What is the role of family in faith development in children and youth?
The most important people within faith development would have to be the family; most importantly the guardians that take hold of the children/youth. The sole supporters of the kids within their faith development holds within the parents' hands in that they are they ones who are constantly in communication and contact with them. The youth pastor within a church is sometimes looked at to be the sole supporter of youth and kids and sometimes can be thought upon to "fix" their development and create it stronger; however this is not the case. The parents are to bring up their children in the way they should go, and be the sole supporters in faith development.
Within scripture, several instances reflect on the parents teaching the children in the way they should be trained and developed within their faith. Ephesians 6:4 clearly states that fathers should bring up their children in "the training and instruction of the Lord." Fathers have a clear role to aid in the development of children to directly give the training in which the Lord commanded.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 heavily advocated the teaching of children through specific instruction to teach "diligently" and in a constant manner. The scripture highly advocates that the idea of development of faith should be around the children everywhere they go within the household so that they will grow in the way they should grow, even advocating to "write them on the doorposts of your house" as a sign of importance and clarity of the seriousness of such a task.
The most influential piece of scripture for parents is within Proverbs which speaks of training a child in the way they should go. The scripture explains that when brought up within a home that is Christian-based and God-based, that the idea of everything learned will not leave their minds and thoughts, and will be with them throughout their days. Even if the child, after growing up, changes their thoughts and mind processes, the ideas and values of their parents' training will not depart nor leave their minds, but will always be with them.
Then I also found this gem on the same topic:
The first place to begin is to reflect how Jesus captured the importance of children within the biblical text. Jesus's mindset was very much toward children in the Bible. Even so, Jesus proved the disciples wrong in that children have a very unique and developing faith that most do not capture (Lk 18:15-17). Children are very much a gift from the Lord (Ps 127:3-5). If we are to live a Christ centered life while we are in existence on this planet, then taking care of a child's basic spiritual needs should be a very essential part of the family's and church's work.
The spiritual journey for children should first and foremost come from the family. Parents should be able to instill Jesus into their daily walk alongside their children diligently. The Bible demands a clear understanding for children to be trained and brought through a spiritual development process by the parents (Prv 22:6). The mothers, fathers, or guardians thereof should be able to show the children that Jesus is walking daily with their family and the child's life every single moment that there is on this earth through the imitation of Christ and pure example (Dt 6:7). Christ should first be exemplified in the home and taken into close consideration allowing the child to openly share their faith and feelings toward their parents about their Christian walk. It is often said that the child looks up to the parents and imitates their ways and speech to learn, grow, and develop throughout this life. If children are going to walk in the ways of the parents, then the parents need to be leading the child towards God.
