'Keeping Faith' is a highly practical guide for concerned parents of kids on the edge of church.

Interwoven with the real life experiences of real kids and their parents, co-authors Jo Swinney and Katherine Hill highlight the common factors in modern life for Christian families. Standing on a firm foundation of scripture, they counsel the reader, offering help, encouragement and useful advice to put into practice.

This book is a joint venture between Scripture Union and Care for the Family and is a much needed message in today's church culture. With more and more families struggling to cope, this book offers support with a strong Biblical foundation to help continued reflection, even when everything doesn't go to plan.

When your children don’t choose Christ, when they walk away from church, don’t go it alone. Find help from friends, family, church leaders, and great books like this one.

Psychiatrist John White said, ‘There is no pain like parental pain.’ I would add this: ‘There is no guilt like parental guilt.’ I have spoken with thousands of parents about their prodigal children. More often than not they will say to me, ‘I don’t know where we went wrong.’ I ask, ‘What makes you think you went wrong anywhere?’ And time and time again they quote from the book of Proverbs, ‘Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it’ (22:6). What happens next rarely varies. I say, ‘That verse is not a guarantee – it’s a general principle. Much of the Bible is about God, the perfect father, saying to his children, “Why have you rebelled against me?”’ I then say, ‘I know you haven’t been perfect parents – none of us has – but what is almost certainly not true is that the total responsibility for your child’s lifestyle rests on your shoulders. As our children grow older they will make their own choices – and sometimes those are bad choices.’ At that point they often say something like this: ‘Nobody ever told us that. The other parents in our church seem to have kids who are wonderful Christians; we often feel total failures. You have no idea what a release it is to realise that even God has trouble with his children.’

Katharine Hill and Jo Swinney have written this wonderful book for parents who feel just like that. I am thrilled because I believe it will be a valuable addition to the resources available through Care for the Family’s initiative ‘Getting Your Kids Through Church Without Them Ending Up Hating God’. This initiative has now been under way for two years and looks at how the church and we, as parents, can seek to avoid many of the things that can harm our children’s faith. I know that many of you have prayed long and hard for your children for years and, right now, they may seem further away than ever. Other parents will be only just coming to the realisation that their children have chosen not to share their faith. But whatever your circumstances are, this book will be a blessing. Richly honest and open, it addresses difficult, often painful, issues with warmth, practicality, understanding and, above all, hope. I urge you to read it – it’s too important to miss. - Rob Parsons OBE, Chairman and Founder of ‘Care for the Family’

What if your children don't choose faith in Christ?
What if they walk away from church?

Jo Swinney and Katharine Hill take a down-to-earth look at these painful questions. Honest and real, they help us explore the experiences of Christian parents with adult children who have decided, for now, that faith isn't for them.