Faith Webs
Those that study faith formation have told us over and over, in study after study after study, that children growing into a lifelong faith need six adults, in addition to their parents, in order to grow into an adult family. Six! That's a lot of people!
We're not going to leave that youth supported by just their own household! Our goal is to get four households—their primary supporting household and three more—so four households per youth! We're going to spend the whole year working on putting together these families in a deeper relationship, into a deeper community; there are going to be lots of opportunities for time, and prayer and experiences.
We’ve made promises to these young people at their baptism. (If you want to fact check, just check page 228 of our hymnal at church!) You were asked: “Will you support them?” and you said “Yes!”
This is what we're going to do: we're going to build community between our children and all of the families that are connected here. We want to be super transparent about this: we're asking you to support these youth…
with your time
with your prayers
with your talents
with your activities
with some food (of course… they’re kids after all!), and…
with money
It’s important for you to know that, so you don't sign up for 10 kids. We're asking that every child gets the support of $300 per household. That sounds like a lot, but be rest assured it's over the next 38 weeks; that works out to less than $8 per week. You can donate all at once, a little bit each week, or even through the scrip program as you purchase gas and groceries. We're not looking for this to be extra or burden anybody's budget; but we do want everybody to share in the support.
38 weeks brings us to June 1, which is when all of these opportunities start—that's when the youth gathering and summer camp and mission trips, all those things happen—and we want every child connected with this congregation—your child, your God child, your grandchild, your neighbor's child, all the children—we want them all to be able to feel confident and say “Yes, I'm going, I can do this and it's not a financial burden.”
So thank you for being willing to try this. Thank you for being ready to sign up for a kid. And by the way, don't just sign up for the kid that you know! Pay attention to where you're being drawn to… because the Spirit can be a beautiful matchmaker, and the Spirit knows you and the Spirit knows the children, and the Spirit will create those relationships between you. Thank you for being a part of this community and for entering into the shared goal of raising our kids, and supporting our kids!
Give Online
Support the youth
in your Faith Web
Frequently Asked Questions
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Visit the Faith Webs / Scrip table in the narthex after any worship service to learn more and start the next step!
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Any school aged child looking to have a faith based experience at a summer camp, mission trip or ELCA youth gathering.
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Any household wanting to build community and get to know others better while supporting the youth of the congregation
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Once grouped into their “faith web,” families will be asked to exchange contact information. They will also be given a monthly “menu” of ideas/suggestions for members of the household to spend time together or support one another. All ideas are optional. We also welcome and encourage you to come up with your own ideas and share them with us!
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YES! The menu of ideas will include ways people can connect even if they are not in town. Pick and choose the ideas that work best for your location and schedules.
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Every participating household is asked to contribute $300 (per child you sign up to support) on or before June 1, 2024. This can be given in one donation via check or electronically. I can also be given in installments or via fundraising efforts such as scrip cards purchased in the child’s name. (Please note: only the donated percent of that particular scrip card goes toward the $300 goal, not the full amount of the purchased card. Example: if a store donates 3%, then $3 of a $100 gift card is donated to the youth’s fundraising effort; but with gas and groceries each week, this can add up between now and June 1).
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If there are excess funds then a child will have the opportunity to go to a second faith based experience. (Example: mission trip AND a week of camp, summer camp AND family camp) If a second experience is not desired then excess funds will go towards supporting the chaperones and counselors who makes these experiences possible.
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Summer camps vary but average approximately $600/full week
Mission trip to Rapid City will be approximately $800
ELCA Youth Gathering to New Orleans will be approximately $1200
From Pastor Stanton’s article
in the Nov. 2023 Good News
On First Fest Sunday, back in September, First Lutheran tried something new (to us). The idea was to invite every kid and every adult into a Faith Web. On poster paper, we drew five lines. On the top went the name of a child who, in 2024, plans to experience a faith formation event by attending a Christian camp, our middle school mission trip to Rapid City, SD, or the ELCA Youth Gathering to New Orleans. On the next line down goes the name of the child’s family. That family is “supporting household #1” for that child. There is space under that first supporting household for three more. Each supporting household commits to connecting with that child in whatever way(s) they choose. It could be as simple as getting to know each other’s name, keeping the child in prayer and perhaps receiving a note of thanks at some point after the faith formation experience. The ‘thanks’ is for the other big commitment made by each supporting household: $300 toward their faith formation experience.
“We want this family of faith to feel more like a family…
Faith Webs put kids’ faith formation at the center of a group project ”
Each month, a menu of possibilities for connections will be provided to all the supporting households and kids. In October, some were, “sit together at worship”, “Go to the First Lutheran Fall Fest together” or “offer to rake each other’s leaves.” There was also a “meet-your-web” event in our sanctuary where participants shared ‘trading cards’ that included basic contact information and answers to some fun questions like ‘sweet or spicy’, ‘summer or winter’. 57 kids signed up, meaning that in addition to their 57 families, 171 more lines awaited supporting households. As of the last week of October, 115 of those lines are filled! Only 60 (or so) supporting households to go.
The first and most obvious goal of Faith Webs at First is to financially support families so that they can more easily send their child(ren) to faith formation experiences. Think about what gets communicated to a kid AND their family who have friends at church (perhaps strangers otherwise) who put their money where their mouth is? At a baptism, everyone in the room says they will support the newly baptized in their life of faith. But that can feel insincere when we don’t even know each other’s names. $300 is a significant but doable amount of money as some of us can simply write a check while others of us will make full use of the months between signing up and June 1, 2024 when the gift is ‘due’. Many of us will be using scrip cards to meet our financial commitment. Give us 7 months and much of our commitment will be met!
The other—and just as meaningful—goal of Faith Webs at First Lutheran is to make our church feel smaller. Leaders at First Lutheran have talked about this challenge for years: “how can we know each other’s names?” “How can we get to know each other amidst so many busy schedules?” “We want this family of faith to feel more like a family.” Faith Webs answers all these questions by putting kids’ faith formation at the center of a group project shared by a wide variety of partners: one child might have supporting households of 1) a widow, 2) an ‘empty-nester’ couple and 3) a 20-something and their partner along with 4) their own parents and siblings. Well, guess what? Those households do not only learn the name and likes/dislikes of the kid… They become familiar with the whole web! That widow meets and becomes known to 7-10 people in that scenario and vice versa for everybody else.
On October 15, at the first “meet-your-web” event, one 70 something grandmother said, “it was so fun to trade cards with our kid (who is 8). Our grandkids just aren’t little any more and it was fun to remember that age and he is such a great little boy! I’m so glad we signed up for it!” In fact, it was so fun that she and her husband signed up for a second child to support.
Thank you to all who have received this opportunity to connect with your family of faith. If you’d like to become a supporting household, or if you have any questions about whether such a program is right for you, please visit the Faith Webs table in the narthex before or after worship on Sundays or Wednesdays. It is the same table where we sell scrip cards.