Sari is getting ready to cheer at Hayward High School football game. She’s ready to go!
Jonathan Edwards Admonishing His Congregation on Family
“Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by His rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual.”
Timothy Paul Jones. (2009). Perspectives on Family Ministry: 3 Views. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic. p. 22.
Rules for Using the Internet @ Home
A while back my wife and I had an argument regarding my use of the Internet while at home. In an effort to make peace, I wrote up a list of rules for myself that governs how I use an Internet connected device at home. Working on my online master’s degree has changed this somewhat, but I’m trying to be more present with my family when I’m home versus being online.
Family Communication Tool
I’m currently enrolled in a graduate program through Wesley Seminary. This past week, my assignment was to create a communication tool for families and we had the option to use whatever medium we chose. I made a video. The first 5 minutes or so is setup for why communication is important in general as well as in family faith formation. The last 10 minutes are some practical communication tools to use within a family. I bribed my girls with Dairy Queen if they would help me film the examples of these tools. They readily agreed. And we had so much fun (and laughter) making these examples.
source YouTube
Messy Madness // event
Yesterday, a number of families participated in an event we called: Messy Madness. It was an event for the whole family (mainly targeted to families with elementary-aged children).
We played:
- bubble gum art
- three-legged race in a pair of tight shorts
- chocolate covered marshmallow drop
- lick-and-stick lifesavers on faces
- chocolate covered rubber band fight
- spray paint a junked van
- 10 station race with people hitting the participants with pantyhose filled with flour
- tug o’ war in a mud pit
Click here to see pics of this wild and crazy event!
Youth Ministry Strategy 2013-2014
If you can read the graphic below, then you can start to understand our youth ministry strategy for this school year (2013-2014).
Now, please don’t go and duplicate this in another context, we created this specifically for Hayward Wesleyan Church and its unique issues and context.
Coffee I’m Drinking
Apologies with this post. I was testing out the new Pressgram app that allows one to take Instragram like pictures and post them to a blog.
Faith Must Reside First in a Parent
The power of a parent is to exude and model faith:
“Here in this opening injunction (the Shema), God invites Israel to enter into a wholehearted love relationship with Him. But the passionate, all-consuming love for God expected in the Shema cannot be impressed on any child without residing first in the parent. Sooner or later children see the hypocrisy. However, the love of parents who devote themselves to a loving God becomes contagious. We do not see this often, but when we do, we find children naturally drawn to those who possess it. Perhaps true theology was always intended to be absorbed by observation and conversation prior to formal instruction.”
Michael and Michelle Anthony. (2011). A Theology for Family Ministries. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group.
Teachers Don’t Work Hard Enough? // Infographic
I know quite a lot of teachers. They work very hard, put in a lot of hours, and most care deeply about the students they teach. It’s helpful to know and see what they do each and every day as well as each year.
source Upworthy
Warren Buffett’s Ten Rules
You gotta love Jimmy John’s for putting up great signs in their restaurants!
My favorite? Never Suck Your Thumb!
Youth Group Expectations // Inner City, Urban
I was in Milwaukee, WI about a month ago now attending our denomination’s annual District Conference @ Transformation City Church. My friend, Kevin Sas is the youth pastor there and he had the rules or “expectations” he called them handwritten and taped to the wall in the youth room in a couple of places.
Expectations of Behavior During Youth Group
- Be respectful of others and the building.
- Keep electronics off or at home.
- Make this a safe place.
- No fighting or play fighting.
- Use positive language.
- No gang banging.
- No talking or playing while Kevin is teaching the Bible.
You could tell that someone other than Kevin wrote the seventh one! What an amazing ministry outreach in the inner city of Milwaukee!
Macie’s Dedication
We dedicated Macie back on Mother’s Day.
With Sari, we had her dedicated when she was still an infant, but with Macie, we just kept postponing it. HWC didn’t really have a regular baby dedication rhythm (now we do) and it got away from us. Since I’m the children’s pastor and we’ve been wanting to use the dedication time as the intentional start of a conversation with parents about the spiritual influence and involvement in the life of their child, we went ahead and dedicated Macie along with other children. It was neat because it wasn’t just babies or toddlers, but there was older kids as well that parents just didn’t have the time (like us!) or procrastinated or weren’t believers then.
Macie will remember her dedication!