FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Thank you for visiting our FAQ page. We hope that the material here will help to answer any questions that you may have about using our products, or provide solutions to any issues you may be experiencing with our website.

We have grouped our questions and answers into "General" and "Technical" categories for your convenience. If you do not find the answers you are seeking, you may reach us via the form on our Support / Contact Us page.

• What are the Five Faith Promises?

  These are five faith disciplines that families can practice together to nurture faith in both children and parents. They are called promises because they promise an exciting life in Jesus Christ. Families can experience the joy of living in grace as they follow Christ together.

  #1 PRAYER: We promise to pray together every day.

  #2 BIBLE READING: We promise to read the Bible together regularly.

  #3 FAITH CONVERSATIONS: We promise to talk together often about Jesus and our faith.

  #4 ACTS OF SERVICE: We promise to perform acts of service together in our community, our congregation, and our home.

  #5 SHARED MEALTIMES: We promise to share five or more meals together each week, and to engage in other rituals and traditions together.

• Isn’t it the congregation’s job to pass on faith?

  Parents and grandparents are the primary influence for good or bad, of the faith and values of their children, including teenagers. The congregation can only supplement what is happening in the home. The ideal is a home-congregation partnership with the home taking the primary role of passing on a faith that is more likely to be owned by children when they become adults. The faith of the parents and grandparents tends to become the faith of their children and grandchildren. This fact doesn’t negate the important role the congregation plays in passing on faith. It should, however, motivate the congregation to promote homegrown faith.

• What is homegrown faith?

  Homegrown faith is a family-centered approach to faith formation in which the home becomes the primary place where faith formation occurs. The congregation partners with the home by providing training for parents, grandparents, and the family as well as resources for passing on faith through family life. Resources like Parenting Faith™, Grandparenting Faith™, Bringing Faith Home™, and Faith Make-n-Takes™ can help your congregation encourage homegrown faith.

• How do I convince parents that they need to practice homegrown faith?

  You can tell stories of how your faith and the faith of those you know were shaped by parents, grandparents, and other family members. Yes, the congregation matters. Its role in shaping the faith of young people is significant. But the role parents, grandparents, and extended family members play is even more critical than the congregation’s. Both the home and the congregation are necessary for passing on a lasting faith. (Important Note: There is not enough time spent in congregation, in mentoring relationships, or in programs to pass on faith apart from the home.)

• How do I convince staff and volunteers who disagree about the importance of homegrown faith?

  "Parents get in the way." "Parents don’t know enough about the Bible." "Parents aren’t capable of passing on faith." You may hear these and more. Many staff and volunteers believe that what they do is more important than the influence of parents and grandparents. While this is not born out by the evidence (both research and Scripture), it is a strongly held belief that you may confront. If corrective facts fail to sway someone’s opinion, here are seven suggestions that may help you convince staff and volunteers of the importance of homegrown faith:

  1. Respectfully and actively listen to the contrary opinion.
  2. Dialogue without attacking.
  3. Keep a level head, leaving emotions out of the discussion.
  4. Above all else love the person who disagrees with you.
  5. Reflect your understanding of the other person’s opinion.
  6. Tell personal stories about you and those you know who were influenced by the faith of family members.
  7. Assure staff and volunteers that promoting homegrown faith does not put their role or job in jeopardy, it enhances it.

• How do I integrate homegrown faith into what our congregation is already doing?

  One of the ministry principles of HomeandChurch.com is—"Don’t ask parents and grandparents to do at home what hasn't been practiced in congregation." The practice and promotion opportunities of the resources found in homeandchurch.com are designed to fit into the already-established routines of the congregation. For example, a 10-Minute Workshop can be done after a worship service or a ministry table activity can be done in only a few minutes as families head to their cars.

  Homegrown faith is something you promote and practice in congregation so that families can do faith activities at home or while traveling in the car.

• How do parents and grandparents find the time?

  Encourage parents to fuse faith formation into the normal routines of family life. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 teaches this principle. Parents can practice the Five Faith Promises during mealtimes, before they leave in the morning, while traveling in the car or while out for a meal.

  Click here for But I Don’t Have The Time.

• How can my congregation get started in encouraging homegrown faith?

  1. PRAY fervently with the end result in mind. Get a team of people praying for parents, grandparents, and their families. Smother your ministry in prayer. Pray for the end result: that families grow closer to each other as they become more like Christ and faith is owned when children become adults.
  2. INITIATE A QUICK SUCCESS that introduces your homegrown faith ministry to parents and grandparents. You can get free, quick-success ideas in the "Get Started" section of HomeandChurch.com.
  3. HOST A MINISTRY TABLE where you can introduce your parents and grandparents to your homegrown faith ministry, hand out resources, answer questions and receive prayer requests.
  4. TRAIN A MINISTRY TEAM who can help you lead your homegrown faith ministry. You don’t have to do this alone.
  5. HOST A KICK-OFF EVENT as well as other events that connect families to each other, your congregation and your homegrown faith ministry.
  6. PROVIDE RESOURCES by email and hand outs to your parents and grandparents to encourage them to engage their children and grandchildren, including teenagers, in homegrown faith formation.
  7. GROW your homegrown faith ministry. Begin slowly to build a strong ministry. You can get all kinds of resources at HomeandChurch.com.

  Click here for a HomeGrown Faith Experiment.

• How do I respond to parental excuses for not practicing homegrown faith?

  The vast majority of parents who make excuses about homegrown faith do so out of fear. They are afraid they will make a mistake or won’t do it right. So what do parents (and grandparents) need? They need grace.

  Click here for Questions Parents Ask.

• How do I handle the parent who wants to go deeper with their family?

  Say something like "I'm glad that you want to go deeper with your family. There are commentaries and study Bibles that can help do that. The HomeandChurch.com activities are designed as a starting point or jumpstart for families to practice the Five Faith Promises together on a regular basis."

  [Note: Many parents equate "deeper" with more verses read. More is not deeper! We don’t want to mark our Christian maturity by simply knowing more about the Bible, we want to mark our maturity in Christ by living out the Bible. The fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5 (see Bible passages below) is a great marker of our Christian maturity.]

  "God’s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways. And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires. God’s Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit." Galatians 5:22-26 (CEV)

• How about grandparents who are raising their grandchildren?

  They need to participate with their grandchildren and learn how to pass on a faith that lasts through practicing the Five Faith Promises just as parents need to participate.

• The page I am viewing is not displaying correctly or is giving me an error.

  Please ensure that your web browser is up to date and that you are using the most recent version, whether on your desktop computer or on your mobile device. Also please make sure that javascript has NOT been disabled in your browser settings. If you continue to experience a problem after taking these measures, please provide a description of your issue by completing our contact form and including the following details: your operating system (Windows / Mac), your browser (Chrome / Firefox / Safari / Internet Explorer), and your device (desktop / laptop / tablet / smartphone). We will look into it right away.

• How do I download my products after I pay for them?

  Once you complete your purchase, you will be redirected to a page containing the links to download the items you have bought. There will be a separate download link for each product. Additionally, an email message will be sent to the email address that you provide during the checkout process. This email message will contain a link to the downloads page where you can access your purchased products.

• I did not receive an email message containing my download links.

  Please check your "spam" folder or "junk" folder in your email application to see if the message we sent to you ended up there. Also, please confirm that the email account you are looking in belongs to the email address that you supplied during the checkout process. If neither of those suggestions work, please use our contact form to request that we re-issue the links to you again via email.

• My download links are not working. What is going on?

  In an effort to prevent any unauthorized downloading or distributing of our materials, the download links will expire after 5 days (120 hours) of issuing them via email. Also, each product download link may only be activated 5 times before it will expire. If either of these scenarios has occurred and you still need to download your purchased products, please let us know via our contact form and we can extend the activation period for your download links or issue you new links for the same products.

• What file format will my downloadables be in? How can I open them?

  Most of our materials are in PDF format, but some of our downloadable files are PowerPoint or Word documents. You will need to have the appropriate software available on your computer or mobile device in order to open them. If you need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download a free copy by clicking here. Please note that some of our larger packages come in a zipped archive format, which may require a file unzipping utility on your computer or mobile device in order to extract the files.

• Is there any receipt for my online purchases on HomeandChurch.com?

  You will receive an email confirmation of your order from PayPal, which serves as the receipt for your online transaction.

• Is there any way to view my prior purchases on HomeandChurch.com?

  At this time, no there is not. However, if you have a PayPal account you can review your purchase history there.

• Will I be contacted at any time by HomeandChurch.com if I have provided my email address during the online checkout process?

  From time to time, we will send an email to our customers with information about free offers, product updates, or any other important news. If you would like to be removed from this list, please simply click on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of these email messages.

• What if I am not happy with the products I have paid for?

  While HomeandChurch.com is fully confident that you will be thrilled with our resources and materials, if you are not satisfied with our products for any reason we do offer a 100% money-back guarantee within the first 30 days after purchase. For more information, click here.

• I signed up for Freebies on your mailing list, but have not received the email message to confirm my subscription.

  Email delivery times vary depending on server traffic and your particular email provider, so it may require more time for the email message to be received. We recommend giving it up to a few hours. The email message also may have gone into your email "spam" or "junk" folder, so we suggest checking there too. If you have not received the email message within a day, please contact us via our online form and we will manually add your name and email address to our mailing list.

• I got the message "CART ERROR. FREE CHECKOUT BLOCKED FOR YOUR IP ADDRESS." What does that mean?

  To prevent customer abuse of the Free Checkout option, our system will detect when excessive Free Checkouts have been attempted from the same IP (i.e. from the same computer or local network address), which will then be blocked from making additional Free Checkouts for 48 hours. This should be a rare occurrence, but if you experience this while sampling our products please feel free to contact us and we can issue you a link to the free product that you are trying to download.