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Leading Faith Formation for Children and Youth

Foundational skills and mindsets for nurturing meaningful, lasting faith.

About this Course

Leading Faith Formation for Children and Youth is designed to introduce you to the foundational mindsets, essential knowledge, and core skills you need for ministry with young people.

A diverse group of people wearing blue shirts stands in a circle outdoors, raising their hands in unity under the sunlight.

What you’ll learn:

The theological principles central to ministry with children and youth.
How to connect theology and practice in faith formation.
Ways to authentically integrate children and youth into worship.
How to design small experiments that deepen young people’s faith experiences.
Best practices for ensuring safety and healthy boundaries in ministry.
The developmental stages of children and youth and how they shape faith formation.
The importance of multiple caring adults in young people’s faith development.
How to assess and adapt activities for relational and age-appropriate ministry.
Strategies for supporting faith formation in the home and working with parents.
How to cultivate intergenerational connections and activities.
Methods for identifying and guiding volunteers effectively.

So many youth and family ministry leaders aren’t full-time professionals—we’re volunteers juggling this work alongside everything else, and we’re just doing our best! It’s easy to get overwhelmed, or to find yourself going through the motions without much thoughtful grounding in the theology and purpose of it all. So what is most important as we engage in the vital work of our young people’s faith formation? Where do we begin? What faithful, informed choices can we make to best guide the young disciples around us?

Leading Faith Formation for Children and Youth is designed to introduce you to the foundational mindsets, essential knowledge, and core skills you need for ministry with young people. We’ll explore practical strategies and theological grounding to help you guide young people with care, confidence, and creativity.

This training can be invaluable for new ministry leaders, group orientations, or anyone who just needs a refresher. If your church has an established program, engage in this learning to enrich the work you are already doing! And if you don’t already have a huge, structured program in place? If only a few children show up on Sunday mornings, and only some of the time? This course will be especially helpful for thoughtfully meeting the needs of the young disciples you do serve, while also laying a foundation and paving the way for something more organized down the road.

Whatever your context, this training helps your ministry teams get on the same page and move forward with clarity and shared purpose in shaping meaningful experiences that nurture faith. Join us as we step back, reflect, and develop a sustainable, theologically grounded approach to faith formation.

Modules

Where Do Kids Fit in Church?

In this module you will:

  • Describe a theology of children and youth that understands them as the present, not just the future of the church.
  • Consider several ways children and youth can participate authentically in worship.
  • Design small experiments to deepen the experience of young people in worship.

The Gift of Youth

In this module you will:

  • Develop an understanding of gifts children and youth bring to the church.
  • Consider how to best steward the gifts of young people.
  • Be prepared to implement best practices to assure safety of children and youth.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

In this module you will:

  • Learn how faith formation ministry helps young people live into their identities as children of God.
  • Consider the delicate balance between engaging groups and meeting individual needs.
  • Sketch beginning ideas for how to accommodate students with exceptional needs.

Considering Development

In this module you will:

  • Develop a working understanding of the characteristics of developmental stages in children and youth.
  • Create a personal definition of relational ministry.
  • Assess current activities for their age-appropriateness and relational quality.

It Takes a Village

In this module you will:

  • Develop an understanding of the unique characteristics of various generations.
  • Learn about the benefits of intergenerational activities.
  • Create an experimental intergenerational activity.

Families in Faith

In this module you will:

  • Appreciate the importance of the family in the forming of faith in young people.
  • Consider ways to encourage faith formation activity in the home.
  • Develop strategies for working with the needs of parents.

One-time purchase

With Faith+Lead Membership

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Get a free public display license to use for group study.

*by joining Faith+Lead Membership for just $19.95 per month

9 Modules

Self-Paced, On-Demand

Lifetime Access

Get to Know Your Instructors

Stephanie Luedtke

Associate Pastor, St. Barnabas Lutheran Church, Plymouth, Minnesota

Stephanie Luedtke is a minister, educator, and artist. She often combines the three, weaving education and arts through her ministry or ministry into arts education. Stephanie is a rostered Pastor in the ELCA with 25 years of experience in ministry of various sorts, and holds a Master’s Degree in Worship Arts. She enjoys helping people of all ages find meaningful ways to worship, learn, and to be in faithful community together. Through her work in schools, private settings, churches, and at the judicatory level, and independent work as a consultant, coach, and curriculum writer, Stephanie has always tried to follow her passions and assist others in doing the same.

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What to Expect with a Faith+Lead Academy Course

You’ll get a transformative learning experience that combines trustworthy theological teaching with spiritual practices, interactive elements, and a supportive online community.

Know

Expand your theological toolkit with fresh insights for today’s ministry landscape. Connect timeless wisdom with practical frameworks for navigating change.

Deepen your spiritual identity through transformative practices. Move from doing church to being church in ways that nurture authentic discipleship.

Practice skills to lead confidently in your ministry context. Take actionable steps to invite your community into God’s unfolding story.

Every Academy course is designed to

Help your growth in one of these core areas:

connect with god

Develop a Christ-centered identity, grounded in theology, scripture, and spiritual practice, that empowers community members to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in everyday life.

Tell the story of Jesus and invite neighbors into Jesus’ way of life and love through words and actions they can recognize.

community

Listen deeply, name God’s presence in the midst of everyday life, and form life-giving relationships across all dimensions of diversity—both within and beyond the church.

Through mutual relationships with the neighbors among whom you’re hosted, join in acts of compassion, justice, and reconciliation as a witness to the ministry of Jesus—especially in places of suffering and despair.

ministry models

Harness skills of agile leadership, stewardship, fundraising, entrepreneurism, and management to be nimble enough to respond to a changing cultural landscape.

Frequently Asked Questions

Academy courses consist of 6-10 lessons or modules, each walking you through the “know, be, do” learning framework. You’ll learn some new information with instructor videos and other resources (know). You’ll engage in a spiritual practice that will help you develop your faith around the topic (be). Then, you’ll be asked to apply what you’ve learned through activities completed online or in the “real world” (do).

Each module is designed to take 15-45 minutes. Some learners complete the course in as little as one day. Some do a module a day or even a module a week. We suggest allowing some time between modules to process what you are learning, but not so much time that you lose momentum.

Each course includes a flexible leader’s guide with multiple pathways for group facilitation. You’ll find thought-provoking discussion questions and practical activities that connect faith with daily life, designed to work with whatever preparation time you have available. These resources equip you to foster meaningful discipleship experiences that meet your community where they are.

The private online group allows you to connect with others. Because our courses don’t have a required start or stop date, you will encounter others in different places in the course and even in different courses altogether. This is by design. Feel free to interact as much or as little as you like.

Reach out via email to faithlead@luthersem.edu with your question and we’ll get back to you with a response within two business days.

The best way to connect with us is to complete this form with your suggestion. We always want to hear your feedback. You may also include it in the comments section of the course evaluation.

Don’t see your question addressed?

Email us at faithlead@luthersem.edu for more information. We’ll be delighted to connect!

One-time purchase

With Faith+Lead Membership

One-time purchase

Get a free public display license to use for group study.

*by joining Faith+Lead Membership for just $19.95 per month

9 Modules

Self-Paced, On-Demand

Lifetime Access