3-17-23 This Week in Faith
/For Kids in March [and April]
Easter Breakfast and Egg Hunt Join us on Easter Sunday [April 9] at 9:30 on the Plaza for a kids egg hunt and breakfast for the whole family. This is a great chance to invite friends to join us and then stay for worship.
Children’s Message During the Service We are trying something new on Sunday mornings. When it’s time for the Children's Message, we will invite the kids to come sit up front and listen. Our hope is that it will help kids focus on the message and set that time apart a little more in their minds.
Sunday School EVERY Sunday Sundays from 9:45AM-10:45AM There are classes for 5th grade and under. Check in at the desk in the foyer. This month we are studying:
Children’s Church [8:30AM Service] Children’s Church is available during the 8:30AM service. There’s a kids message in both services. 2nd grade and under will be invited to leave for Children’s Church after that in the 8:30AM service.
* We also have a Children’s Bulletin that is ideal for 3rd-5th graders. It incorporates the worship bulletin but helps kids track through the service, stay engaged, and worship more fully with us. Look for it on the way into the sanctuary with the other bulletins.
For Students in March
March Madness We have pizza March Madness brackets in the Student Ministry Room as we vote to determine the best pizza in Athens. We will have 8 different types of pizza to try this Sunday and Wednesday to help us decide. We will also be announcing the leaders of the basketball bracket competition after round 2.
Wednesday Nights for Middle School [6-8PM] We are continuing to work through workbooks in our small groups. We have been talking about forgiveness. March 29 will be a game night.
Sunday Nights for High School [6-8PM] We are working through our series Road to a Great Love Story. This Sunday we will talk about what students can work on ion themselves as they prepare to date.
Sunday School [9:45AM-10:45AM] This Sunday middle and high school students will have breakfast and meet in the Student Ministry room to wrap up The Mix.
For Parents Coming Soon
Parent Discussion Group On Wednesday, May 3 we will be talking about how to talk with your kids about identity, relationships, and sex.
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Who Was Saint Patrick and Should Christians Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
What is the fact v. Fiction of St. Patrick? I love talking to my kids on St. Patrick’s Day about all that he did and all that God did through him. It’s a great true story that, like the article says, is better than the fiction surrounding him. This article can help you connect a popular cultural day to the truth about what God has been doing in the world.
Click here to read the article by Stephen Nichols.
6 Ways that Christian Students Can Prepare for College: #1 Take this Transition Seriously
Is the high school senior you know prepared for this next season of life? I love the perspective in this article- there are dangers to either being overly fearful or overly naive about what they will face on campus or wherever they go. Michael Kruger is a seminary president and professor who wrote a book we give to all our seniors about surviving college. And this is the 1st article in a helpful series on how to prepare seniors. I would encourage you to read it with your senior or pass it on to someone you know who is graduating. And keep following the series for the other 5 posts.
Click here to read the article by Michael Kruger.
Helping Your Kids Grasp the Reliability of God’s Word
We were saying the other day in our student ministry leader meeting, sometimes a lack of questions or even doubt in our kids is not a sign of spiritual maturity but a sign they are not thinking enough about their faith. As we study the Scriptures with our kids, they are bound to have questions about its content and even its reliability. This is a great article with statistics and some helpful illustrations to assist in our conversations with our kids about God’s Word. Hopefully it will spark their curiosity and thoughtfulness.
Click here to read the article by Champ Thornton.
PODCAST: Is God Anti-Gay?
This is a winsome and encouraging conversation about a difficult topic. They model well how to talk about a Biblical view of sexuality, singleness, friendship, and marriage, even as some of them continue to wrestle with same-sex attraction. I would encourage you to learn from it and even listen to it with your older kids as a way to initiate talking about these difficult but important topics.
Click here to listen to the interview with Sam Alberry.
VIDEO: The Gospel in Parenting Teenagers
Parenting is hard. And for all of the joys that come from parenting, there is also plenty of pain, anxiety, hardship, frustration and disappointment. What makes these even tougher is how easy it is as parents to get our value, significance and worth from our kids and how we feel we’re doing in parenting. I’m so thankful for the gospel, that really does change everything. We have such freedom from the pressures of parenting because we belong to a heavenly Father that has justified us through his son Jesus. My prayer is that you will be able to rest in that freedom today.
