4-2-22 This Week in Faith

The Grove in April

• In Sunday school, we’re talking about the 10 Commandments, the tabernacle, and the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. [Exodus].

• Scripture Memory Matthew 5:8

Student Ministry in April

• No High School THIS Sunday [Spring Break]. We’ll be back on the 10th studying Luke. We’ll also go out to dinner after.

• No Middle School THIS Wednesday [Spring Break]. We’ll be back on the 13th studying Luke.

• Scripture Memory for the next lesson: Luke 15:7

• Middle School Scavenger Hunt on April 29.

Parents in April

• Easter Breakfast and Egg Hunt on April 17. The fun will start at 9:30 and the egg hunt [5th grade and under] will begin around 10:00. This is not only a great morning for your family but a chance to invite another family who doesn’t usually go to church to join us for activities and worship.

• Parent Book Club Discussion on Wednesday, April 20 from 6-7:30. If you’ve been reading Habits of the Household with us, or want to hear what families have been learning from it, join us!

• Faith Explored on April 30. If you are interested in knowing more about Faith, or if you have students that are interested in joining the church, this class is a great next step.

• Check out the Easter resources on the Welcome Desk outside The Grove. There are recommendations for books to read to and with your kids, family devotionals, and books for your older kids to read on their own.

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Your Name is Forgiven

Steve Brown was one of my favorite seminary professors and one of the people that has helped me understand the truth and beauty of the gospel the most. This article is a great reminder of the things that are true of us and of the way God sees us because of Jesus. It’s not based on what we do and his joy in us never changes, even when we really blow it. Which is really important to remember as we parent because there are often days where we see the impact of our mistakes clearly and it seems like we can never do enough. I hope this article reminds you of the good news that faith in Jesus brings and I hope it helps you rest in that good news a little more fully this week.

Click here to read the article by Steve Brown.

3 Cultural Stories Shared by Gen Z and Gen Alpha Youth.

I’m taking a class right now with some student pastors and student ministry leaders from around the country. It’s been helpful to learn from other people and their insights from working with students. One of the teachers fro our class wrote this article based on one of the first lessons we did. In the article, the explains some of the distinctive of this generation of teenagers but she also talks about why this is important. We need to understand the world our teenagers and their friends are living in because its very different from the one we experienced as teenagers. There are different struggles, different, challenges, different assumptions than what we faced. So this requires listening and learning from our students about their world, and then helping them understand how the truth and grace of Jesus connects to their world and gives understanding to their deepest questions.

Click here to read the article by Kendall Conner.

How Concerned are Christian Parents about their Kids’ Faith Formation

“Christian parents who hope for a healthy, enduring spiritual foundation for their children need the support of a church that recognizes their concerns and addresses them in community.” The odds are that if you are reading this blog, you see yourself in the findings of this research that says Christian parents are concerned about the spiritual formation of their kids. Often, the challenge is knowing what to do about it. Encouraging research shows that parents are the number one influence on the likelihood of their kids holding onto their faith for a lifetime. So, the faith you practice in front of your kids, and the faith you engage with your kids about, has a real impact on their spiritual lives. But we also need help. This is why practicing our faith in the community of the church and encouraging each other along the way is vital for parents. Our hope is that things like Sunday school, the book club discussions, and other parent things we do will help you feel more prepared to do the hard work of discipling your kids by pointing them to Jesus. Please let me know if there are other ways we can help or if there are things you want to talk about to help you lead your families well.

Click here to read the article from Barna.

3-25-22 This Week in Faith

The Grove in March

• In Sunday school, we’re talking about God rescuing the Israelites from Egypt and providing for them as they leave [Exodus].

• Scripture Memory John 3:16

Student Ministry in March

• High School THIS Week: This Sunday we have a JOBS Speaker- Chris Irwin

• Middle School THIS Week: This Wednesday our small groups will be hanging out together

Parents in March

• Check out the Easter resources on the Welcome Desk outside The Grove. There are recommendations for books to read to and with your kids, family devotionals, and books for your older kids to read on their own.

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Ten Ways to Bless an Enemy

Anger can do so much damage to others- and to ourselves. I was talking to someone the other day about the way God lets us recognize more and more of who we used to be so we can be humbled and grateful by how much he has changed us. Anger is one of the places in my life where I have seen God change my heart. My almost daily prayer comes from the book of James- “God help me to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry”. I can think of many things that I have said or done in anger the have hurt those around me and I know there are many more. But for as far as God has brought me in this area, it still rears its ugly head in my life on a regular basis.

We live in such an angry culture that it takes purposeful work, and God’s grace, to calm our angry and love our enemies. As parents, we get the chance to model this for our kids and teach them a different way. The way of Jesus’s kingdom. That instead of hating our enemies and destroying them with our words, the Spirit gives us the ability to love those enemies and speak peace to them [or not speak at all to merely listen and learn]. This is a helpful and practical article for how we can work on this in our own lives and point our kids to the way forward.

Click here to read the article by Ed Welch.

Let’s Go to the Movies

I love watching movies. I go to the movie theater often and watch even more movies at home. The Oscars- the biggest night for the movies- are this weekend and I typically try to watch all of the movies nominated for best picture [I have seen 8 of the 10 this year]. But with so much out there to watch, it can be overwhelming. Not only to know what’s beautiful to watch, but whether something would be good to watch. It reminds me of the classic line from Jurassic Park, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” For us and our kids, we can get so lost in the amount of content we can watch that we forget to evaluate wether or not we should watch it. There are practical things we can do to help our kids with this like setting parental controls- and these are important! Disney Plus just added a number of new shows that have graphic or explicit content so they have updated the parental controls so setting those for our kids is a way to love and protect them. But we also need to teach them how to think and discern these things for themselves. We cannot, and will not, always be with them in those decision making moments. So what are we doing now to teach them how to make decisions for themselves that are good for them and honoring to Jesus? The answer may be different for each kid but we can equip them to think about these issues in light of their faith, not in spite of it. Below are 3 articles from Brett McCracken. Two are on helping our kids think through the way they consume media. The last is his list of best movies and documentaries for 2021 [which include a number of them up for Best Picture] with reviews on a number of them. They will not all be for your kids but it may help you decide if there are some worth watching, enjoying, and talking about with your kids.

Should I Watch this? 5 Questions for the Discerning Viewer.

5 Questions for Young Christians about their Media Choices

The Best Movies of 2021

PODCAST: Dr. Jim Coffield on God’s Beautiful Design for Gender

There is so much talk about gender and sexuality in our culture that it can be hard to know where to start in talking about these issues with our kids. More and more, our kids will encounter ideologies about gender that different from the Bible, but also people who are living lifestyles different than the Bible. In some ways, this is nothing new and shouldn’t surprise us. In other ways, we can feel ill-equipped to engage with our kids on these issues in an understandable and compelling way. This talk from Dr. Coffield gives a Biblical foundation for understanding the beauty of God’s design for gender, as well as some practical things we can use to talk to our kids about these issues and interact with kids who are struggling with these issues.

Click here to listen to the talk from Dr. Jim Coffield.

3-12-22 This Week in Faith

The Grove in March

• In Sunday school, we’re talking about God rescuing the Israelites from Egypt and providing for them as they leave [Exodus].

• Scripture Memory John 3:16

Student Ministry in March

• High School THIS Week: It is small group hang out night. Make sure you talk to your small group leader about what your group is doing.

• Middle School THIS Week: JOBS Speaker- Sean Hessenthaler

Parents in March

• Be on the lookout for our Easter resource recommendations for families- coming soon!

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How to Talk to Kids About the War in Ukraine

We are obviously a few weeks into an event that has global implications, even here at home. It can be hard to know where to start in talking to our kids about these things. Depending on their age, there is a good chance they have heard at least pieces of what is happening in Ukraine. It’s important for us to help them think and pray about these things in a way that helps them understand the brokenness of this world and the goodness, righteousness, justice, and mercy of God we can cling to in the midst of it. I hope this can help lead you to some good conversations with your kids and some meaningful time in prayer for those who are suffering.

Click here to read the article by Justin Whittle Earley.

10 Passages to Read in the Face of Global Conflict

Related to above, here are some Scripture passages you can look at to understand better what God’s word has to say about war, God’s sovereignty, and God’s posture towards those who are experiencing injustice.

Click here to read the article by Crossway.

Family Reunion

In what ways are we passing the story of faith on to the next generation? It is a huge calling for us as parents. I love the way he describes how his family passes the story of their family on to each generation. As parents who follow Jesus, passing our family history down means telling of the faithfulness of God throughout our lives. It is an important privilege that we get to participate in. This week, what some ways you can tell your kids [or grandkids] the story of Jesus and what he has done in your life?

Click here to read the article by Louis Love.

Fear Factor in Parenting: Will My Child Lose their Faith in College? With Shelby Abbott

This is a really good interview for parents of all ages. This campus minister talks about the things parents do that can help or hurt how prepared their kids are to hold onto their faith on campus. One of the things that stood out to me is what he says about the dangers of protecting your kids from everything while they are at home. He says we need to expose them to good and bad, true and not true things so we can teach them how to think about these things, not just what to think. Our tendency can be to shield our kids from everything that we disagree with. But in the end, we might just be leaving them unprepared for when they are eventually exposed to it later on. He does a good job talking about this and how we can start helping our kids early on.

Click here to listen to the interview from Rooted Parents.

2-19-22 This Week in Faith

The Grove in February

• In Sunday school, we’re finishing up talking about Joseph and the book of Genesis, and starting on the story of Moses in Exodus.

• Scripture Memory: Matthew 17:20

Student Ministry in February

• The Mix is NEXT WEEKEND- Feb. 25-27: There is still time to sign up and invite a friend to join us. It will be a great weekend for middle and high school students. CLICK HERE to sign up.

Parents in February

• If you are joining us for the book club, I hope you are enjoying Habits of the Household so far. If you haven’t started yet, there’s still time to jump in and join us.

• Be praying for The Mix this coming weekend. Pray for our students, that they would encounter Jesus and enjoy being together. Pray for our leaders, that they would have wisdom, patience, and energy for the weekend. And pray for the sessions- the worship band, speaker, and leaders- that God would use them to point people to Jesus.

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Hope for our Children

“When we fix our eyes on our own efforts in parenting and on the outcomes in our children’s behavior, we will either puff up in pride at our supposed accomplishments, or wilt in despair as we declare our efforts futile. But when we parent in faith, we declare our belief that only God can do a work in our children’s hearts. Only what he does will last.” It can be so hard to keep our focus on the daily process of pointing our kids to Jesus when it feels like the results aren’t always positive. We can wonder whether or not our kids really get it? Whether they really believe? Whether their faith will really last? But our trust is not in the ups and downs of our kids behavior [although we can get encouraging glimpses of what God is doing on some days, and reminders of how far they have to go in others]. Our hope is in the seeds, big and small, we are consistently planting and God’s ability to grow something beautiful with those seeds.

Click here to read the article by Kendra Dahl.

6 Things Christians Should Know About Gen Z

This is a great article to understand Gen Z a little better. While generational studies always miss some of the nuances of individuals, it can also help understand the challenges and encouragements of a group of people. Understanding who these high school, college students, and young adults are can help us better know how to care for them, encourage them, and point them to Jesus. For evangelism, we may have to prove the credibility of our faith and start further back in the basics to share it with them. For church life, we need to work hard to help them participate and serve. For technology, we may need to help them set limits [but we may also need to unleash them to reach their peers digitally]. I hope this article paints a promising picture for you of how we can engage Generation Z and look expectantly to what God is doing in and through them.

Click here to read the article by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra.

Modeling God’s Discipline for or Teenagers

Discipline is one of my most challenging, and least favorite, parts of parenting. But it is an important part. It is an opportunity to teach our kids what it means to be under authority, and to help our kids practice submitting to God’s authority. It is good fro them, whether it feels good to us in the moment or not. This article has some good reminders about the importance of discipline and how to do it well.

Click here to read the article by Tracey Rector.

2-4-22 This Week in Faith

The Grove in February

• In Sunday school, we’re finishing up talking about Joseph and the book of Genesis, and starting on the story of Moses in Exodus.

• Scripture Memory: Matthew 17:20

Student Ministry in February

• The Mix is Feb. 25-27: There is still time to sign up and invite a friend to join us. It will be a great weekend for middle and high school students. CLICK HERE to sign up.

• Super Bowl Party is Feb. 13 @6PM: For middle and high school students. We’ll watch the game, eat, and hang out. CLICK HERE if you’d like to sign up to bring something.

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Parental Comfort v. God’s Comfort

It can be so hard to help our kids with their fears, or most anything else, especially when we are weary and worn out. And so many times, at least in my parenting, it leads me to compromise what I think is best for the long term, for a little bit of peace in the present. Now, don’ get me wrong. There are times when I am desperate enough for those quiet moments that I’m willing to sacrifice my kids’ long term gain. But what I forget in so many of those moments is that there is something better for me to give my kids than my tired self: I can give them the God who never tires. Sometimes it can feel like more work to point our kids to Jesus in the middle of difficult moments but he is what will truly bring comfort in the midst of their fears. This article is a good reminder of all of this. And she gives us a practical list of Scripture we can use to bring comfort and peace to our kids [and to us].

Click here to read the article by Julie Lowe.

Why Did God Make Her Like This?

“So the next time our children ask, ‘Why is she like that?’ We can answer genuinely, ‘I don’t know why God chose this but I trust God with it. God is good to us and it’s part of his purpose for our family. ‘”

This article is a look inside one mom’s conversations with her kids about their sister with special needs. Helping kids understand why some kids are born with special needs can be challenging. But it’s important to help them develop a compassion and love for every kid around them, no matter what differences may exist. I’m grateful for the things God has taught our family through the kids with special needs we have had in our house over the years. Our kids are definitely better for it. But that doesn’t discount the hardships that come with it. And some of you can testify to both these joys and difficulties much more than we can. I hope this article is an encouragement to those of you who have kids with special needs in your homes. And I hope it is helpful for all of you as you help your kids understand this reality.

Click here to read the article by Laura Wifler.

A Parent’s Story: Living at the Pace of Grace

Pursuing a prodigal child is a painful journey. This is one parent’s story of watching their child walk away from their faith and their family to pursue a relationship with someone of the same sex. She is honest about how difficult this has been. And she shares how prayer and the “art of loving” are powerful tools for staying connected to kids who are running from Jesus. If you are living a similar story in your family, I hope you will find encouragement in the ways God is sustaining these parents through a difficult valley.

Click here to read the article from Harvest USA. 

VIDEOS: Sanctity of Human Life

It was great to have Miriam Nelson, Executive Director of Athens Pregnancy Center, here at our missions conference last Sunday. I hope you were able to hear what God is doing through their ministry in our community- how you can pray, how you can celebrate, and how you can be involved. Below are 2 videos that they have been using over the last month. One is about choosing life in general and the other is about the pregnancy center more specifically. Both videos are beautifully done and good reminders for us.

Click here to watch Worth It from Alliance Defending Freedom.

Click here to watch Sanctity of Life 2022 from Athens Pregnancy Center.