The Curriculum
Relationship with Your Adult Child
Beyond Talk Less, Pray More
Your relationship with your adult child can be different. You can’t control their choices, but you can change the way you love, listen, communicate, and respond.
A seven-session curriculum on fostering relationship with your adult child.
Class Description
Who This Study Is For
Relationship with Your Adult Child: Beyond Talk Less, Pray More is a seven-session study designed to encourage and equip Christian parents of adult children to pursue, build, and maintain healthy relationships, whether their child is a disciple, a prodigal, or somewhere in between. Whether parents are navigating a season of crisis or simply desire to strengthen an already healthy relationship, this study provides biblical wisdom and practical tools for every stage of the parenting journey.
Rooted in Scripture and shaped by Mark and Kim Shorman’s experience of walking with their adult child through addiction, mental illness, family brokenness, and God’s faithful restoration, the study combines biblical truth with practical tools for communication, healthy boundaries, forgiveness, and influence. Each session teaches practical relationship and communication skills that parents can begin using immediately. The accompanying participant guide includes discussion questions, exercises, and written prayers that encourage meaningful interaction and help individuals and small groups apply each session’s principles to their own families.
This topic is needed now more than ever. Churches are filled with parents navigating estrangement, deconstruction of faith, addiction, mental illness, identity questions, and deep family conflict. At the same time, every parent of an adult child faces the challenge of learning to relate to their son or daughter in a new season of life. Many feel isolated, unsure how to respond in ways that are both biblical and relational, and long for practical guidance beyond simply being told to “pray more.” Relationship with Your Adult Child provides that hope, equipping parents to trust God’s work, strengthen relationships, and discover they are not alone.
Session Outline
Seven Sessions, Three Areas of Focus
Focus on Self-Examination
When the World Crumbles
You are not alone. Isolation is a tactic of the enemy. Prioritize relationship over behavior.
Blame, Shame & Forgiveness
Blame and shame are distractions from the enemy that keep us stuck in the past. Forgiveness is the path forward.
Focus on Our Relationship with God
Pray More / Talk Strategically
Pray for wisdom regarding boundaries and understanding root causes. Talk strategically. Influence is an account we are either growing or spending. Guide, don't fix.
Be a Leader Worth Following
A leader worth following examines themselves, prays for wisdom to lead well, demonstrates good character, remains encouraged, and prepares for difficult situations.
Focus on Our Horizontal Relationships
Resetting the Relationship
Forgive the past, reset expectations, love unconditionally, and rebuild with grace.
Judgment-Free Communication
Spoken intention: creating guardrails for a conversation. Openness: a willingness to listen, consider, and engage without becoming defensive. Listening: an act of love.
In-Laws and Grandparenting
It's not about you. Honor and encourage their family. Practice generous hospitality. Clarify assumptions. Build relationships near and far.
Bring Relationship with Your Adult Child to Your Church
Have Mark and Kim lead your group in person.