helping children find faith
Bridging generations
Ed Drew
Date posted: 15 Sep 2025
It was the start of a large event and the youth group had a crisis. It was their first evening and too many leaders were late arriving. The clock was ticking. I was searching for reliable, willing adults to stand in for the evening.
I was directed to a local godly retired woman. She was available but could not see how she was suitable. She felt out of touch with their fashions, tastes, technology and interests. I finished by saying that I expected the young people to walk into the room feeling awkward, alone and wishing their parents hadn’t brought them. We needed kind adults who could make them feel welcome, ask them good questions and take an interest in their answers. “I can do that!” was her enthusiastic reply. We had a deal. She solved the crisis.
helping children find faith
Gentle parenting or Biblical parenting?
Ed Drew
Date posted: 7 Nov 2025
A Christian grandad has just returned from a weekend with his "clan". His children are all Christians, married to great Christian spouses and he adores his grandkids. He knows he is blessed indeed. He wanted to have a quiet word with me: “It was chaos! I can’t see how modern parenting methods can work. The parents aren’t in charge.”
Church is a place where we can compare and discuss different generations’ styles of parenting. It might not be a common or simple conversation. Most of us would walk away from a conversation about our parenting style feeling awash with insecurity, judgement and fear! My friend, the Christian grandad, remembers being obeyed the first time he gave a command. Smacking was a part of his armoury, so were big bear hugs and family Bible times. In his day, it would have been normal for children to feel an element of fear when their father confronted them over their behaviour.
helping children find faith
How to parent distinctively as a Christian
Ed Drew
Date posted: 4 Jul 2025
Pretty much every parent on the planet wants children who are kind, brave, and able to make wise decisions, so what more is there for Christian parents? Is our parenting only distinctive for placing church over Sunday sport?
In our everyday conversations in the kitchen or the car, remembering that we are a child of God gives us better ways to cope with the tears, the anger, the terrifying questions, and the predictably recurring issues.
helping children find faith
Have children’s exam grades become our god?
Ed Drew
Date posted: 5 Mar 2025
I will always remember one particular moment as one of my children approached GCSEs. My child was in tears, screaming at me: ‘I am going to fail all of them.’ This was not the first time this had happened.
Previously, I had said things like ‘You won’t’ and ‘You can only do your best.’ No previous answer had improved the situation. The panic and the fear continued. This time, I decided that I had a better, Christian answer to give. ‘And that would be alright.’
William Bates at 400: The Presbyterian voice we forgot
Martyn Cowan
Date posted: 27 Nov 2025
The story of the past is inevitably selective and this often results in some individuals being given, perhaps, undue prominence whilst other very significant figures end up being marginalised.
Accounts of later English Puritanism have often ended up focusing on the likes of Richard Baxter (1615–1691), John Bunyan (bap. 1628, d. 1688), and John Owen (1616–1683), leaving others, who in their day were highly significant, to almost disappear from the historian’s view.