FOR FAMILIES
Extra Support
Raising children and teenagers is hard work, we hope you will use these resources to help navigate the waters of parenthood.
At First Church we believe that faith formation and the work of understanding the love of God happens as much (if not more!) at home as it happens in church. We know it can be difficult to know which resources fit our theological perspective, so we are offering some of our favorite resources below. On this page you will find books to help you guide your children, both practically and spiritually, but never hesitate to reach out and ask for more suggestions.
Recommended Children’s Bibles
Some Children’s Books We Love
by Daniel Erlander
A preschool version of the Manna and Mercy books that are foundational to First Church’s theological perspective.
by Matthew Paul Turner
Children are looking to discover their place in the world and longing to understand how their personalities, traits, and talents fit in. This book will help them know that they are deeply loved and that their unique gifts have a special role to play in God’s world.
by Daneen Akers
An illustrated children’s storybook which features people of diverse faiths and backgrounds who rocked the religious boat on behalf of love and justice. You will find stories from the likes of Bayard Rustin, Maryam Molkara, Rachel Held Evans, Jacqui Lewis, and many more.
by Teresa Kim Pecinovsky
This book introduces readers to images of God inspired by feminine descriptions in Scripture. Some of the beautiful images talk about God as a creative seamstress, a generous baker, a fierce mother bear, a protective hen, a nursing mother, a wise grandmother, and more.
by Naomi J. Krueger
In this book you will find 50 of the best known Psalms written in language that is friendly to kids. It is divided into four sections which contain prayers of morning and evening, prayers of praise, prayers of comfort, and prayers of creation.
by Irene Latham and Il Sung Na
A picture book which helps encourage kids to practice mindfulness and find solace in the natural world.
by Carole Lindstrom
Inspired by the Indigenous-led movements across North America, this book helps encourage our children to understand the beauty and importance of water while also encouraging them to help keep it safe from harm and corruption.
by Cynthia Rylant
Featuring the world through the eyes of animals, this story offers a meditation on finding beauty around us every day and finding strength in adversity. It celebrates the many wonderful things in life, both in good times and in times of struggle.
by Hanna Schock
If you are searching for other ideas and resources from picture books, we recommend a blog created by one of very own First Church members, Hanna Schock. On her blog Hanna regularly shares books and explores different thematic implications found in each. Some of her books are explicitly religious while others share important themes that tie to life experience overall.
BOOKS FOR PARENTS
by Traci Smith
This book is intended to help you add family faith moments to your daily routine with little or no preparation and share meaningful spiritual experiences with your children. Traci Smith, who is both a pastor and a mother of three, offers ways to discover and develop new spiritual practices as a family.
by Tish Harrison Warren
Using the framework of a typical day, this book explores life through the lens of liturgy – small practices and habits that form us. Each chapter considers a common daily task and relates it to a spiritual practice – opening us up to the practical theology of the everyday.
by Kayla Craig
This book gives voice to your prayers when words won’t come. It features prayers for everyday struggles like helping your child find friends or thrive in school to larger issues like praying for a brighter world. At its core, this book holds the deepest of all of our prayers: that our children will experience the love of God so deeply that their lives will be an outpouring of love that lights up the world.
by Shannon K. Evans
Like an environmentalist seeks to rewild land by returning it to its natural state, Evans invites women to rewild motherhood by reclaiming its essence through an expansive feminine spirituality. This book encourages women to deepen their connection to GOd through practices in the life they’re living now. It covers topics like work-life balance, identity, solitude, patience, and more. Evans encourages women to see motherhood as an opportunity to discover a vibrant feminine spirituality and a deeper knowledge of God and self.
by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
Considering how a children’s brain is wired and matured, this book offers twelve key strategies to foster healthy brain development, leading to calmer, happier children. It offers age-appropriate strategies for dealing with day-to-day struggles and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child.
by Melinda Wenner Moyer
This book offers a science-based approach that offers practical and actionable ways for parents to help shape their kids into honest, kind, generous, confident, independent, and resilient people.
by Britt Hawthorne
Using four comprehensive sections – healthy bodies, radical minds, conscious shopping, and thriving community – Hawthorne offers an interactive guide for strategically incorporating tools of inclusivity into everyday life and parenting.
by Peggy Orenstein
In this book Orenstein offers a clear-eyed pictures of the new sexual landscape girls face in the post-princess stage – high school through college – and reveals how they are negotiating it. The information shared in this book offers in-depth information with which to understand, and navigate, this complicated new world.
by Peggy Orenstein
After publishing the Girls and Sex, Orenstein realized this was only addressing half of the conversation. Much like her first book, Orenstein takes a deep dive into the lives of young men to give voice to how young men understand and negotiate the new rules of physical and emotional intimacy.
