, blue for the Earth and the environment. Tailor the categories to your own family or classroom.

Prayer in Song: One of the easiest ways to teach children to pray is through singing. There are several options out there. The doxology is one song used as a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. The lyrics are as follows:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God all creatures here below. Praise God above ye heavenly host. Praise Father/Mother, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.Prayer Journal: Invite your children to begin drawing and writing their prayers to God. Even little ones can draw their prayers. For those who are older, they may want to write letters to God. Additionally, giving children a prompt can offer needed structure. Perhaps encourage them to write to God about their hopes for the coming school year.

Pray Using Your Body

Prayer through Movement: There are several ways to pray with kids that teach how their minds and bodies communicate with God. So, try this simple prayer below, especially useful for the kinesthetic learner. Additionally, yoga and dance are great options that can be done with children of all ages.

(3 deep breaths) God, you are above (reach toward the sky), below (touch your toes), inside (hands to heart) and all around (big arm circles). I worship you (reach toward the sky), and live my life for you (touch your toes). And I love you (hands to heart) with all that I am (big arm circles). (3 deep breaths)

Five-Finger Prayer: Developed by Pope Francis, this prayer practice assigns each finger something to pray for. The thumb is for those closest to us. The index finger for those who teach, instruct, and heal us. The middle finger, our tallest, is for our leaders. The ring finger, our weakest, for those who are weak. The pinky is for ourselves.

Pray Through Conversation

Fill-in-the-Blank Prayer: Take turns going back and forth or from person to person, if you’re in a group, saying, God is great, God is good, thank you God for ______________. See how long you can keep it going. It’s fun (and sometimes breathtaking) to hear what your children say. Discussing what is inside our hearts and minds with each other is a crucial way to build relationships. Consequently, this practice builds both relationships with God and with each other.

Prayer Walk: Go for a walk together in search for the things you’re thankful to God for. Sidewalks, trees, bird songs, smiles from other pedestrians, flowers in bloom, passing cars and buses that make travel possible. So much to appreciate! Additionally, this is an excellent way to get outside, slow down the mind, and get active together.

Pray Through Silence

Centering Prayer: Pray silently in this way to empty the mind and become open to God’s presence. Young children can struggle to sit quietly and still since their bodies often desire movement and activity. Therefore, two to five minutes can be plenty for young elementary children to start with. Now, for older children, try up to ten minutes once they’re acclimated to the practice. First, invite them to close their eyes and imagine that they are standing in a forest along the side of a stream. Second, explain that when a thought comes into their minds, they can imagine the thought landing on a leaf, floating down onto the surface of the stream and away until it’s out of view.

Breath Prayer: First, choose a word or brief phrase to repeat in one breath. Now, if it’s a phrase, say one part on the inhale and one part on the exhale. For example, invite your children to think in their minds or whisper to themselves Psalm 56:3. Next, on the inhale, think or say, When I am afraid. Then, on the exhale, think or say, I will trust you. Repeating breath prayers is a meditative practice that can be done with children of almost any age.

Scripture Prayer: First, choose a Bible verse and use it as a prayer to begin and end each day with your children. Try John 3:18, Psalm 46:1 or Romans 15:13. Additionally, it may be helpful to have it posted by their bed to read together

*Source:
Alissa Ellett, Illustrated Ministry, 10 Ways to Pray with Kids, https://www.illustratedministry.com/2017/ways-to-pray-with-kids/, July 27, 2017.

Faith Practices

The following faith practices help God’s people of all ages be the people we are called to be:

Part 1: Worship

• Gratitude to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to live with a grateful heart, cognizant of God’s work in my life and my abundant resources
• Rule for Life to live a sane and holy rhythm that reflects a love for God and respect for how He has made me
• Sabbath to set apart one day a week for rest and worship of God
• Worship to honor and adore the Trinity as the supreme treasure of life

Part 2: Open Myself to God

• Journaling to be alert to my life through writing and reflecting on God’s presence and activity in, around, and through me
• Practicing the Presence to develop a continual openness and awareness of Christ’s presence living in me
• Rest to honor God and my human limitations through restful rhythms
• Self-Care to value myself as my heavenly Father values me
• Simplicity and Slowing to curb my addiction to busyness, hurry, and workaholism; to learn to savor the moment

Part 3: Relinquish the False Self

• Confession and Self-Examination to surrender my weaknesses and faults to the forgiving love of Christ and intentionally desire and embrace practices that lead to transformation
• Mindfulness and Attentiveness to live wholeheartedly in the present moment, alert to God and without judgment
• Silence to free myself from the addiction to and distraction of noise so I can be totally present to the Lord; to open myself to God in the place beyond words
• Sobriety to live with moderation and full attachment to God – without dependence on substances that are harmful to my life
• Solitude to leave people behind and enter into time alone with God
• Submission to have Jesus as the Master of my life in absolutely every way
• Waiting to patiently trust in God’s goodness and timing in the events and relationships of my life

Part 4: Share My Life with Others

• Community to express and reflect the self-donating love of the Trinity by investing in & journeying with others
• Discipling to be in a relationship where I am encouraged or where I encourage another to become an apprentice of Jesus
• Face-to-Face Connection to connect face to face, in person, below the surface of words and conversation
• Hospitality to be a safe person offering others the grace, shelter, and presence of Jesus
• Service to reflect the helping, caring, and sharing love of God in the world
• Spiritual Friendship to develop a friendship that encourages and challenges me to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength
• Witness to reveal the life-changing love of Jesus to others

Part 5: Hear God’s Word

• Devotional Reading to prayerfully encounter and surrender to the Living God through the reading of Scripture
• Memorization to carry the life-shaping words of God in me at all times and in all places

Part 6: Embody the Love of Christ

• Blessing Others or Encouragement to instill courage, confidence, and hope through expressing the delight God has in others
• Care of the Earth to honor the Creator by loving, nurturing, and stewarding his creation
• Compassion to become the healing presence of Christ to others
• Control of the tongue to turn the destructive way I use words into authentic, loving and healing speech
• Forgiveness to live into Jesus’ forgiving heart and stop the cycle of vengeance
• Humility to become like Jesus in his willingness to choose the hidden way of love rather than the way of power
• Justice to love others by seeking their good, protection, gain, and fair treatment
• Stewardship to live as a steward of God’s resources in all areas of life; to live out of the awareness that nothing I have is my own
• Truth Telling to live an authentically truthful life

Part 7: Pray

• Contemplative Prayer to develop an open, restful receptivity to the Trinity that enables me to always be with God just as I am
• Conversational Prayer to talk naturally and unselfconsciously to God in prayer times with others
• Fasting to let go of an appetite in order to seek God on matters of deep concern for others, myself, and the world
• Fixed-Hour Prayer to stop my work and pray throughout the day
• Intercessory Prayer to turn my concerns and worries into prayer; to enter God’s heart for the world and then pray from there
• Listening Prayer to quiet the inner and outer noise so I can open my heart and listen for God’s voice
• Prayer Partners to share the journey of prayer with a trusted companion
• Praying Scripture to allow God to shape my prayer life through the words of Scripture
• Welcoming Prayer to welcome Jesus into every part of my life, body, circumstances, and relationships

Source
Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us, IVP, November 19, 2015.

Strategies for Corporate Prayer

• Listening. Train our attention to recognize God’s voice in the midst of all other voices calling for our attention. Learn to be fully present with God and our neighbor.

• Creating intentional space for listening. Be intentional about providing time for people to quietly pause and reflect during gatherings. Do the same prior to playing music, singing a song, reciting a poem, or reading a passage. Invite all ages to still their minds and bodies perhaps by taking a deep breath in and out together as a way to practice being fully present. Follow up with a moment of silence, asking people to consider, What might God be saying to you through this music, that song, or those words?

• Preparing. Prior to reading scripture, invite everyone to prepare their whole selves to enter into the passage. You might say something like, As you are able, set your feet flat on the floor, take in a deep breath, placing your hands on your heart as you do, and slowly let that breath out.

○ Taking it home: Suggest that people try this practice of preparing their bodies before reading scripture at home as well.

• Taking notes and drawing. Provide all ages with paper and a writing tool. Encourage everyone to use these tools during Bible reading, imagining what is being described, drawing pictures, or jotting down any words that come to mind. Read the passage twice.

• Reflecting. Invite further reflection by asking: As you look at what you’ve drawn or written, what do you see? What did you notice as you were listening? Encourage adults with children to lean in and share their responses with each other.
  ○ Taking it home: Point out that having paper and colored pencils nearby when you are reading the bible or listening to a bible story being read can be a wonderful way to spend time in God’s story. Engage everyone to try this practice at home the following week.
   
   
• Marking scripture. Give each person a printed copy of the Bible passage. You can give young children a smaller portion of the passage and a colored pencil or two. Invite worshippers to listen for and then mark any words or phrases that catch their attention as the passage is read aloud twice. Encourage young readers to mark the words they recognize or to make word pictures as they listen.
   
   
• Reflecting further. Use reflection questions like these: What might the words or phrases you marked have to do with you or your life? What might God be saying to you and to God’s family? What might God be calling you to do or to be?
  ○ Taking it home. Encourage people to continue this practice of marking scripture at home by providing them with a printed copy of another passage to take with them. Give them some colored pencils to take home.
   
   
• Wondering. Weave wondering questions into Bible readings. Here’s an example of how
  to do this using the story of Jesus calming the sea:
  ○ Prior to reading Bible passages, use connection-building questions to invite people into the story. With this story, you might say, Think for a moment about the last big rainstorm you were in. If you were indoors, remember the sound of the rain against the windows. If you were outside, did you get wet? What did that feel like? Were you surprised by the flash of lightning and the sound of thunder? Follow that with words like these: Today’s scripture passage includes a furious storm. As I read it, imagine that you are there.
  ○ During the reading of a passage, pause and wonder about what you’ve just read or what might be coming next. For example, you might ask, I wonder how Jesus rebuked the wind and waves?
  ○ Following a Bible reading during which you have paused to wonder, provide people with a few moments to reflect to themselves or with someone nearby asking, What do you wonder about the story?
   
   
• Journaling. Invite someone of any age to share how they have used a journal as part of their listening practice, perhaps bringing their journal along to illustrate their story and how journaling has nurtured their faith.
  ○ Taking it home. Encourage all ages to try this practice at home by purchasing in advance a variety of journals and inviting each person to select one to take with them.
   
   
• Expressing gratitude. Respond with thankfulness for God’s goodness, love, provision, and grace, in awareness that, regardless of our circumstances, God loves us and is with us. Integrate gratitude activities into mass and other activities, providing members with sticky notes and fun writing tools to write down what they are grateful for, perhaps as it corresponds to the meeting topic. Conclude the practice with a prayer of thanksgiving.
  ○ Taking it home: Invite people to think individually for a moment about a space in their own households. Where might they create their own gratitude walls in their homes? Make it easier for them to do so by inviting them to keep the notepad and writing tool you gave them
   
   
• Noticing God. Guide members through reflection activities by asking questions such as the following, leaving time after each one for them to reflect and respond. In what ways do you see God providing and showing care for you? In what ways do you see God providing and showing care for your family? In what ways are you seeing God providing and showing care in your neighborhood? Depending on your context, you might invite those who wish to do so to share their responses with the group or with someone sitting nearby.
  ○ Taking it home: Encourage people to continue the practice above at home by sending them home with additional copies of the printed page.
   
   
• Celebrating day to day. Delight in circumstances, relationships, and occasions that help us remember God’s abundant goodness, creativity, faithfulness, beauty, and love. Encourage households to look for and celebrate what God is doing in our day-to-day lives. Families might choose to have celebration suppers that include worship, music, dance, or simply being still as they remember and share with each other stories of God’s faithfulness.
   
   
• Celebrating as a community. Be intentional about making space for celebrations both big and small when gathered in community, by dedicating time for sharing stories of God’s abundant goodness, creativity, faithfulness, beauty, and love. For instance, offer a round of applause to God following a story of God’s faithfulness.
  ○ Taking it home: Provide each household with a bell to ring each time there’s something to celebrate about God at work in their lives and in the world.

  ○ Taking it home: Provide each household with a sticky notepad or colored strips of paper, a fun pen or marker, and a simple container; encourage them to jot down descriptions of the things they are celebrating and thanking God for, and fill the jar with their notes.

   

• Marking the church calendar. Provide people with replicas of the special objects used during worship to mark church seasons or holy days as a way to prompt them to celebrate that event at home as well.

Source:

Valerie M. Grissom, All Ages Becoming: Intergenerational Practice and the Formation of God’s People, Abilene Christian University Press, October 24, 2023.

The Greatest Generation, born 1901–1927

This generation lived through the Great Depression and then went off to fight in World War II. The challenges they faced led them to value hard work and grit.

Traditionalists, the Silent Generation, born 1928-1945

This generation experienced the Great Depression, World War II, and the Civil Rights movement. Due to these challenges, this generation is known for respect for authority, a strong work ethic, patriotism, respect for rules, loyalty, preference for stability, family values, sacrifice for the greater good, loyalty, dependability, and hard work. They have lower levels of formal education.

They view community involvement and volunteering as the responsible thing to do. They find comfort in homeostasis, make little efforts toward change, and are thereby sometimes referenced as the silent generation. They are loyal to their community churches, worshipping where they live, and assume leadership and volunteer roles as a fulfillment of their community duties. They married young, parented young, and espoused authoritative parenting styles, expecting children to be seen and not heard. This generation popularized divorce.

Although they are considered the most churched and Christianized generation of today, many are unable to attend church due to the limitations of age. Most feel like the church does not engage them.

They prefer face-to-face communication.

Baby Boomers, born 1946–1964

The Baby Boomer generation witnessed the rise of counterculture, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and John F. Kennedy, as well as Nixon’s impeachment. Having been drafted into a war that the country could not win, this highly educated generation questions authority, are often idealistic, ambitious, and driven by social change. This generation’s focus shifted from the collective toward the individual, yet they still prioritize job security and the need to provide for the family over work-life balance.

With this generation, community became less important than having organic relationships. They don’t feel obligated to attend a church in their own communities but instead shop around for the church that meets their needs. They work well in teams and like to be seen and heard.

As parents, they were authoritative with clear rules and firm boundaries and expected respect, accountability, and compliance from their children. They were hands-off, allowing their children freedom to navigate the world. They were the first generation to consider their children’s perspectives and introduced the concept of family meetings.

Generation X, born 1965-1980

Generation X grew up in a period of rapid technological advancement, the birth of the internet, globalization, the AIDS epidemic, and a shifting landscape that would give rise to LGBTQ+ rights.

The nation’s first latch-key kids with two working parents, many of whom were divorced, this generation had to learn independence. They also saw their parents devote their lives to work only to be laid off by companies committed to the bottom line. Highly educated, they are self-reliant, critical, intolerant of bureaucracy, adaptable to change, entrepreneurial, family focused, hardworking, socially responsible, pragmatic, and balanced in work and life.

They value volunteerism but weigh membership in community against their desire for family time. Participation in church life depends on the flexibility of the church, what it offers the family, and whether it meets desired criteria. Generation X, the helicopter parents, were very involved in their children’s lives and social and educational development. They understand the importance of individualism and tend to support their children’s choices for different lifestyles.

They do equally well with in-person or online communication.

Millennials or Generation Y, born 1981–1996

Millennials came of age during the digital revolution and the dawn of social media, are loyal, socially responsible, environmentally conscious, cooperative, diverse, community-oriented, and fun seeking. These highly educated multitaskers are driven by personal development, seek meaningful careers, work-life balance, diversity, and inclusivity. They like being part of a team and are more comfortable with collaboration than leadership.

Having experienced the 9/11 terrorist attacks, economic recession, and the shift of jobs overseas, they are wary of institutions. Highly technological and accustomed to immediate access, this generation does not need a brick-and-mortar church that meets at a specific time. Many millennials are faithful but outside of a church community. They are spiritual but not religious. Millennials who attend church seek an immediate purpose and authenticity. They want to create a better world today.

Millennials are less likely to marry than previous generations. Having fewer children, these open-minded parents are more likely to encourage their children to live as their authentic selves and are leading the movement in supporting gender non-conforming youth. Some millennial parents, who were helicoptered over in their youth, are freer in parenting, allowing their children to explore and create without constant structure or supervision.

They tend to prefer online communication.

Generation Z or iGeneration, born 1997–2012

Generation Z are digital natives, having grown up with smartphones, constant connectivity, and a rise in online learning. They are tech-savvy multitaskers known for social responsibility, environmental consciousness, global awareness, and work-life balance. Generation Z is the most diverse generation and exhibits a strong desire for social change. They are inclusive, accepting of others, politically aware, and sometimes anxious.

They like the flexibility of working remotely, may expect hybrid schedules for their work-life balance, and are closely tied to their parents. They desire authentic relationships and want to use their time wisely. They need a church that offers meaningful use of time as well as belonging with others from whom they can gain wisdom, experience, and opportunities.

Texting is their preferred means of communication.

Generation Alpha, born 2013-present

As the youngest generation, Generation Alpha is still developing its defining characteristics. Growing up in a highly digitalized world, they are expected to be even more technologically adept than their predecessors.