How to connect the family to the Bible and church

How in the world can the church effectively connect the Sunday school efforts, the Word of God, and the family together? Within the context of modern society this seems like an impossible task given all the activities and 'pulls' on the family. Sitting around the crackling fire all snuggled up with each other as dad gently draws on his pipe while turning the pages of Scripture in an engaging Bible devotion seems totally foreign today. Is it possible to capture that lost innocence and direct the same spirit of family time into modern constructs? Heaven help the home and the church if we can't or stop trying.
I want to share with you some ideas and some examples of how one Sunday school publisher is trying to establish the connections.

 As a dad, the biggest hurdle I face is motivation to remember to ask what my kids learned in Sunday school. If I do remember they usually don't remember what they learned. It could be that my question is just too big and too broad to help them focus. I'm looking forward to this solution: automatic, weekly emails that will be delivered to me early in the week so we can review Sunday school easily. I look forward to the simple reminder from myhomelight.com

Another issue we face is kids and their Bibles. Often we have struggled in this area because when they do take their bibles to class they are a different translation and different page numberings  making it tough for the teachers to get the kids to use their own bibles. Now with God's Story for Me Bible Storybook we have a great resource at home that matches story for story what is going on in Sunday School. No more guess work and the children actually use their bibles at home and in class.

"Give me something practical and easy!" is no doubt the battle cry of men. I need something really quick and visual that I can point to or ask about concerning the Sunday school lesson. The kids are doing these fun in class activity pages that end up coming home too. Its amazing to me how much the kids want to show off what they were doing in class. The level of recall as they point out the different parts and pieces of this resource is pretty impressive. Since I wasn't raised in Sunday school I think I'm learning too.

I remember the days of being in children's ministry and the difficulty of seeing take homes not being taken home. I think these Family Fun Time take homes have a great chance of making it home. The parenting articles are great. The retelling of the story in an interactive way is fun and it references what page to turn to in the God's Story for Me Bible which is a huge bonus.

Another area that I often forget about is the music. I know that kid's Sunday School is always filled with music. Everyone remembers the words to their favorite songs even from 30 years ago in high school. This music from Gospel Light makes it very family friendly. Its reproducible and now we can have a free copy of what they are using at the church for home use. Great idea and the songs are fun. Yes, I sing along in the minivan too.

Finally, I think its terrific that the second hour Children's Church is using a curriculum that actually matches story for story with the first hour Sunday School programming. I always found it difficult to try to help the kids keep up with too many stories in the morning. How many times have they been talking about a story only to get confused about the other story in the other class. "No son, Jesus did not walk out on the water to visit Noah in the ark!"

Nothing is perfect when it comes to raising kids and teaching them at church but I think Gospel Light is doing a pretty good job.The Bible. Pure and Simple. Sounds good to me.