As you know, GodVenture is all about inspiring and helping families do faith at home. I sometimes find the Christmas season can get a little too focused on gift-getting, so on 1st January, my new book, Exploring Generosity, will be a breath of fresh air.

You can find out more about the book here and here some ways you could use it in your church. Why not send a link to this post to your church leader?…in your church:

1. Buy copies of the book for all the families or households. You can get books for a wildly generous £25 for 10 copies so why not include families who come to toddler groups and Messy Church? The materials have been designed especially to explore the Bible in an inclusive way, giving people options to chat, think or pray and let God speak to them rather than tell them what they should believe or do.
2. Invite small groups to explore the Bible passages together and then in their families too. There are lots of open-ended questions as well as an Extra Something for older children and families on each page so there’s lots for adults to consider and be challenged by.
3. Ask leaders of the children’s groups if they would like to use or link to the material  in their groups. For example, use the READ section as a creative way to share the Bible story together, followed by the questions and the Chat, Think, Pray section. Each page also includes ways for under 5s to explore the Bible stories, so get the tinies involved too!
4. Use the elements specifically for under 5s in your toddler group. For example, have make your own fish finger sandwich activity and share the story of Jesus feeding the 5000. Give parents the 40acts Family Wallchart to take home to encourage them to continue to explore generosity.
5. Print a copy of the 40acts Generosity Challenge Family Wallchart and give one to everyone.
6. Print a large of the 40acts Generosity Challenge Family Wallchart and invite everyone to pick one act to do this week and write their name on it. Next time you meet, invite people to share stories about how it went! There’s nothing like hearing about generosity to inspire us to do more. And imagine what God can do through a whole church being generous!
7. Invite people to link up with the 40acts Lent campaign on Twitter and Facebook as it’s always fun to feel  part of something BIG.
8. Use the Bible passage and questions as the basis for a talk or discussion time.
9. Link to GodVenture on Facebook and share the 40acts posts with people you know.
10. Explore generosity as a church family in an all-age or intergenerational service using stations created from the activities in the book. See here for an example.