This Week in Faith 9-12-19

Don’t Give Up Praying For Your Children

Being a parent is not easy! But it can be easy to lose heart. As parents, we go through different seasons with our kids. There are times when we feel encouraged by our kids faith in Jesus or interest in spiritual things. There are other times when we feel like a parenting failure and not sure what to do next. Don’t give up! God has not forgotten about your kids. He is chasing them down because he loves them. Now, the process may not always make sense but God is good and faithful, so we can trust him.

This article is a much needed reminder that God is at work in the hearts and lives of our kids and prayer is a way we get to participate in that process. Whether your kids are joyfully following Jesus, rebelliously running away from him, or somewhere in between, I hope this article, and especially the last 2 paragraphs, will remind you of the hope we have in a God that never gives us on us…or our kids.

Click here to read the article by Jon Bloom.

Aspire to Live Quietly

This was a good article for me to read. I struggle at times with a discontentment rooted in the realization, “I thought I would have accomplished more by this point in my life.” The idea we get as we look around at much of the culture we are apart of is that the best kind of life is the one with the biggest accomplishments and the most people watching. But Scripture, 1 Thessalonians 4 in particular, gives us a different picture.

This is helpful for us to remember as we take stock of our lives and decide what to value most. But it’s also an important concept we want to build into our kids from an early age. Our kids will hear ideas about what makes the good life from many voices in their lives. But we have the opportunity, from an early age, to help them see the value of “aspiring to live quietly” for the honor of Jesus. And developing peace as an overarching strategy for social media use is a practical goal we can use to guide them.

The value of an insignificant life comes in making less of ourselves so that we can make much of Jesus.

Click here to read the article by David Wetherell.

Helping Your Teens Use Their Phones For Good

Who better to help us parents help our teenagers use their phones well than a teenager! This is a helpful article by a high school student on some things that have been helpful for her as she has cultivated a healthy use of technology in her own life, as well as some things her parents have done to help her get there. What she says is true, that every family is different, so none of us will approach these topics exactly the same. But it's helpful to hear what has worked for others. I talked to a parent recently who said they have been implementing some things in their house to help everyone, including themselves, use technology less but better. I also like her suggestion of working with your kids to develop a healthy philosophy and habits for technology so they learn to apply these things long after they leave our homes.

Click here to read the article by Katherine Forster.

BOOKS: Talking to Your Kids About Gender and Disabilities

There are two new books that are in the library and I also have copies in my office you can have.

God Made Boys and Girls: Helping Children Understand the Gift of Gender

I get questions all the time about how to talk to your kids from an early age about  gender. This book does a great job of helping kids understand God’s purpose and beauty in gender, as well as some helpful questions to ask and practices to consider.

God Made Me Unique: Helping Children See Value in Every Person

This book helps kids understand how they will encounter people with all sorts of disabilities but these are not something to be afraid of. It helps you to think with your child about the value every person has from being made in the image of God, regardless of their appearance or abilities.

**This is a great series that includes books on talking to your kids about diversity and talking to them about their bodies. These other books are also in the library or in my office.

This Week in Faith 9-5-19

You Are Not Your Child’s Sin

This is a really important reminder- “[Parents are] not built to bear [their] kids’ sin. There is only One strong enough to bear the guilt of others, and his name is Jesus.” It is so easy for us to feel guilt and shame over our kids’ wrong behavior. We hear the comments people make about someone else’s parenting and wonder what those parents say about our parenting when we’re not around. We see people’s faces as they watch our kids act out and we can only imagine what they are thinking. We know what we’ve thought about other people’s parenting and then our child begins to do the same thing. The gospel frees us from carrying this burden as we place it on Jesus. it doesn’t abdicate us from the responsibility of parenting. But it does allow us to do it with freedom and joy because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. [Romans 8:1] I hope this article is a breath of fresh air for you today as you wrestle with the failures of your children but do it depending on his power to work in your kids and resting in the identity that has been secured by Jesus. I also hope it helps us be slower to condemn parents around us when their kids misbehave but quicker to pray for and encourage those parents with the hope of the gospel because sooner than later, we are going to be desperate for the same.

Click here to read the article by Gretchen Ronnevik.

How to Pray When Your Kids Go Off to College

There is a lot of good wisdom in this article on praying for your kids whether they are in your house or away in their next season of life. We often become frustrated with ourselves as parents because we feel like we should be doing more. But as he says in the article, “It’s possible the most valuable thing you will ever do for your kids is to pray for them.”

Thanking God for your kids, praying specifically, and telling your kids you are praying for them are just a few of the helpful ideas he elaborates on in this article.

Click here to read the article by Sam Crabtree.

On Daughters and Dating: How to Intimidate Suitors

This article isn’t what you think from the title. But it is an important read. Kelly and I have talked about what our plan is when Emily begins to bring guys home to date. We have talked about the conversations we want to have and the opportunity it is to invest in young men. We heard Dennis Rainey speak a couple years ago about this and he has written a great book on how to initiate great gospel conversations with guys that come to date your daughter. The goal is to show them that you care about them and want what’s best for your daughter, and them.

But this article talks about what we can do in the meantime…raise strong, Godly daughters who make wise decisions in who they are interested in and in who they attract. I love this way of thinking and no matter how old your daughter is now, I hope it can help give you a healthy vision for the dating years and how to prepare for them.

Click here to read the article by Jen Wilkin.

5 Tips For Helping Your Teens Study the Bible

Written by a teenager, this article gives some practical ideas to help your kids learn to love the Bible. Helping our kids learn to love and study the Bible for themselves is an important part of helping them stick with heir faith for a lifetime. This is one of the reasons the studies we are doing with middle and high schoolers this fall include reading for them to do during the week. Our hope is this will give your kids some tools to study the Bible for themselves and give you opportunities to have conversations with them about it. Encourage them to do the reading during the week. Ask them questions about what they are learning. Even do the reading at the same time as them. I think the Pray For Me books will help to this end also. Pick a time where your whole family can read and pray at the same time. Or talk about the reading for the day. Or the thoughts you wrote down at the end. Your love for God’s Word and your desire for your kids to love it too are two of the means by which God can produce a genuine love for Jesus in them.

Click here to read the article by Katherine Forster.

This Week in Faith 8-22-19

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Pray For Me- Join the Pray For Me Campaign at Faith this year! The challenge to our church is to have every adult praying, and every student K-12 prayed for, for a whole school year. We are excited about this opportunity and the impact it can have on our church. For more info, and a chance to participate, click here!

Fall Sunday School Classes- This Sunday begins our new fall Sunday school curriculum. Drop-off and pick-up for all ages will be in their classrooms.

Student Ministry End-of-Summer Retreat- August 30-September 1, for all middle and high school students. This will be a great weekend. I hope your students will come, and bring a friend with them. For more info, and to register, click here. 

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How to Navigate Youth Sports As Christ-Followers

“The more our kids see sports as opportunity, the less likely they will be to make it their identity (the same goes for us as parents).”

This is a difficult issue and one that Kelly and I are trying to figure out as best we can as we go. Now that Emily is in high school and, as a 7th grader, Micah can play middle school sports, the challenge is growing and we are wanting to navigate it well. Sports can be a helpful thing for the growth and maturity of our kids, as well as an opportunity to build relationships and share their faith. but sports can also become an ultimate thing, an idol, that sucks the life out of a family and lures them away from connections to church and faith. This article does a good job of laying out some of the opportunities, some of the dangers, and giving some good questions at the end to honestly ask and answer as a family.

Click here to read the article by Mike McKee.

3 Lessons I learned Form My Husband About Fatherhood

This is a beautiful picture of the value and joy of fatherhood. As a foster parent, a mentor in our public schools for the last 9 years, and a student pastor for the last 20 years, I have seen the pain and brokenness that can result from fatherlessness. But God has also given me hope. Hope in the lives of fathers whose mistakes have been redeemed. Hope in seeing students who grew up without a father [or at least a good one] become great parents. A hope that God is growing in me for the future- for the future of absent, aloof, and abusive dads- who God can still rescue and begin to write a different story in their lives. And even for the hope that, having experienced the faithful love of a heavenly Father, kids can break the cycle of fatherlessness they’ve been a part of. 

If you are a dad, half the battle is just showing up day after day. Ask God for the ability to be faithful. And once you are there, God is using you to shape the hearts of your kids and lead them to Jesus. No matter your past, I hope you have encouragement and vision for what God longs to do through you as a parent.

Click here to read the article by Erika Andersen.

The Three Most Important Lessons Christians Can Learn In College

As parents, the list can feel a mile long for the things we want to make sure we have talked about with our kids, and we hope our kids have grasped, before we send them out on their own. This is a helpful list of three things and why they’re important. But I also think its never too early to start talking about these things with your kids and cultivating an environment in your home where these things are valued and talked about.

Click here to read the article by Will McGee.

VIDEO: This Single Dad Has Fostered Over 50 Young Men

I thought this was an encouraging story about the power of investing in the next generation, no matter how old you are or the background you have.

Click here to watch the video from the Huffington Post.

This Week in Faith- 8-15-19

Pray For Me- On Sunday, we introduced the Pray For Me Campaign that we’ve created for this year. The challenge to our church is to have every adult praying, and every student K-12 prayed for, for a whole school year. We cited about this opportunity and the impact it can have on our church. For more info, and a chance to participate, click here!

Fall Sunday School Classes- This Sunday begins our fall Sunday school schedule. Drop-off and pick-up for all ages will be in their classrooms.

Student Ministry End-of-Summer Retreat- August 30-September 1, for all middle and high school students. This will be a great weekend. I hope your students will come, and bring a friend with them. For more info, and to register, click here. 

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Two Items I Wish We Could Send With Every New College Student

Thank you to those who were in the sanctuary this past Sunday during Sunday school as we celebrated the new 5th graders. It is a big milestone for those kids and it’s important that our church acknowledges this and helps them to see it. There are other milestones that we want to celebrate as kids get older also. Graduating and heading off to what’s next- college, work, military- is a big step. I like the ideas that she gives in this article for tangible things we can give kids heading off to college to remind them there are people that love them and a God that loves them even more. It’s why we give our high school seniors a Bible with notes from our student ministry leaders and highlighted verses inside it. The point is less what those tangible things are and more the fact that they have them and they have enough people who have impacted their lives to make those gifts significant. It’s why we are doing the Pray For Me campaign. This is an opportunity to introduce more adults into the lives of young people in our church so both now and when they leave us, they will know that there are adults that love them, have encouraged them in the faith, and they will thank God for it.

Click here to read the article by Kara Powell.

Don’t Squander the Little Years

This year, I am feeling the stretch of having kids in different stages. We have one in high school, one in middle school, one in elementary school, and one in preschool. But it is also helpful to remind me that, while each stage has its challenges, each stage also has its joys. I have been guilty at times of what he talks about in this article- longing for my kids to get to the next stage of life at the expense of enjoying the current one. In this article, he focuses on what God has for us as we parent kids in their early years [3 and under]. There are some really good reminders for us in here to encourage us when we are feeling physically exhausted from parenting our young ones. And his first paragraph is a great description of kids at that age :)

Click here to read the article by Dane Ortlund.

When Someone You Admire Abandons the Faith

There have a been a number of “de-conversions” in the news recently. Like the article points out- these are not the first and they will not be the last. Whether it is well known Christians who walk away from the faith or people close to you- in your family, from our church, people who have helped you grow spiritually- we experience a range of emotions. It can be hard for us and our kids to understand why this would happen. It’s important we talk about this with each other and our kids. This article gives us some good places to start the conversation and some needed encouragement to remind us that God is always at work, even in these sad stories.

Click here to read the article by Russell Moore.

Two Things We Can’t Overlook About Spider-Man: Far From Home

I know this movie has been out for awhile but technically it’s still showing at the Epps Bridge theater so its “current” :) This was a great movie. I saw it a couple times when it came out. Like the article talks about, it paints a vivid picture of the pressure I think a lot of our students regularly feel. And we are having these conversations right now as a student ministry leadership team as well. What is the healthy balance between having expectations but not having unreasonable expectations for their age? I desperately want our students, including my own kids, to take ownership of their faith and experience all the things that come with following Jesus. But I don’t want to overwhelm them with my expectations because I’m not patient enough to wait on what God is doing in them over time. If you are looking for an opportunity to talk about this with your kids and try to understand what pressures are weighing them down the most these days, maybe Spider-Man: Far From Home is a good place to start.

Click here to read the article by Tony Myles.

VIDEO: This Single Dad Has Fostered Over 50 Young Men

This short video shows the beauty and power of building relationships with the next generation, no matter how old you are or what stage of life you’re in.

Click here to watch the video from the Huffington Post.

This Week in Faith 6-14-19

• VBS is next week! Thank you to all of those who have helped us get ready and/or are volunteering next week. This week is one of the ways we try to be a blessing to our community and we could not do it without you. We have 180 kids signed up so be in prayer for all that goes on here, that the week would go smoothly, friendships would be built, and people would leave knowing the good news about Jesus.

• 14 of us spent last week visiting our friends in Merida, Mexico and serving alongside them in their city. If you missed the updates and pictures, click here to see and hear about the week.

• This Sunday, we will continue our Sunday school class on the parables of Jesus for kindergarteners through adults. We are studying the parable of the Unforgiving Servant from Matthew 18. Our adults and kids have so much to earn from each other as we look at the words of Jesus. I hope you will join us. And even if you go to the adult Sunday school class, we are all studying the same parable each week with he hope that it will spark meaningful conversations about Jesus at lunch and throughout the week.

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How to Pray When Preparing For Family Vacation

I know I don’t pray enough about our vacations. Between the busyness of getting ready to go, the guilt over things I am leaving undone, and the misplaced confidence that vacation is one of the things I can control, I don’t often prepare myself, or my family, well enough for vacation. The encouragement of this article to pray for physical and spiritual rest, reconciling relationships [‘The God-honoring family is not the conflict-free family but the forgiving and reconciled family’ was a helpful sentence for me], and more are the things we need most out of our vacations. So why not trust God to provide them!

Click here to read the article by Andreas and Margaret Köstenberger.

How to Model Forgiveness With Your Own Children- Thoughts From a Mom in the Trenches

Modeling and encouraging forgiveness between our kids can be a challenge, and more so when we also long to see genuine heart change through the process. But in the heat of conflict, it can be difficult to help our kids walk down the road to forgiveness and reconciliation. And it can be hard for us to offer forgiveness when its for the same thing we have dealt with a hundred times before. There are some good, practical things here that we can do, along with why they are helpful and how they can help us point our kids towards Jesus…and maybe walk closer to him ourselves.

Click here to read the article by Allison Mitchell.

5 Key Truths About Friendship By C.S. Lewis

I recently saw the movie Tolkien, about the early life of JRR Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. One of the things that struck me as I watched it was the close friendships he had with a few other guys in high school and college that changed the course of his life, and led him to be able to write about friendship so effectively. Our kids get lots of opinions on what friendship is- from other kids, TV, movies, and the public life of others. Because so many of these opinions conflict with each other, what a friend is and how to be a good one are confusing subjects for many students. This article, looking at a portion of a book from one of Tolkien’s good friends later in his life, CS Lewis, helps us understand the importance of friendship for ourselves as adults, and how to help our kids cultivate good friendships in their own lives.

Click here to read the article by Jared Kennedy.

VIDEO: When ‘I Don’t Know’ is a Good Answer and When It’s Not

This is a helpful distinction about how to use the words ‘I don’t know’ in conversations about faith. As we talk about our faith, we can be in danger of speaking too much or not enough. It is not helpful for us to engage in deep conversations about topics of which we know nothing about but feel like we should keep talking so we sound like we know something. It’s ok for us to say ‘I don’t know’ if we really don’t know. But like she talks about in the video, we are failing to love our neighbor if we don’t go from that conversation to learn as much as we can about that topic and the implications the gospel has for understanding that topic SO THAT we can come back to our friend and continue the conversation in a way that is fruitful for our friendship and for their understanding of faith. Rebecca McLaughlin, who does this video, has recently released a great book, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion, which I am reading right now. It is a great resource to prepare you to answer some of those toughest questions that your kids, friends, or co-workers might be asking.

Click here to watch the video with Rebecca McLaughlin.