Some Ideas on How to Implement the Faith in God Program in Primary

This post is about the Faith in God Program, a religious program for girls and boys 8-11 from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

There has been quite a discussion in my area recently about how the Faith in God program should be administered at the church and scout level.  I wrote an email to a friend explaining how I had the program organized when I was a Primary President, and I thought perhaps some of you out there in cyberspace might find something useful here for your own programs.

As always, there is no right and wrong way to do things, this is just the way that we did it, and it worked for us in our situation.  For reference, note that we had around 150 primary aged children at the time.

*FIG = Faith in God

How One Primary Faith in God Program was Organized

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Primary Teachers

• Primary teachers were trained in FIG at our semiannual teacher training, and all new teachers were trained about the program  (we had our teacher training during singing/sharing time to ensure attendance).
• Primary teachers were given FIG books and were encouraged to incorporate and reference FIG during lessons when possible. Primary Presidency talked often about FIG in sharing time.
• Articles of Faith games and activities were included in teachers binders and teachers were encouraged to use them when they had extra time after a lesson. 

Activity Days

• Activity Days had a FIG tracking sheet for each girl, that moved up with them as they advanced.
• Primary President and Counselor over Activity Days met with activity days leaders quarterly to coordinate

Scouting

• Exact plans for Bears, Wolfs, Webelos were laid out so that boys would be on track to earn both Religious Knot and FIG.
• Primary Presidency member shared a "Faith in God" minute at each pack meeting.
• Primary Presidency put on a FIG skit at Blue and Gold Banquet.
• Counselor over scouting attended  Cub Committee to help coordinate and encourage these efforts.
• Religious Knots were awarded in pack meeting, usually by attending bishopric member or by member of the Primary Presidency. We tried to make a big deal out it.

11 Year Old Scouts
(I always struggled to have 11 Year Old scout leaders to participate in FIG. They never seemed to think it was important)

• Primary President attended Courts of Honor to show her support of 11 Year old Scouts
• Primary President attended Key Scouter meeting
• FIG talked about at Priesthood Preview
• Two FIG goals accomplished at Priesthood Preview by giving a talk about the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood and discussing out Duty to God (often invited the Scout Master or Young Men President to do this).

Baptism Visits

• A member of the Primary Presidency along with scout/activity days leader made a pre-baptism in home visit. FIG explained to child and parents at this visit as well as the scouting/activity days program.
• When our primary had 30 baptism in a year we had to change to holding three Baptism Previews (we held them throughout the year so that they took place just a few months before a child's baptism) where the same information was given.

Advancement

• Three months before a child turned 12 a member of the Primary Presidency would call the parent and talk to them about FIG and make sure they were on track.
• Three months before a child turned 12 the Primary President provided dated Primary Advancement Certificates to the Bishop, to help him remember who needed to be called in for a FIG interview soon. 
• FIG was awarded in Primary and we made a big deal about it!  Certificates were framed. Parents were invited to attend.  Each child was asked to share their favorite moments from working on FIG (this to encourage the other children).

Also Helpful:

• Activity Days and Scouting were all held at the same time, same place, for everyone.  This way for the three years a child was in the program it was always clear when and where the activities were.  It also was less stress on families with multiple children.  It also created deeper leadership at the church building in case of emergencies.  (It took me a year to get this to happen. I gave all leaders months in advance notice and we made the change over the summer.  I released leaders who's schedule would  not accomidate the change.)   In the long run this helped attendance greatly.

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When I became Primary President most of our girls were getting Faith in God but few to none of the boys were.  Many leaders of boys did not know there was anything to the program beyond the Religious Knot.   By the time I was release three years later we had almost 100% of our active boys getting their Faith in God awards.