1-29-21 This Week in Faith
/The Mix 2021- This is an incredible weekend for middle and high school students, and their friends as we join churches from across the city to worship Jesus and get to know him better. While the weekend will look pretty different for us this year, it’s still something students won’t want to miss. The cost goes up next week so CLICK HERE for all the info and to sign up. [Also us this link to invite a friend]
2021 Mexico Mission Trip- The dates for our trip this year are May 29 - June 5. THIS WEEKEND is the deadline to join the team, so if you or your family are interested in being a part of the team for this incredible opportunity, EMAIL ME for more info or to sign up.
January Memory for Kids
We have been choosing our memory verses from different CD’s produced by Seeds Family Worship. The music is a great way for kids [and parents] to get Scripture stuck in their heads. Getting God’s Word into the heads and hearts of our kids is one of the most valuable things we can do for them. This year, we are using their CD I Believe. They are also producing an online family devotional for these verses that you can find HERE. If you don’t already do family devotions, this might be a great place to start.
CD’s are in! If you would like an I Believe CD, or a code to download the album for FREE, find me or Stephanie Atkinson this Sunday at church. We’d love to give your family one!
Scripture Memory- Isaiah 61:1
New City Catechism- Question 31 and Question 32
STUDENT MINISTRY SCHEDULE
Student Ministry Small Groups
Join us for our winter series based on the book, My Tech-Wise Life.
Middle School- Wednesdays from 6:00-7:30 at Faith [in the Plaza]
High School- Sundays from 6:00-7:30 at Faith [in the Plaza]
*With the colder weather, we are going inside for part of each night so be sure to bring a mask.
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Teaching Teens to Pray for Their Friends
With Pastor Nathan finishing up his preaching series on Faith’s mission, I’m hopeful that our kids’ lives will be shaped by the 4 W’s [Welcome, Worship, Walk, Witness] as well. They have the opportunity to live these things out, to see God work in them aDN through them as well. Witness can sometimes be the most challenging for students which is why I think this article about praying teaching them to pray for their friends who don’t know Jesus is so helpful. It gives them something concrete they can do as a part of their witness. Their prayers can be powerful in their lives and the lives of others, if they will pray.
Click here to read the article by Heather Holleman.
Technology Promises Connection, but Gen Z Sees a Paradox
This article digs into the research that is a part of the book A Tech-Wise Life, that we are talking about with middle and high school students right now. It’s a helpful book to think about technology use in a healthy way, and in a way that is transformed by what we believe. One of the things the book comes back to a lot, and that we have stressed as a theme, is that we often know what kind of person we want to be and how we can make the most of our time, but technology makes it easy for us to choose the opposite, often without even realizing it. Some of the research in this article bears that out. This article may give you a way to talk about some of these things with your kids and follow up on what we’ve been talking about in student ministry.
Click here to see the article from Barna.
Stop Keeping Score
The gospel gives us the ability to stop keeping score. It shows that our value is not in what we accomplish and our acceptance is not something we can earn, it’s by grace. This is hard for us to believe at times, and can be even harder to remember. This article, not written from a Christian perspective, talks about how our default thinking is to believe happiness and contentment come from checking the items off our to-do list. But it’s usually not the “what” questions that satisfy our deepest longings, it’s the “why” questions. He gives 3 really good questions to think about when it comes to what you are pursuing in life and why you are doing what you’re doing. It’s important our kids understand this. And we can help them see how the gospel gives us the best tools to answer these questions in a way that leads to the life we were created to live- modeling our lives after people who display the fruits of the Spirit, loving your neighbor because Jesus first loved you, and living to glorify God and build his kingdom. While the solution he presents in the last paragraph falls short, he offers a healthy way for our kids to think about what’s most important in life [and for us so we can model it for them!].
Click here to read the article by Arthur Brooks.
How to Study the Bible with Your Grandchildren
My grandma is the person who most influenced my spiritual life as a kid and was the catalyst God used to bring me to faith in Jesus as a high school student. Grandparents have an incredible opportunity to pour the gospel into their grandkids. But it can be hard to know what that role looks like, whether the parents of their grandchildren are believers or not. This article provides some great encouragement and practical ideas for you [or a grandparent you know] to get started.
