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Who Decides Your Values?

Uncategorized

Jeremy

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August 19, 2012

chickfila

I came across an article in the Chicago Tribune called: Cardinal wades into fray about Chick-fil-A

In light of the recent controversy surrounding Chick-fil-A’s stance on gay marriage, Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel made a statement saying that the company’s values “are not Chicago values.”

Chicago Cardinal Francis George weighed in on Mayor Emmanuel’s declaration of Chicago’s values:

Recent comments by those who administer our city seem to assume that the city government can decide for everyone what are the ‘values’ that must be held by citizens of Chicago. I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval. Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city?

The Cardinal further quips:

Approval of state-sponsored homosexual unions has very quickly become a litmus test for bigotry. … Surely there must be a way to properly respect people who are gay or lesbian without using civil law to undermine the nature of marriage.

What I appreciate about Cardinal George’s words are that they challenge the imposition of values by the government. I understand that Mayor Emmanuel might be frustrated with Chick-fil-A’s stance on a particular issue, but it’s hardly a governments (no matter how big or small) place to determine to establish a set of values (regardless of origin). I also understand that the mayor may not be advocating governmental imposition of values, but words spoken from a position of government need to be weighed carefully.

No matter what the mayor’s intention was, I’m thankful for an influential voice in the controversy that brings caution to our government in weighty matters such as this. I thought the Cardinal handled the situation gracefully and wisely.

You can read Cardinal George’s blog post here: Reflections on “Chicago values” and an amazing follow up post here: Chicago Values, Revisited: it’s not about chicken!

Hot Monogamous Sex

Uncategorized

Jeremy

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August 17, 2012

1

Catchy title, eh?!

Justin Buzzard, author of Date Your Wife, wrote an interesting article for the Huffington Post called:

Hot Monogamous Sex

Here is an excerpt:

Many people (especially men) think marriage is a cage, a cage that prevents you from enjoying this kind of extraordinary sex. This way of thinking makes sense. Marriage (as most would define it) means a lifetime of sex with the same person, so it’s easy to conclude that novelty, variety, adventure, passion, and heat would fade when you’re simply having sex with the same old person for multiple decades. How interesting could such sex really be? “It’s a cage,” the masses seem to cry.

Recently a guy in his mid-twenties told me his main objection to what I believe (Christianity) and what I have (a nine year-old marriage) is a sexual objection. He feared the cage.

He told me that he liked sex and didn’t want to get married because he was certain he would then have less sex, and not just less sex — lesser sex. Marriage, he feared, would be a cage that would squash his sexual appetite, and sexual fulfillment.

I then asked him the question that nobody ever asks single people or married people: “How often do you have sex? Wait, let me be exact, how many times have you had sex this past year?”

Answer: “Three times.”

In a loud and jovial voice I immediately replied, “I have like 100 times more sex than you do in a year! And it’s all with one woman, a woman who loves me and gets better at sex every time we have it. It’s hot sex!”

The look on his face was a look of surprise and intrigue.

Hollywood leads us to think singles (or married people carrying on affairs) have all the hot sex while married couples have boring sex, or little or no sex. It’s a lie.

The main reason I liked this article is the depiction of how counter-cultural a marriage (and sex) can be as a Christian. Now not all “Christian” marriages are like this, but I would argue those marriages that are centered on the Gospel of Jesus Christ are like this. The application of faith in Jesus Christ in very real, concrete situations produce the kind of humanity (and marriages… and sex) that God intens for people. And not the kind of humanity that humanity creates and fosters…

You can read the article in its entirety @ The Huffington Post: Hot Monogamous Sex

Hyper Connected: The Generation that Doesn’t Power Down

Technology

Jeremy

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August 16, 2012

2

Hyper Connected: The Generation that Doesn’t Power Down

This infographic shows the increased connectivity through the generations:

Millennials, Gen X-ers, Young Boomers and Older Boomers

It confirms what we all know:

we are more and more “hyper connected”

I wonder what would be said (in further research) for this current “digital” generation…?

“It’s no secret that Millennials (loosely classified as people born between 1977 and 1993) are the generation on the go. Mobile phones, tablet computers and wi-fi are technologies used every day, and these technologies enable Millennials to take all their networks, friends, and data with them. With 95 percent of Millennials online, it’s safe to say being connected is a daily part of their lives. In fact, compared to other generations, they are the most plugged in to the digital world around us.”

source Good.is

Date Your Wife Flowchart

Uncategorized

Jeremy

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August 15, 2012

1

I just finished reading a book by Justin Buzzard called: Date Your Wife.

Justin has a great flowchart on his blog related to his book that is really helpful for us guys:

source justinbuzzard.net

Kindergarten Welcome Letter

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Jeremy

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August 10, 2012

0

kindergarten-welcome-letter

My oldest daughter starts Kindergarten this year.

And our involvement in the public school system begins.

What is Family Ministry?

Uncategorized

Jeremy

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August 8, 2012

2

the FAMMIN blog tour

Let’s start at the beginning…

In Genesis 12, God begins the process of fashioning a peculiar people, a people with a promise of descendants, land, and God’s presence. The only condition required of this people was faith.

Abraham was first. Then his son Isaac, then Jacob, and on and on from there. We know them as the Israelites, the group of fickle people that God had his hand on, and the unique people we read and tell stories about to our children from the Old Testament. God’s goal with this people was (and is) to show the world what He is like. His people were (and are) to represent Him in this fallen and broken world. And the only condition required to be a part of this people is faith.

In the Old Testament, this group of people was mainly of one people group, one nationality. But God’s heart was (and is) for His people to be a “light to the nations”, a group of spokespeople who display and tell the world who God is. Israel didn’t do a great job of proclaiming the name of God to the world.

In the New Testament, we find God sending His one and only Son, Jesus, to do for the world what Israel failed to do. He suffered for this world. Jesus emptied himself and died. He was the sacrificial offering. Jesus was the new and successful Adam.

Thus, faith in Jesus Christ means that you are a part of God’s redeemed people group, apart from nationality, dialect, or geographic location. This faith produces a life that is emptied of our old self and filled up with the Holy Spirit who guides our new self. “Christians”, little Christs, as they are known, is the renewed family of God.

One cannot even begin to engage with families in the mission of God in this world if we do not even know what the mission is: faith in Jesus Christ, to empty ourselves, and allow the Holy Spirit to fashion out of the empty vessel a people who look like God.

Ministry with families need to look like engaging with them in the mission of God.

Continue

Mad Dog // Game

Jeremy

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August 5, 2012

1

An NBC “Minute to Win It” Game

Materials

2 breath mint boxes
ruler

Instructions

Secure breath mint boxes to the ends of the ruler so they stand lengthwise.
Remove piece of the lid so that opening is unobstructed.
When the clock starts, player picks up the ruler with their mouth and begins to move their head in an attempt to empty both boxes of mints.
To complete the game, player must empty both mint boxes within the 60-second time limit.

source YouTube

Shuffle Your Buns // Game

Jeremy

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August 3, 2012

1

How to Play Shuffle Your Buns

One big circle w/ chairs close together. Pull one volunteer out and have them try and sit back in their vacant chair. Although the person next to that empty chair is going to shuffle their buns into that chair and the game is on.

For variations you can yell switch and the movement changes direction, and you can add more volunteers in the middle (depending on the size of your group). It makes it interesting and fun!

source YouTube

6 Simple Ways to Avoid Burnout

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Jeremy

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August 2, 2012

1

6-ways-burnout

This is important to get right! After the summer activities that I’m involved with, I typically feel pretty burnt out. It’s vital that I maintain these simple ways in order to keep me going amidst the stress.

HT Jonathan Cliff

Early Childhood Children Suffer More than Older Children in a Divorce

Uncategorized

Jeremy

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August 1, 2012

0

USA Today article entitled, When Parents Split, Preschoolers Show Behavior Problems, relates an interesting study of the effects of a divorce (or some kind of change) on behavior issues:

The study found that such disruption, particularly in the child’s first three years but likely as long as five years, “more strongly influences children’s development than changes later in childhood,” and those influences “seem to have negative effects on children’s behavior.”

Furthermore:

“Family-structure changes during early childhood at the preschool period seem to matter more than later changes,” said the study’s co-author Rebecca Ryan of Georgetown, an assistant professor of psychology.

“They increase behavior problems particularly if you move from a two-biological-parent family into a single-parent family or experience some other type of change,” Ryan told the session. “Change experienced in middle childhood and pre-adolescence had no effect on kids’ outcomes.”

Studies like this really help me better understand, empathize, and help young children through a divorce.

Rob Rienow on Family Discipleship

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Jeremy

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July 31, 2012

2

Hayward Wesleyan Church‘s youth and children’s ministries are moving to a small group centered approach to our ministry programs. I’ll write more about this in the near future. But I remember thinking a while back that God had already thought about “small group” ministry long before the church did.

In fact, it was around since the very beginning: the family.

Radical idea, eh? I think we are discovering more and more about the power of a close-knit family environment where adults and children are living in close proximity to one another, influencing and shaping each other to live out the Gospel in their immediate world.

Our typical ministry segregation approach (that hwcYouth has done for a while) models to families that the discipleship that is supposed to happen in the home can happen “better” if the professionals take over.

Rob Rienow says it poignantly:

When it comes to youth and children’s ministry, we must acknowledge that the ‘new experiment’ has failed. The new experiment is age-segregated, church-building-based evangelism and discipleship of children. Parents drop them off. We split them up by age in different rooms in the building and ‘disciple’ them. In terms of Christian history, this is a brand-new idea. Slowly but surely, we abandoned the biblical model of family discipleship and delegated the spiritual training of our children to ‘professionals’ at church.

Rienow describes one of the unintended consequences of this “new experiment” is:

Parents were free to remain spiritually passive at home. After all, they were making sure that their son or daughter was involved in a ‘great youth group.’

The article goes on to say:

The biblical focus should be on equipping parents to do the job of discipleship, not attempting to do the job for them. The church has taken over the proper role of the parents while abandoning the role of training parents and others to do the work of the ministry. An unhealthy dependency has developed in the church. As the professionals have taken over more responsibility for discipling the young people, the parents have taken on less.

As Rienow points out, this is in stark contrast to the way it was in centuries past, when the parents were expected to disciple their children at home and there was strict accountability set up to make sure it got done. When was the last time your pastor or someone at church asked you how your family devotions were going? Has it ever happened? First, having family worship has not become a priority or an expectation from the church. Second, accountability has almost vanished from our churches. The renowned preacher Charles Spurgeon was so concerned about this trend, clear back in the 1800s that he said, “How can we hope to see the kingdom of our Lord advance when His own disciples do not teach His gospel to their own children?”. Great question! How indeed?

You can read the article, God’s Plan is to Reach Families in its entirety here.

You better watch out… I’m gonna start asking families @ Hayward Wesleyan Church if you are doing your family devotions! It’s not that I’m checking up on you (actually I am!). Rather it’s because the kingdom of God is worth good accountability, isn’t it?!

Paul’s Missionary Journeys in Acts

Theology

Jeremy

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July 30, 2012

0

At the end of the 2012 school year, we were teaching through Acts and found ourselves in the missionary adventures of Paul. I wanted to “walk” the students through the places that Paul visited and planted churches in. I was looking for good visual maps to put on the Big Screen. I ended up using some of the ones below:

Paul’s First Missionary Journey

Continue