Nathan tells a story to David about a rich man and a poor man. The rich man steals the poor man’s beloved sheep to feed a traveler instead of using one of his own animals (of which he had plenty). David’s righteous anger is churned… until Nathan points his finger at David and tells him that he is that rich man!
source Vimeo
I came across this series of letters to parents the other day and found them insightful and helpful. Here is letter #1:
Dear Parents,
Thank you for coming to church…last month. Where ya been? I love seeing you and your family, but it’s been a while. Don’t lie about how much you attend, because nowadays I can track your kids attendance pretty easy with all the sophisticated software solutions out there. I’m sure your schedule has been really busy lately, and you feel like you’re having to choose to say no to some things. And I’m sure that it’s easy to say no to church attendance. I mean really, you can always go next week, right? I know that there are weeks that there really are conflicts; soccer tournaments, out-of-town trips, and the occassional sick times. But in all honesty and with as much sincerity as I can muster, what do you have going on a Sunday morning that takes priority over worship?
Let me be your cheerleader for a moment: You can get here to church more regularly! You can get there, I know you can! And I’d like to encourage you to make it more of a priority. But why should you?
- The Bible Says So. // That is always a great fall-back, huh? Seriously, you should read some of what Hebrews, Romans, and James says about the matter. It’s important to be in church, period. The church was and is a part of God’s great Rescue Plan to introduce Jesus to the world. It also exists to helps us grow, learn, and give to a community of people all seeking the same things. You knew I’d say this one, right?
- You need to establish good habits with your kid early on. // I’ve rarely met a person that attends church once-a-month that would say that they want their children to grow up and NOT attend church. It’s quite simple really, if you want your kids to grow up and be a part of a community of believers (church), it’s in your best interest to attend one yourself. Make it a priority for your family, and your kids will learn that it’s a vital part of their walk with God.
- Without regular attendance you miss the mentoring and relationship benefit of Children’s Ministry. // This same principle applies to every area of the church, but let’s talk about your kids for right now. One of the best benefits of taking your kid to a thriving ministry for Children is that they get to know other kids learning about God’s Best for their lives, and the adult leaders leading these areas. If you attend inconsistently, you are greatly diminishing the chance for one of our fantastic Small Group Leaders or Classroom Teachers to make an impact on your child’s life. Trust me, it’s so important that your kid hear the same things you tell them coming from a different voice.
It’s obvious, in that you sometimes attend, that you do indeed value what church means in your life, and what it can mean to your kids as you are walking this journey of parenting them. Now it’s time to make it more of a priority, and start getting involved. It starts with being here consistently, then we can happily start finding places for you to serve in this wonderful family called “The Body of Christ.”
Sincerely,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Children’s Pastor
source jonathancliff.com
On Sunday, February 6, 2011, I was given the opportunity to preach on John 1:14.
The title of the message ended up being: “When Heaven Came Down and Kissed the Earth.” The worship band, Dutton, has a song by that title, which I borrowed for the sermon because I used their song throughout the message.
When Heaven Came Down [pdf, sermon transcript]
When Heaven Came Down [mp3, sermon audio]
When Heaven Came Down [link to Dutton’s song]
Resurrection
Fully Human, Fully God [preview video link, The Skit Guys]
Gossip and rumors move a little differently today than they did when I was in middle school and high school. It might take a rumor a couple of days to circulate throughout the school, and gossip lasted a while. When the subject of a rumor got home, they were largely insulated from the effects of that gossip (albeit the emotional effects). Over time, the gossip is seemingly largely forgotten from the collective conscience (albeit the object of the rumors).
In our world today, a rumor (with the help of technology, i.e. text messages, facebook, etc) or gossip takes seconds. And when a person who is the subject of the gossip goes home, they are confronted with that same progressively nastier gossip in their online life. To compound the problem, these rumors, or viscous attacks are not forgotten by the collective conscience. It is cemented in an online blog or facebook page.
No doubt, being a teenager today presents unique challenges that their parents or well-intentioned adults just don’t understand. As a adult myself, when I hear students share about being the subject of a viscous rumor or gossip, my instinctive response is: “Don’t worry about it; it will pass.” But in reality, while it does eventually pass, it takes a lot longer to pass and the “old” insulation doesn’t occur.
What does parenting look like in this newer reality? How do we “understand” when we don’t understand?
Cyber Bullying Resources:
Thanks for the resources, Randy!
Kids Camp is an annual summer camp the WI District of the Wesleyan Church puts on for students who have completed grades 3, 4 and 5. It is always a phenomenal week of evangelism and discipleship with campers. It’s amazing how being removed from “normal” life for a week really helps immerse students in the Bible and develop a spiritual hunger for relationship with God through Jesus that is often distracted by “other things.”
I spent time yesterday working on getting the Kids Camp 2011 web landing page and information ready to publish. While it’s not complete and needs some editing work, I made it LIVE:
About this talk:
Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs “childish” thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids’ big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups’ willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.
source TED
Four years ago this morning, Sari Mae entered the world. The world has never been the same since – especially Amanda and I’s world! Sari brings much joy and laughter and independence into the Mavis family. It’s never a dull moment when she gets that twinkle in her eye and starts to giggle!
Happy Birthday, Sari!
source Vimeo
This is the video that I showed this past Sunday when I preached the sermon: “When Heaven Came Down and Kissed the Earth: John 1:14”
Gever Tully in this TED video:
…uses engaging photos and footage to demonstrate the valuable lessons kids learn at his Tinkering School. When given tools, materials and guidance, these young imaginations run wild and creative problem-solving takes over to build unique boats, bridges and even a rollercoaster!
source TED
This past Wednesday @ msy YOUTH, we did a blitzkrieg through the first ten books of the Bible: Genesis through 2 Samuel. We used a Skit Guy video entitled: “The Skinny on the Bible” to introduce the evening, then we did 5 books at a time. We showed a video segment from JellyTelly for each of the books of the Bible. The videos are meant for a younger audience, so I was pushing the envelope a little using them with middle school students, but it worked out great. The videos did a great job of keeping their interest as we plowed through 10 of them.
While the students were watching the videos they had to write down some key words for each book of the Bible. After we did the first 5, then we had students go and write some of those key words on posterboard that we had taped around the room, one for each of the 10 books of the Bible. Then the students watched the second set of 5, the went and wrote on the posterboards. It was a neat exercise that took up our entire programming time, but it worked remarkably well.
Some of the students realized their names came from the Bible. It was funny, because after all the students wrote on the various posterboards, in order to personalize things, we had them pick one book of the Bible that was their favorite (of the 10 we went through) and write their name (and circle it, so it was different that the key words) on the posterboards. Students whose names were in certain books ended up putting their name on that one!
Here are the links to the JellyTelly videos on YouTube:
In our increasingly safety-conscious and bubble-wrapped world, this presenter defies the mainstream. Think about it: as you watch the video above, don’t you find it offensive and wrong at times? I mean, giving a kid a knife to play with?! Fire?! A spear?! What kind of a parent would do such a thing?
Gever Tully takes the listener through some of these wildly unpopular ideas in this TED Video that you can decide for yourself: Is our world too safe? Or is our world not “dangerous” enough?
The 5 dangerous things are:
Update: There is a blog entitled Fifty Dangerous Things that Gever Tully and friends write at.
source TED