Matt’s review

Rev. Matt Overman, Pastor of Children and Family Ministries at Grand Lake UMC, wrote “During Advent we always see families come back to church.  It is amazing how many “new” old faces we see the 4 weeks of Advent. Last year, our theme for Advent was an “Incredible Christmas”  and we gave every family one of the Advent in a Box kits. We didn’t just leave them on a table and say grab one if you are interested, we had a servant standing at our dismissal door handing out boxes to each family.  The response we got from these simple boxes was incredible! Parents came back looking for boxes to give to family members because they found them useful! It was amazing to see parents come back up looking for a resource to use to build their own children up in faith and then want to share it with others. In my 10+ years of ministry, I have never found something that was so easy and affordable on the church side AND was actually used by families to begin discussions and talk about faith at home. When I saw the Lent box it was an easy decision to try again with a similar response. Not as many families come the weeks leading up to Easter so we did not give as many boxes out, but the families who took one and used it had a great time talking about faith. This is a great tool to add to your ministry toolbox to empower parents to have faith conversations. I believe that parents want to talk with their kids about faith but they don’t know where to start. The Advent and Lent in a Box give them all the tools, scripts, and resources they need to have deep and meaningful conversations so that parents can take on the role of primary faith formers to lead their own children to love and know Jesus as Lord.