Hello Friends!
And welcome to Episode 12 of Vibrant Faith’s Podcast, Familying the Faith. Our purpose is to connect with ministry leaders who are ready to dig into engaging and uplifting parents, the primary faith-forming agents in our world, grow in their capacity and confidence as they share a vibrant faith in Jesus with the next generation.
We’re featuring another one of our amazing Vibrant Faith coaches on this week’s episode. Her name is Maria Covarubias and she’s been a faith formation leader and then a diocesan leader for the church. Maria earned a Master of Arts in Religious Studies and is certified in Christian Spirituality.
In this episode, Rick interviews both Maria and Vibrant Faith’s Nancy Going, Director of Research and Resources, about the unique life situation they both find themselves in, and that is EXTENDED familying. Actually, Nancy thought she was doing this well because she lives close to and is deeply engaged in the lives of her grandchildren, when Maria described her family as 50 people strong! You’ll love this thoughtful conversation about the theology and practice of familying across multiple generations.
You’ll learn so much as Maria’s way of life helps you begin to think about how the church could function more like extended family for children and youth especially. Some of the things we took away from the conversation are how unusual the United States is in the way that it asks people to function WITHOUT the closeness of extended family. Maria and her stories also made the familying process simple and do-able, even if you need to build that extended family because the nature of your blood family makes it difficult or even impossible to family. You’ll be able to see your own church in new ways as you listen to them talk about how churches and ministry leaders can help people who desperately need families find them.
This was such just a great conversation with so much wisdom about the power of family beyond Mom and Dad and the kids. We’re so grateful to have Maria and her life experiences among us!
This episode on extended family will encourage you to lead your church to take the next faithful step!
