This Week in Faith- Goodbye 2019

Happy New Year! I hope you have enjoyed celebrating this Christmas season and are looking forward to a new decade. For some, the excitement of a new year comes from the hope that the good things they have experienced will continue. For others, it comes from the possibility that as difficult and painful as the last year may have been, the possibility for change and the hope of something new exists. Either way, my prayer is that you will experience the mercy and grace of Jesus fresh in this next year.

As I think about the last year in general, I’m grateful for the opportunities you continually give me, my team, and our church to get to know and invest in your kids. I am in my 11th year here at Faith and I’m continually amazed by the ways God has blessed our church with a community of people who love each other and love following Jesus together. So thank you and your family for being a part of that.

In particular, I wanted to take a minute to express my gratitude for Joanna Morgan and her 6 years of service to our church with students. The end of this year marks the end of her time working with students at Faith as she and Cody prepare to welcome their second child into the family. Joanna has been a great partner in ministry over these years and an incredible blessing to our church. I am confident that our students are better for having had the chance to spend time with her and she will be missed. Personally, I am really thankful for her friendship and the way she has made my job more enjoyable- and made me look a lot more competent than I actually am :) The next time you see Joanna, please take a minute to thank her for all that she has invested in the kingdom through our church.

And now…on to the blog. The blog is a little longer this week to make up for missing last week and with the anticipation that I may not be back into the swing of things by next week :) There is a little bit of looking back to Christmas, considering the technology we’ve given our kids this year, and a look ahead to the habits that, by God’s grace, we may be able to grow in this year for our good and to the glory of Jesus.

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What Christmas Gives Our Post-Christian Culture

Even as we move on from the Christmas season, we don’t want to forget this “good news of great joy” and how it impacts our everyday lives. This is a great reflection on the meaning of love that we talk about at Christmas. Maybe even as you put the decorations away with your family, you can take time to talk about these things again as a family to continue in the worship and wonder of our Savior together.

Click here to read the article by Sinclair Ferguson.

Helping Kids Experience Emmanuel- Even When They’re Anxious

Anxiety is a topic that comes up a lot these days, particularly with the generation that our kids are apart of. This article starts by making an important distinction between anxious feelings and anxiety disorder, which is a helpful place for us to start as we help our kids examine what’s going on inside them. And for those who are experiencing anxious feelings, the author provides some good talking points and steps to take that would be helpful for us to walk through with our kids that are wrestling with these anxious feelings. I love the quote at the beginning of the article. And Christmas is an important reminder of what we need to remember most in the midst of our worry and fear- Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.

Click here to read the article by Kat Armas.

Please Don’t Give Them Porn For Christmas

This is an older article [possibly even one I’ve posted before] but I think it gives us some important goals to tackle as we give different types of technology to our kids. He talks about some statistics in the article, and I’ve read a few other articles recently that are probably too graphic use in this blog but reveal the depravity and predation that exist online. These are important reminders that we can’t be passive as parents in this technological age. We have to train them, prepare them, do what we can to protect them, and pray for God’s wisdom and courage to navigate these areas well with our kids.

Click here to read the article by Tim Challies.

How to Prioritize Reading

As we begin a new decade, and you think about the things you want to prioritze more in your life, and help your kids learn to prioritize, this article takes a great look at howe and why to add reading to the list. As Christians, we are people of a book [The Bible] which means that reading is vital to our growth as believers [and vital for our kids to grow in as well]. But it also means that we are made to have our minds engaged and our imaginations captured by reading. Now, I realize, some people naturally enjoy reading more than others. But this article has some great ideas for how to build a greater capacity for reading.

Besides this article, there is a great reading challenge that Tim Challies does every year that some friends and I have used as a guide. It has different levels for different people but it has been helpful as well. You can find the 2019 Reading Challenge here.

Click here to read the article by Tony Reinke.

5 Ways to Flourish in Journaling

Pastor Nathan gave a challenge at the end of his sermon last Sunday to journal in 2020 as a way to practice prayer and grow towards Jesus. Here is an article with some basic how-to’s and encouragement for those who have never journaled before or struggled to, but want to create a habit of it for practicing their faith this year.

Click here to read the article by David Mathis.

Help! I Want to Read the Bible But I Find It Boring

Pastor Nathan also gave a challenge to read through the Bible this year. This can be a hard thing for us and our kids. The best thing we can do to help our kids read the Bible more is to let them see us reading it more. But what do we do when we consistently give in to the endless stream of seemingly more compelling distractions. This article has some great insight to help us and our kids. And it’s also written by a teenager which might encourage our kids to know there are students who love to read their Bibles and talk about it.

Click here to read the article by Katherine Forster.

PODCAST: 4 Things Christians Must Reclaim

The more I read and listen to Rebecca McLaughlin, the more I am thankful for her voice and the things I am learning from her about how to communicate the gospel in our day. She is an intellectual that has spent a lot of time on the most prestigious college campuses in America and the UK. She has a way of answering the questions our current culture has about our faith in a simple and winsome way. Her book Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions For the World’s Largest Religion is excellent. This talk is a great summary of her book and is an important resource as we strive to explain the wisdom and beauty of our faith to our kids, and the skeptics around us, who are asking good questions about how Christianity is good for them, and the world.

Click here to hear the talk by Rebecca McLaughlin.

This Week in Fatih 12-13-19

Just a reminder…Parent’s Morning Out is tomorrow morning at Faith from 9AM-1PM. Kids will practice for their Christmas play, do crafts, eat lunch, and visit Magnolia Estates retirement home to spend a few minutes with residents and encourage their staff. We hope you’r kids can join us.

And speaking of the Christmas play, plan to join us during the Sunday school hour in the sanctuary THIS Sunday to let our kids remind us of the incredible Christmas story that we celebrate.

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Should Christians Abandon Christmas?

Maybe you haven’t asked the question like this, but my guess is you typically have a point in the Christmas season- that starts after Halloween according to Walmart :) - where it feels like the celebration isn’t worth it because the celebration is about everything except what we are supposed to be celebrating…mainly Jesus. This article is a good reminder that this is the very reason why we need to think about Christmas in our church and in our homes. It is a chance for us and our families to spend focused time on the incredible fact that Jesus loved us so much that he was born in the flesh and walked among us, so he could rescue us. I hope you and your family get a chance to set some regular time aside in the next two weeks to worship, to talk, to pray, and to celebrate the good news of great joy that came to us at Christmas.

Click here to read the article by Sinclair Ferguson.

4 Advent Resources For the Whole Family

Even though we are halfway through Advent, it’s not too late to start spending time with your kids, helping them think about and anticipate the celebration of Jesus’ brith. Our family has not done a great job so far this year but we’re hoping to take advantage of the next two weeks. This article has a couple of great resources. Some are online, so you can start them right away. There are activities to do, things to read, and even a podcast for kids to listen to in the car. Hope it helps!

Click here to read the article by Brittany Salmon.

Mental Toughness Exercises For You and Your Students

“Why do we spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if only we knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?”

These words from Thomas Merton stuck out to me in a book I was reading this morning. We want the hearts and minds of our kids to be transformed by Jesus in such a way that they know who made them, why he made them, and they want to live pursuing and becoming who he wants them to be. Mental toughness is something we all struggle with because of the distractions that exist all around us. We have to choose to actively work against the things pulling for our attention and our affections. There are some great insights and practical ideas for how to cultivate these things in us and our kids. Maybe this Christmas break is just the time to try a few of them out.

*The link below is part 2 of a 2-part series. You can click here if you want to start with Part 1.

Click here to read the article by Tim Elmore.

PODCAST: How to Become A Tech-Wise Family

The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch is still one of the most helpful books I have read on how to cultivate a healthy relationship with technology for your family. If you haven’t read the book, you really should- no matter how old your kids are and even if you don’t have kids in your home. It is a thoughtful engagement with how we can proactively lead our families to keep technology in its rightful place in our lives. This is not easy, and we will fail at it often. But that doesn’t mean we don’t continue to work at it for the sake of our kids’ souls, and our own. Kelly and I wrestle with this most around Christmastime as we think through what technology we want our kids to have [or not have] and, once they have something, how to help them develop healthy habits with it. This interview gives you some great insight into the heart of the book and how it can help.

Click here to listen to the Gospel Coalition podcast interview with Andy Crouch.

This Week In Faith 12-5-19

Tell Me More: 8 Conversations to Have With Your…

This is a great series to help you initiate conversations with your kids. One of the good things about our kids going through transitions is that they provide a great opportunity to to listen and talk with them about how they are processing everything. I am always looking for ideas on how to have better conversations with my kids and this is a good tool. The links to the different stages are below but I would say that they apply to more than just the year they say they are for.

8 Conversations to Have With Your New Middle School Student

8 Questions to Ask Your High School Freshman

8 Questions to Ask Your High School Senior

8 Conversations to Start [and continue!] With Your College Freshman

5 Ways To Ensure Your Kids Never Consider Being a Missionary

We sometimes miss the unintended consequences of what we say and do. I think the church has done a better job recently of helping people understand that they can glorify God in whatever vocation they choose. You can glorify God just as much though working at the bank as you can as a pastor…or glorify him as much as a teacher as you can working for a Christian ministry. But I think the unintended consequence is that we haven’t communicated as well that being a missionary is still an important calling and one to consider. I also think, in our desire to let our kids know how much we love and enjoy them, we can create an expectation that staying safe and close to home is the best option for their future.

Now, every kid is not being called to be a full-time missionary. But we don’t want to unintentionally communicate that this is not a possibility. We want to create an environment for our kids where they are listening to God’s voice more than our insecurities and fears for whatever it is he is calling them to. And who knows, maybe your child will be the next David & Lisa Fish or Sarah Weinrich that God calls into full-time missions work for the sake of his kingdom. As parents, this calling on our kids would definitely be challenging. But it could also provide an incredible opportunity for us to trust our kids to God’s faithful care [something that helps us and them flourish no matter what season of life our kids are in]. In general, this article is about more than just the possibility of our kids being missionaries. It’s about what we are doing to point our kid to Jesus by teaching them what it looks like to “deny yourself and take up your cross”, so they can follow him.

Click here to read the article by Scott Hildreth and Leslie Hildreth.

Give the Gift of Reading: Rooted Parent 2019 Christmas Gift Guide

I love to read and I love helping my kids cultivate a love for reading by giving them good books. Here is a great list of book ideas for your teenager. Some of my favorite books from the last few years are on this list. And my kids have read some of them too. This is just one list but consider using this Christmas to give your kids books that will open their eyes to God’s world around them and help them love God more deeply.

Click here to look at the list of books from the Rooted Ministry website.

This Week in Faith 11-22-19

Growing in Gratitude: Cultivating a Thankful Heart in an Entitled Culture

This article connects pain, need and gratitude. As we think about our desire to see our kids be more thankful, and frustrated when they aren’t, it’s important to remember the gospel. We need to remember, and help our kids understand, that thankfulness to God is born out of an honest understanding of the sin in our hearts and the brokenness of our world, but also of the greatness of our God to bring forgiveness, restoration and hope.

Click hear to read the article by Tracey Rector.

4 Ways to Tap Into the Power of Gratitude This Season

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, and enter the Advent season, it can be easy to jump into all the things we have to do this season and forget to stop and cultivate the thankfulness this time of year can point us to. If we really believe that every good gift is from above, and that God’s grace means we have what we have because of his kindness [not because we deserve it], then we have more to be thankful for than anyone. I hope these ideas will spark creative ways for you to cultivate thankfulness in your family and in your own heart. I don’t think this happens very often by accident.

Click here to read the article by Brad Griffin.

Parents, Don’t Fear the Teenage Years

I’ve spent a lot of time with teenagers over the last 20 years. And I am months away from having a second teenager in my own house. I have witnessed a lot of struggles and heartache that teenagers have faced. But I have also seen the incredible things that God does in the lives of teenagers. There are definitely challenges along the way. But I am really proud of my teenager [and almost teenager] and enjoying seeing the things God is teaching them and the ways he is growing them. There are things that feel overwhelming about parenting teenagers. This is probably true of whatever the next stage of parenting we are set to encounter because we don’t know what to expect. But God is faithful in every season of parenting. Remember God’s words to Joshua, “Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Click here to read the article by Russell Moore.

This Tom Hanks Story Will Make You Feel Less Bad

This article is pretty long but, if you have the time, it’s really well written, covers lots of subjects, and leaves you feeling better off than when you started. Tom Hanks is starring in a movie about Mr. Rogers that opens today and this article, among other things, points to the power of what we choose to do in small moments to impact others. Fred Rogers and Tom Hanks both display this in their lives and it’s refreshing. The article quotes Mr. Rogers talking about how important it is to point our beauty when we see it. I think this article does just that.

Click here to read the article by Taffy Brodesser-Akner.

This Week In Faith 11-14-19

BOOK REVIEW: Raising Worry-Free Girls

**This is a guest post by Stephanie Atkinson. Stephanie is a counselor and Certified Academic Life Coach locally through Grace Counseling of Athens. She and her family have been members at Faith for over 10 years.

When I first saw the title of Sissy Goff's latest book, "Raising Worry-Free Girls" I thought, "Finally! I must know this secret for stopping worry so that I can fix myself and others." My second thought was, "Wait, this book has to be another attempt at telling people to 'stop worrying and trust Jesus' and therefore, I will never read it." The book is actually neither of those.  

Four out of five calls to my office are related to anxiety and worry. The calls are from men, women, teen boys, teen girls, young boys and young girls. The struggle with worry is not unique to one gender, age or demographic. In reading what the Bible says about worry and being anxious, I have been struck that God says, "when". He does not say "if" or "you may". The Lord knows we will have worry and we will be anxious. So, He reminds us that we are not alone (Haggai 1:13); He reminds us that we have hope in His plan (Jeremiah 29:11); He reminds us that His ways will work for good of us and His Kingdom (Romans 8:28). He does not say, "stop it" or "that's silly".  He simply reminds us that He knows this world is hard (John 16:33) and that He is with us walking through the worry (Isaiah 41:10).

Sissy Goff is a Licensed Professional Counselor and author who has worked with women and children and families in the counseling field for many years. In this book, she gives explanations of what anxiety may look like externally and internally. She uses her experience in the counseling office to provide examples of how worry and anxiety are heightened and influenced in today's culture. Throughout the book, Sissy offers practical suggestions for being proactive in conversations, for diffusing "meltdowns" and for identifying when someone may need additional help. For example, is shouting and being grumpy before school a child being disrespectful and mean or is she worried about a test or event at school and does not know what to do with the thoughts and feelings that worry brings?  

The target audience for "Raising Worry-Free Girls" is parents of adolescent through adult daughters. However, I encourage everyone to read this book to gain an understanding of what your own worry may look like or what your child (regardless of gender) may be experiencing. As I read the book I recalled many conversations with former or current clients who struggle with worry that were very similar to what she describes. With each chapter of the book, Sissy gives information about mental health and points us to God's Word for truth and encouragement.  

My hope for our community is that we will learn recognize worry and to engage with the heart of the fellow worrier in the everyday world around us.

Click here to see the book Raising Worry-Free Girls: Helping Your Daughter Feel Braver, Stronger, and Smarter in an Anxious World.

Busting Myths About Teen Girl Anxiety

To add to what Steph said above, here is an article on anxiety in teens, highlighting research from another recent book. There are some helpful things to understand here, including what Stephanie says above, that stress and anxiety affect boys almost as often as girls, and in many of the same areas.

Click here to read the article by Kara Powell.

Hollywood’s “Harriet”: A Real Heroine and a Powerful God

I agree with what he says here about the new movie which tells the story of the incredible life of Harriet Tubman. Kelly and I saw it when it first came out, and I’m planning to take some of our kids to see it as well. While there are some historical inaccuracies with some of the creative decisions made in making the movie, I think it tells a great story about an important Christian from history. We need to help our kids understand the ugly parts of history so they can learn from them and work to keep us from repeating them. We also need to regularly put stories in front of our kids that display the courage God has placed in ordinary people, through faith, to do extraordinary things for his glory.

Click here to read the article by John Stonestreet.

3 Ways Churches Coddle KidZ and StudentZ

This is a short article but a helpful one. i thought the book The Coddling of the American Mind had a lot of good insight into the things we have done to keep this next generation from growing in a healthy way and the things we can do to change that. Here are three simple things to think about. I actually think our church does a pretty good job of these but it’s also important to remember these are intentional things we want to cultivate in our church. In our own family, we have seen the benefits of number 2 for our kids, particularly in our experience as a foster family. 

Click here to read the article by Eric Geiger.