On Sunday mornings we’ve been studying the Psalms, gleaning wisdom regarding how to deal with the vast array of emotions we’re experiencing during this worldwide crisis. The Psalms show us that in prayer we can say everything, literally everything, we are feeling. No holding back. Nowhere is this clearer than in the imprecatory Psalms.
Ten Simple Things to Revolutionize Your Quarantine
This past Sunday was our fourth Sunday of the COVID-19 quarantine. I’m sure we’ve all experienced highs and lows during this season. The quarantine life isn’t for cowards. It requires courage, patience, grit, and more patience. Here’s a gesture of encouragement, ten simple things we can do to revolutionize our time in quarantine.
WORSHIP AS A WAY OF LIFE
When we talk about worship with kids, what usually pops into their heads is loud music, jumping up and down, and silly motions. While these can be parts of worship, if we let kids believe that worship is only singing songs of praise to God then we’re missing the mark.
WINNING THE BATTLE BETWEEN WORK AND FAMILY
How can we be successful at our work without sacrificing our family? If you’re like me, you have more projects than you could ever get done at work, more needs than you could ever attend to at home, and a limited amount of time and energy. So, what do we do?
Should Our Kids Play Sports?
Youth sports have several benefits. Not only do sports get us moving, and thus help us steward our bodies well, but also they have the potential to help us develop positive character traits, such as discipline, teamwork, coachability, and humility. But in my years as a pastor and coach, I’ve encountered many families who have a problematic perception of sports. The two most common are the sports-are-worldly clan and the sports-are-my-world clan. One group sees sports and competition as something to be avoided entirely. The other group prioritizes sports too highly.
How to Keep Technology in Its Proper Place
“Ninety percent of parenting is hiding iPads from your children.” –Jim Gaffigan
Faith Church recently kicked off a new teaching series, Arrows: Wisdom for Present-Day Parenting. (Not to be confused with Arrow, the Netflix show about a green guy who hunts down criminals.) The idea for the series comes from an ancient text, Psalm 127: “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” Children, like arrows, must be aimed. I’ve said before that parenting is rightly understood as sending; the ultimate goal is to send our children out into the world as faithful participants in the great gospel story.
How to Form Resilient Disciples in an Age of Church Dropouts
In a recent post, I asserted that the traditional approach to ministry needs an overhaul. As a refresher, here’s what I wrote:
If the goal is to impart a lively, lasting faith to the next generation, we’re failing. Perhaps it’s time to rethink our practices, beginning with the idea that our children and students need to be segregated from the congregation. For decades, the dominant ministry model has been the one that creates flashy, thrilling settings for children and youth, something akin to a Christian version of Walt Disney World or Universal. Make no mistake: this ministry model is extremely effective at drawing a crowd. But the statistics reveal that it is not effective at producing deep-soil disciples.
Building Healthy Families: How We Prepare Our Children for Corporate Worship
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14
Heading into the new school year, you’ve likely had the same conversations in your homes that we have had in ours: “What’s our morning routine going to look like?” “How are we preparing the night before for the chaos that will undoubtedly come in the morning?”
Incorporating Children in Worship
This Sunday, August 18, we’ll be presenting each of our third graders with a new Bible and journal. This is our way of opening the door for these children to transition from children’s worship (Kid’s Cove) to corporate worship. Parents, we believe that this transition into the corporate worship environment should happen earlier, rather than later…