This Week in Faith 1-20-22

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The Grove in January:

  • Sunday school Lessons: Special Missions Conference speakers and activities.

  • Scripture Memory: John 15:13-14

Student Ministry in January:

  • High School Sunday Nights- Studying the gospel of Luke in our small groups and at home.

  • Middle School Begins THIS Wednesday- Studying the gospel of Luke in our small groups and at home.

  • The Mix Weekend is February 25-27- Registration is now open! CLICK HERE for more info and to sign up. [To see speaker and band details, CLICK HERE for The Mix website. But to register, make sure you use the link to Faith’s registration, not The Mix website registration.]

For Parents in January:

  • Spring Parent Book Club: Habits of the Household by Justin Whitmel Earley- If you would like to join us in reading the book together and encouraging each other with the ways God uses it in our families, then make sure to grab your copy and get signed up. We have 20 free copies if you stop by The Grove Welcome Center at the church [or let me know]. You can read the book on your own, or with your spouse, over the next few months. We’ll check in with each other to see how it’s going and what practices we may be trying to implement. Then we’ll meet on April 20 to talk through the book together and learn from each other. I hope you’ll join us!

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Christian Parenting

What makes “Christian parenting” unique? Or maybe a different way to ask- how is your parenting different because you follow Jesus? Discipline is one example she uses in the article. But in general, the gospel gives us different goals for parenting and a different method for pursuing those goals. It also gives us a unique fuel for the ups, downs, and weariness of parenting- grace. It’s the grace of Jesus that motivates us to not grow weary and give up as we parent our kids. I appreciated the reminder in this article.

Click here to read the article by Elyse Fitzpatrick.

What Would We Be Missing if We Didn’t Have the Book of Acts?

As we study the book of Acts as a church on Sunday morning, I thought this was a good summary of some of the main themes. It could be a good thing to look at with your kids to help them grasp the big picture of Acts as we study it. It might also be a good way to talk to your kids about how studying Acts on Sunday morning is helping them grow in their faith. Ask questions like, “How have you been encouraged in your faith by Acts? What story has stood out to you in Acts and why? How would your faith [and understanding of the church] be different without the book of Acts?”

Click here to read the article by Patrick Schreiner.

Dr. Martin Luther King and the Mud in Our Eyes

As our country remembered the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. this week, and his impact on its history, we should remember that his impact is a part of our church history as well. Not only did he have important words for the church in his day, and ours [maybe most notably in the Letter from the Birmingham Jail], but much of what he worked for and how he worked for it was rooted in his faith. I think this article touches on a number of things we could talk about with our kids. One important thing is the idea of searching our own hearts before God as we decide what causes to pursue or people to advocate for. One of the great things about this current generation of young people is that they are passionate about pursuing redemption and restoration for things they see as broken in our world. It is a great way that we can help them see the way they image their heavenly Father. At the same time, they can also be quick to jump into the pursuit of these things because it’s what everyone else is doing or because it feels right in the moment. But this can skip an important part of the process, which is to do what we do as an overflow of what God is doing in us. And this is where self-reflection can humble us and help us see what God wants us to see in ourselves as well. This look at Dr. King and John 9 could be a way to help them think about this. 

Click here to read the article by Ben Sciacca.

PODCAST: If a Child Wanders From the Faith, Is It the Parents’ Fault?

The faith of our kids is one of the deepest concerns we have for them as parents. For many of us, we do everything we can to try and pint them to Jesus. Which is why it can be so painful to watch kids walk away from the faith. It’s hard not to feel guilty- “What did I do wrong?” “Why didn’t I do more?” The comfort and encouragement in this podcast is the steadfast love of the Lord. It is God who loves our kids more than we do and it is God who has the ability to draw them to himself. In one sense, this can be a helpless feeling. But in a greater sense, it is a relief to know that the faith of our kids is not dependent on how great a parent we are but but on our great God. If you are a parent whose child is wandering away from Jesus right now, don’t lose hope. Continue to call out to God on your child’s behalf. And trust that their heavenly Father is at work, even in the places we can’t see right now.

Click here to listen to the podcast with JD Greear.

1-8-22 This Week in Faith

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The Grove in January:

  • Sunday School Lessons: Joseph, God’s Provision, and special Missions Conference activities

  • Scripture Memory: John 15:13-14

Student Ministry in January:

  • High School Begins THIS Sunday Night- We’ll start our new series on the Gospel of Luke and go out to eat after.

  • Middle School Begins THIS Wednesday- We’ll start our new series not eh Gospel of Luke and have pizza after.

  • The Mix Weekend is February 25-27- Registration is now open! CLICK HERE for more info and to sign up.

For Parents in January:

  • Parent Discussion Group- Wednesday, January 19 from 6:00-7:30PM. We are talking about how to teach your kids to read and study the Bible for themselves. In general, we’ll talk about different things we can do as a family to help our kids develop the skills they need to learn and love God’s Word. We’ll also talk about what we are doing in student ministry this semester with the Gospel of Luke. We are studying it together on Wednesday and Sunday nights but also encouraging them to read it on their own during the week. We want to help you help them.

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How to Teach Your Teen to Study the Bible

This was a really helpful article for me and something that we are trying to start in our house this month. As our kids get older, we want them to move from depending on us to read and understand the Bible to loving and reading the Scriptures for themselves. This is one way of doing it where we give them the tools to read on their own and then walk with them as they study.

Click here to read the article by Jen Wilkin.

VIDEO: Habits of the Household

Where do we begin to see some of the biggest changes we long for God to do in our kids? I think it starts with small habits. It is in these seemingly small daily and weekly rhythms that God often does his biggest work. And this book is an insightful, practical guide for the kinds of habits we can begin to develop, even this year, that can give God the space to work the way we hope he will.

This book is our Parent Book Club book of the semester. If you would like to join us in reading the book together and encouraging each other with the ways God uses it in our families, then make sure to grab your copy and get signed up. We have 20 free copies if you stop by The Grove Welcome Center at the church [or let me know]. You can read the book on your own, or with your spouse, over the next few months. We’ll check in with each other to see how it’s going and what practices we may be trying to implement. Then we’ll meet at the end of April to talk through the book together and learn from each other. I hope you’ll join us!

Click here to watch the video with Justin Whitmel Earley.

A Pixar Movie for Every Stage of Life

We have watched a lot of movies over the break in our house. I thought this was a fun article about what parents learn from Pixar movies for kids. Even my kids have commented on the ways they see the littler kid movies they watch with Randy differently now. Enjoy!

Click here to read the article by Todd Brewer.

12-16-21 This Week in Faith

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Christmas Gift Recommendations

As Christmas approaches, I wanted to take a minute to recommend some last minute Christmas presents. These are books and Bibles, divided by age groups, that would be great for helping the kids in your life get to know Jesus better over the coming year. Most of these are new books but there are some old ones sprinkled in.

YOUNGER KIDS

ELEMENTARY KIDS

MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

PARENTS

***And if you are still looking for some more book recommendations, this is the Rooted podcast with their picks for book of the year in a number of categories, including books for teens and parents.

Click here to go to the list of recommendations and the podcast.

Christmas Movie Discussions

If your family is like ours, you are spending some time watching all the same Christmas movies you watched together last year [and the year before that :)]. One way to make the most of that time is to use movies as an open door into conversations with your kids. Below are a couple of articles that could help with those conversations around popular Christmas movies.

The Promise of the Gospel in The Grinch

Elf, Iran, and the Good News of Jesus

Just Drop the Blanket [A Charlie Brown Christmas]

Doubting Thomas and the Polar Express

Parent Follow Up from the Lesson: Who Cares if You're a Boy or a Girl?

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**This is the lesson we did on Sunday, November 7 for high school and what we will do Wednesday, November 17 for middle school.

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Who Cares if You’re a Boy or a Girl?

TOPICS:

Identity, Gender, Feminism, Transgenderism

SCRIPTURES:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. - Genesis 1:26,31

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed  substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. - Psalm 139:13-16

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” - Matthew 19:4-6

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” - Genesis 3:7-11

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. - Romans 8:22-23

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. - Philippians 3:20-21

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - 2 Corinthians 5:17

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. - Romans 12:1-2

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:2

NOTES: [while we talked about most of this content at middle school and high school, the lesson and our discussions varied some and this a combination of both]

  • Here are some common definitions fro frequently used terms:

    • Gender: attitudes, feelings and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex

    • Sex: biological make up or composition

    • Gender Identity: a person’s self-perception of whether they are male or female, masculine or feminine

    • Gender Dysphoria: experiencing distress, anguish, and conflict between their biological sex and perceived gender identity

    • Transgender: identifying or expressing a gender identity that does not match a person’s genetic sex

  • We looked at identity, gender, and how we see our bodies through the framework of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. It’s a helpful framework for understanding lots of things about us and our world, and is particularly helpful here.

Creation

  • We are well made. We are designed with intentionality in the image of God which gives us dignity and worth. Even our feelings and emotions were created good and in his image. [Genesis 1:26,31; Psalm 139]

  • God made men and women before the fall which means there is something inherently good about male and female. They are also both necessary for us to understand the image of God. To lose or distort either one would diminish our understanding of who God is and what he is like.

  • There is a good description of understanding what it means to be male through the earthly life of Jesus in 10 Questions Every Teenager Should Ask and Answer about Christianity [p. 137-138]

  • Christianity has been the catalyst for acquiring dignity and rights in a world that has often taken those things from women. Even in the early church, despite the general population being a higher percentage male, the church has many more women. It was even a common insult of Christianity to say that it was a religion for women. Being created in the image of God gives us this understanding of women.

  • Because we are created by God and for God, he is the one that has the authority to tell us who we are and how life works best.

  • “A crucified creator is a God who has the authority to tell us what to do, who has the wisdom to know what is best for us, and who has proved that he can be trusted to tell us what is best for us.” [God and the Transgender Debate, p44]

Fall

  • Genesis 3 tells us one of the first effects of the fall is that Adam and Eve felt shame and uncomfortableness with their bodies. So it should not surprise us that even today many of us feel uncomfortable in our bodies in different ways.

  • When we feel like we don’t fit in our bodies, it’s not a sign that we need to change something about our bodies, but a reminder that we need a savior.

  • Romans 8 tells us that creation, including our bodies, are groaning for the redemption that awaits those who belong to Jesus. Again, when we have this sense that things are not right in our own bodies, it is not something that a new body or a new gender can fix. We need a new heart. This is why people who change their bodies or their gender to match their feelings rarely report actually feeling happier afterwards.

  • We would not think it right or loving to tell someone suffering from an eating disorder because they think they overweight that we agree with them because that’s how they feel. Or to tell someone thinking about taking their own life because they think their life is worthless that we agree with them because that’s what they think. The same is true when we respond to people who think they need a new body or a new gender. We tel them the reality of sin but with grace and the hope of the gospel.

  • There are people who may legitimately suffer with broken feelings of gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction for their whole lives. The hope of a new, glorious body and restored emotions await those who suffer faithfully for Jesus. [Philippians 3:20]

Redemption

  • In Christ, we are a new creation. We have new hearts and a renewed ability to glorify God with our minds and with our bodies. [2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 12:1-2]

  • This renewal gives us the ability to trust God’s Word more than our own feelings. We often hear “the heart wants what it wants” or “follow your heart”. But Scripture tells us that the heart is deceitful, above all things. So being in Christ gives us the desire and ability to follow Jesus and what he says over what our heart says. He is more trustworthy, reliable and true than our feelings. If he was willing to give his life for us and if we have been bought with a price, then we belong to him and we can trust that he has our best interests at heart.

Restoration

  • We won’t always have this sense that things aren’t right. Our hope is in Jesus, who will one day come and restore our bodies, minds, and hearts to the way they were in the garden before the fall.

How to Respond

  • Treat all people with the dignity and worth we are saying they are created with. Even though it may feel awkward or difficult, we are to treat even transgender people, or people struggling with their sexuality, with love. We love them by not making fun of them or shaming them. We love them by standing up for them against bullying. We love them by telling the truth. This is what it means to be pro-life.

  • We should not expect people who don’t know Jesus to want to live for Jesus. It’s only after an encounter with Jesus that they will have a desire to change their lives [Zaccheus, the woman at the well…]. So talk to people about him first.

  • Find your own identity in Jesus above anything else. Many people tend to find their identity in their sexuality today because that is what they see people around them doing. If you find your identity in Jesus, and live for him with joy, it gives people a picture of another way.

  • Like we talked about with the last lesson, be the kind of friend that others want to come to and are willing to share their struggles with. As you learn to find rest from your burdens and forgiveness for your sins in Jesus, then you can be the kind of person that helps others do the same. We are called to help carry each other’s burdens. [Galatians 6:2]

  • “You cannot help with a burden unless you come very close to the burdened person…so in the same way, a Christian must listen and understand, and physically, emotionally, spiritually, take up some of the burden with the other person. - Tim Keller

OTHER RESOURCES: [many of the resources from last week address identity and gender as well]

Books:

  • God and the Transgender Debate by Andrew Walker

  • The Secular Creed by Rebecca McLaughlin [the chapter: “Transgender Women are Women”

Books for Younger Kids:

  • God Made Boys and Girls by Marty Machowski

  • God Made Me in His Image by Justin and Lindsey Holcomb

Videos:

Parent Follow up from this Week's Lesson: Can't We Just Agree that Love is Love?

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Hi parents. As you probably know from the calendar, our lesson this past Sunday and Wednesday nights was on the question, Can’t We Just Agree that Love is Love? I pray the lesson was helpful for our students and I think we had some good conversations in our small groups. But I wanted to give you an idea of what we talked about and some resources for you to be able to continue the conversation with your kids at home. I do believe that this is a conversation we should come back to regularly in different ways with our kids to understand better what they are thinking about it, what they are learning from their friends and through entertainment, and to point them to Jesus who shapes our understanding of all things. I hope this helps. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or if there’s anything I can do for you.

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Can’t We Just Agree that Love is Love?

TOPICS: 

Love, Intimacy, Friendship, Marriage, Sexuality, Homosexuality, Pornography

SCRIPTURES:

God is love. - 1 John 4:16

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. - John 15:13

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. - Ephesians 5:24-25

For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. - Romans 1:26-27

For the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine…Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. - 1 Timothy 1:9-10, 15

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 6:11

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself. - Luke 9:23-25

VIDEO: 

Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I was and Who God has Always Been

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLAe_JBvVwg

NOTES: [while we talked about most of this content at middle school and high school, the lesson and our discussions varied some and this a combination of both]

  • This is included as one of the ten questions because it is a big issue in the culture we’re apart of so it would be strange to hear so many conversations about it outside the church but never talk about what God has to say about it inside the church.

  • It’s helpful to frame this conversation in the context of love.

  • If God is love, then any type of love we experience in our lives is meant to give us a glimpse into what it means that God is love.

  • We experience different types of love in different relationships: parent/child, husband/wife, brother/sister, friend/friend. None of these is more important than the other because they each give us a different picture of what God’s love is like.

  • Scripture describes the relationship between God and his people as: father/child, mother/ child, and even the romantic love of husband and wife.

  • For example, in the Old Testament the book of Hosea shows depicts God as a faithful husband who continues to love and pursue an unfaithful wife. In the New Testament, Ephesians 5 talks about the role of husbands and wives pointing to the roles of Jesus and his church. The Bible often packages its most important truths in metaphors.

  • So marriage is a good thing, but its not the ultimate love we are to experience. It is a gift that points to the ultimate love, God’s love. This is why the Bible can portray marriage in a positive light but also tell us that singleness can sometimes be better.

  • So marriage is designed a particular way because it is a metaphor for something bigger that it is pointing to. When the Bible tells us homosexuality is wrong, its because it destroys the metaphor of marriage and no longer points to the aspects of God’s love it is meant to be signpost for.

  • In the same way, something like pornography is wrong, not just because of the immense damage it does, but because it is a sinful distortion of what sex is intended to be and to point to.

  • There are two paths that God chooses for people, everyone experiences singleness at one time or another, and some experience marriage. We are able to glorify God on either path.

  • Holy Sexuality consists of two paths: chastity in singleness and faithfulness in marriage. - Christopher Yuan

  • What do we do when our desires and feelings tell us something different than what God says? We look to Luke 9 above. Whether it is a desire for pornography, same-sex attraction, an impulse to be unfaithful to a spouse, whatever it might be, the gospel gives us the power to deny ourselves and our sinful passions for the sake of following Jesus. This is what it means to follow him faithfully. This is why, no matter what your temptations and struggles might be, there is hope.

  • Everyone in the world feels the power of sex and romance. When we say Jesus is better than these things, we’re not trying to shrink them but to magnify him. If we tried to pretend that these good gifts were actually bad, we wouldn’t even believe ourselves. I knew there was physical and emotional pleasure to be had in my old life. But the fact was that what Jesus offered me was simply better. His promises were sweeter, his sustaining love richer…To choose celibacy, Jesus must be really precious to you. What a chance to testify that he is! What an opportunity to call into question the narrative of salvation-by-romance, and to point to what all love dimly reflects. And not just with your words, bu, like an OT prophet, with your life. You only give up something awesome for something even better. I could only give up the pleasures of a girlfriend- even someday a wife- fro the more pleasurable embrace of Christ. - Rachel Gilson in Born Again This Way

  • If this is something you struggle with, there is hope. There is hope for you to glorify God with your life. And there is hope because even if God chooses singleness for you, he still offers you family in the church and intimacy through friendship [David saying the love of his friend Jonathan was better than that of a woman, John describing the intimacy of his friendship with Jesus as being the one whom Jesus loved].

  • If this is not something you struggle with specifically, become a safe place for friends around you to trust you with their struggles. Be honest about your own struggles. Don’t tell jokes that will confirm to people you can’t be trusted. Listen and love people well. Be willing to extend truth with grace.

  • When you read stories in the gospels of Jesus’ interaction with “sinners” [like Zaccheus, the Rich Young Ruler, the prostitute who washed is feet with her hair, the woman at the well] notice how he loves them well while telling them the truth. See yourself as one of these “sinners”, as the “foremost of sinners” like Paul. And see Jesus’ mercy and grace for you. Let that melt your heart into someone who extends that mercy and grace to others, who like you, desperately need it.

QUESTIONS WE ASKED:

  • What is something the Bible says that makes you feel uncomfortable? What should we do when we feel like that about something God’s word says?

  • Read John 1:14. What does it mean to be full of grace and truth?

  • What could happen if you respond to someone with grace but not truth?

  • What could happen if you respond to someone with truth but not grace?

  • Why is pornography so dangerous?

  • Which relationships in your life most display God’s love to you?

  • How does marriage point us to Jesus?

  • Why does the Bible say homosexuality is wrong?

  • If a person finds themselves attracted to the same sex, how could they live in a way that glorifies God?

  • If you know someone who is attracted to people of the same sex, how could you be a good friend to them and help point them to Jesus?

OTHER RESOURCES:

Books

  • Born Again this Way by Rachel Gilson

  • Confronting Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlin

  • Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry

  • Holy Sexuality and the Gospel by Christopher Yuan

  • Is God Anti-Gay? By Sam Allberry

  • Surviving Religion 101 by Michael Kruger

  • What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? By Kevin DeYoung

Books for Younger Kids:

  • God Made All of Me by Justin and Lindsay Holcomb

  • Good Pictures, Bad Pictures by Kristen Jenson

  • Good Pictures, Bad Pictures, Jr. by Kristen Jenson

Pamphlets

  • Explaining LGBTQ+ Identity to Your Child by Tim Geiger

  • How to Talk to Your Kid about Sex by William Smith

  • Raising Sexually Healthy Kids by David White