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.
