Wait…Is Sunday School Over?

As the school year comes to a close so does our Children’s Ministry, or so at least it seems, right? Sunday School is on pause for the summer. Activities are slowing in the church and the summer festivals are starting to begin. The kids are excited for their favorite time of year. Summer break. Two and a half months of no learning, no school, and no classrooms. So as the school year comes to a close and students get a break from the routine of teachers and classrooms, ministry comes to a close for the year too right?

While it might appear like it’s the off-season, ministry never actually stops because we are always living life.  There is always something that needs to be done in our children’s lives. That’s why the summer is less of an off-season and more of a grand transition for us around the church. A grand transition because while we are preparing for the upcoming year and summer events, refocusing, recharging, and evaluating what we can improve on, ministry still needs to be done. Children are still growing up and they can’t afford to take an eighty day break from learning about Jesus.

An easy tendency and problem to fall into is believing that the primary and focal point of growing and learning about Christ happens in church.  As we fall into that thinking we believe that our children get their “fill” for Christ at church on Sundays and our children believe that the only time they grow is in the two hours (if that) that they are here. Unfortunately that leaves 166 hours a week where they don’t think they can grow or know Christ better. This is the transition, this is the great exchange where our children realize that they can learn, should learn, and will learn (and grow) in Christ outside of church.

Sunday School may be on pause but your child is still growing and we can work together during these transitions to help ensue that your child continue to grow in their relationship with Christ. Our goal is to empower you and guide you to take the reigns to lead and love just as Christ does for us. Here are some simple yet impactful ways to share Christ with your children during summer and then after the habit is made all year long.

1. Family Devotions – This is a great way to get the family involved in learning about Christ. You can do devotions every night before bed or start small by going once a week at a certain time. It will show your children how important it is that it’s a priority in your house as well as bonding the family together!

2. Praying before Dinner  – In today’s society it’s more common to get the food and split up and everyone eats individual or in front of the tv. Take time and eat together as a family and share your days together, before you do take turns praying to God. It’s a great way to empower children as they pray out loud at home they will begin to gain confidence to pray out loud in groups and more importantly giving thanks to God for providing.

3. Reading together – Find a time daily or weekly to sit down as a family and simply read your bibles together. What better way for our children to see and feel the importance of scripture than to see their parents reading scripture and talking about what they read? They will grow a lot by this simple act and it will subtly help encourage a generation who reads less and less to pick up their bibles and read them!

There are tons of simple ways to engage your child’s faith and we hope that this summer you will take advantage of the opportunity to really pour into your children as we prepare for the upcoming events. We are a tool at your disposal. We want to encourage and equip you anyway we can, so if you ever have a question or need a resource let us know. We are here to help you lead well!

Dear Mama

Dear Mama,

Thank you for bringing me into this world. For nurturing me into this place before I was born. Thank you for taking care of yourself when I was dependent on you.

I never told you how much I appreciated you back then mom. When I would keep you up all night long with my crying. When I just wanted you to hold me even if it was 3 am. I’m sorry for the lack of sleep you got and how cranky you were all day from exhaustion. I appreciated it back then and I wanted to tell you just how thankful I am that you were my mom growing up.

Thank you for being patient with me as I grew up. Through my toddler years when I went through my terrible twos still you loved me and treated me right. Thank you for being optimistic and hopeful that eventually I would turn into a decent person.

Hey mama, remember the days when you’d take me to the babysitter and I would cry cause I couldn’t stand to have anyone but you watch me. We can laugh about it now, but we both had separation anxiety back then and don’t even get me started on the first day of school how stressful that was for us.

Which reminds me to thank you for being the greatest teacher I’ve ever had. You taught me everything mama. Whether it was tutoring me in my math classes in middle school to helping me plan science experiments. More importantly though you taught me life. You taught me about love. You were my first love and whether I was trying to date every person I saw or was content to just be by myself, that didn’t matter to you. You were going to teach me, teach me that before I love someone else I must love myself. You taught me that being in a relationship didn’t have to dictate my happiness and that happiness was a choice. You empowered me to be myself and be free and when I got stuck in a bad relationship you played Mama Bear; you spoke kindly and firmly all at once, you were loving and patient with me yet you were determined to protect me.

You taught me how to take care of myself and be independent. Thank you for that mama, cause someday’s I’m not sure how I ended up where I am today. Never in my dreams would I have thought I’d reach the peaks I did, see the places I saw, and surpassed the dreams I dreamed. You were my backbone and strength. You were the one who when everyone said “I can’t” you whispered “Just believe” and knew the rest would be history.

Thank you mama for standing by me through my ups and my downs. When I was on top of the world you were there and when I was on rock bottom you sat by me and picked me up. You’re constant love will forever remind me of what my love should look like. It looks like a smile and kiss on a bleeding knee when I’m crying. It looks like cooking a separate meal for me when I was to picky to eat your meatloaf. It looks like dropping me off at the school, picking me up after, dropping me off at practice, picking me up after, dropping me off at a friends house, and bringing me home past dark. It looks like like sacrifice that growing up was overlooked and now just blows me away in how much you truly gave up for me. Your love looks like going to every sporting event and cheering for me even when we both knew I’d never get in the game and later it looked like being at every sporting to watch me perform even if it was a 10 hour drive away. Your love looks like defending me even when I mess up and always believing and seeing the best in me. Your love looks like Christ, shining through the heavens brightening up everything around you.

Dear mama, you did everything for me growing up: you watched me, you cooked for me, you did my laundry, you bought me clothes, toys, games, and more junk than I actually needed and you did it with a smile on your face. I’m most thankful for your love though. I know I’m biased but I’ll always believe that I grew up with the best mother in the world. As you grow older and need more help the tables will turn and it will be I taking care of you and dad and because you showed me what that looks like I can do it for you, with a smile on my face.

This goes out to all the mom’s out there in honor of Mother’s Day. You are all so appreciated and so loved and so wonderful. Allow this to be a thank you for all your hard work because your children are thinking it even if they don’t say it. Thank you all for guiding us, loving us, encouraging us, equipping us, and believing in us. You are a wonderful and beautiful woman and you changed our life and the lives of everyone we meet. You put your nurturing and loving fingerprint on our heart forever.

We love you.

Sincerely,

Your Children.

Fruit of the Spirit: Peace

^“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23

Life is HARD!

Life is messy, busy, complicated and hard! In a faith that says serve God and not money we are thrown into a world that says money is the most important thing about you. Even if you don’t want to care about how much money you make we still live in a world where bills have to be paid, mortgage has to be done, savings have to be built up, food has to be bought, fun needs to be had, and the children are always asking for more more more. We have to balance working, children, spouses, friends, hobbies, and time to rest. It’s hard and if we’re not careful can spend more time worrying about how we are doing and what needs to be done then enjoying the blessings God has given us.

If we are caught up worrying and frustrated all the time the relationships around us will suffer. Those around us will feel like they are constantly walking on egg shells. They may start to question the circumstances of our love being conditional rather than unconditional. Tension will be building. Life is hard, but luckily we can have peace.

A Gift of Peace?

As Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was arrested and His trial which would ultimately lead to His death by crucifixion He taught His disciples one last time. One of the things He promised to His disciples and ultimately to us was the Holy Spirit. In this Holy Spirit they (we) would receive peace.

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” – John 14:27

Jesus gave us all peace as He left us. How does that peace affect us though and is it really there?

Under Protection, Under Care

As Jesus spoke during the Sermon on the Mountain He talks about not worrying about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough worries, today’s troubles are enough to take care of. He talks about God’s loving hand of protection and comfort taking care of the birds of the air. The birds always have food to eat and yet they do not plant or store up food, every day their food is provided. He talks about the flowers of the field how beautiful they are clothed. He does this to point out one thing to those listening, you are more valuable. You are more valuable than the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, so if God cares enough to give them food and provide clothing for them don’t you think He cares even more about you. We don’t have to get caught up because God is with us and He is for us and He will take care of us no matter what where we go.

Peace that Last

As we rethink our peace we can walk away with a couple lasting thoughts.

1. Peace comes from being God-centered. As we concentrate on what truly matters in life (living for Christ and leading others to Him) the rest of the distractions fade to static.
2. Our Father will ALWAYS take care of us. It may not be what we think, we may not win the lotto, we may struggle, but He is faithful and will lead us through the fires.
3. Trusting in God and His plan leads to peaceful living. Peaceful living breeds continuity in families where they can more freely be themselves and love each other.

As we continue to give our worries to God, He will not disappoint. The more we put ourselves out there and are filled (by Him) the more naturally it will become to us. We will seek God first and be joyful knowing that He has and will provide for us. That will free us up to a peaceful life not necessarily without barriers but spiritually and emotionally being free.

Fruit of the Spirit: Joy

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” – Galatians 5:22-23a

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The second Fruit of the Spirit is joy. There are many things that bring us joy aren’t there? Things that range from our families and hobbies to sitting in our new car; we can all find joy in these things from from time-to-time. Maybe there’s a little disconnect though because aren’t those things what brings us happiness? Are joy and happiness the same thing? Is one better than another or more important than the other? How do we know which is which?

The Difference

In my eyes there is a distinct difference when I think about what makes me happy and what makes me joyful. Happiness in my eyes is a fleeting emotion. Many things bring us happiness while we are on earth, but all those things that bring us happiness will fade in time.

Joy on the other hand is a more eternal emotion. Joy is being truly satisfied and content with where you are regardless of your circumstances. Joy is being filled with Christ and knowing His love is enough to complete you and bring you comfort and delight no matter how your day.

Joy in the Lord is saying His love in our darkest days still outshines the happiness we get from the world in our greatest days. Not only does it outshine, but it’s not even close, it’s a no contest. Joy fulfills us while happiness is here today and gone tomorrow leaving us still searching for what will fill the whole in our heart.

New Life of Desire

If we truly believe in Christ it changes our worlds and gives us new life. How we live and what we desire changes and shapes us towards Christ and away from the world. This changes our relationships and every interaction we have after and our family is no exception, the whole dynamic takes a new form. The emphasis you put on your family changes because you want them to true authentic joy and not just happiness and your eyes have been open to put the emphasis on that as well. Here’s some ways that we can practice showing joy in our families.

1. Sports are about more than winning, sports are about growing. The amount of time I’ve seen parents or other fans losing perspective of the game is almost every time I’m watching. You see them in high school gym cursing at teenagers who travel or miss a tackle. You see them telling their child that they’ll have to tell the parent who missed that they’re a loser. Our joy isn’t in the achievement it’s in the child. It’s imperative that we understand that so that we can encourage and support our child and shepherd them. Sports are great, but they are just sports.

2. On our hardest days praise God. Our children are watching us and following us and we need to always remember that. We are the greatest influencers in their lives. If life 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react then we need to making the most of how we react and respond to life. As we begin to praise God and thank God on the hardest days whether through a loss of a job, divorce, sickness, financial distress, we are putting a foundation of joy and gratitude into our children’s lives as well.

3. Smile. It’s a pretty simple one isn’t it? Smile. What other way can we show this joy that overwhelms and gets us through every day. We are handcrafted by the God of the Universe, who died for us to free us from our sins so that we can one day live in paradise with Him. His walks besides us to guide us, in from of us to protect and comfort us and behind us. The joy we receive from Him is more than enough to smile and say “My God is a mighty God.”

Whenever you’re feeling low look towards God’s love to get you through the day and not just to survive but to thrive. The joy you receive will encourage others to know Him as well. You are a beacon of light so be joyful in the love you have!

Our Perspective in Struggle

Overview of Video

In this video, Gretchen Norlund, talks about her doubts of God while struggling with Cystic Fibrosis. How could God love her and create her so beautifully and delight in her while giving her this disease that she would have to battle her entire life and control so much of what she could and couldn’t do? How come God hasn’t healed her of this disease? Is her faith too small? Is her sin too big? Doubt and skeptic moods creep on sparingly and Gretchen has to decide what to do (or believe) next.

Gretchen enlightens us by reminding us that our ability to trust God isn’t based on what He gives us rather on His love. She also phrases so beautifully a comparison to our dictating circumstances and love for God with those hard times with Job. What if our circumstances are a testament of our love of God?

In Job, a man who follows and delights in God is tested. Satan tells God it’s easy to love and be faithful when life is good, so God hands Job to Satan to show Satan that Job’s faith and love isn’t depicted on his life or the blessings he receives. Gretchen highlights what that interaction could have looked like in her own life in a way that challenges the audience in their own perspective with their life.

Reason for Choosing

Gretchen’s faith and joy for life was instrumental in my walk with Christ and as I watched this video my perspective of how to view my struggles was changed from this is standing in the way of Christ in my life to this is how I show Satan that Jesus is my rock.

Gretchen lived her whole life with Cystic Fibrosis and never let it concur her. She was a worship artist and musician despite having a disease that attacked her lungs, she sung so beautifully and glorified God all the more just as she tells about through out her life.

On April 10, 2015 Gretchen passed away from complications with her Cystic Fibrosis. I wanted to give all of you a glimpse of the Sister in Christ we lost, one that God formed and delighted in all the days of her life. She is now, singing songs without pain worshipping and lifting up the One who saved her in His presence.

Lesson

Life is hard. We face challenges every day of our lives whether through our illness, financial problems, health issues within our family, loss of job, or whatever it may be. I hope that you can come to think of these not as a punishment, but instead you can picture the exchange God and Satan had with Job in your own life.

“She wouldn’t love you if she didn’t have everything. Fire her from her job then they’ll lose faith. Let that child’s life be rocked by a divorce then he’ll turn away from you. Give their child a disease and see if they still worship you, I bet they won’t, I bet they turn from you.” – Satan

“Try them. I believe their faith and love will still shine.” – God

Fruit of the Spirit: Love

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” – Galatians 5:22-23a

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It’s only fitting that the Fruit of the Spirit start with love. Love, the increasingly overused word to express how we feel about anything ranging from: our spouses and children, our favorite sports team, Starbucks, our car, our family pet, various foods and drinks, and tv. What does our wide range of the word show us? Our understanding often becomes watered down in comparison to God’s.

God’s love is much deeper than ours and in this context He desires for it to be used in our lives in a completely different way. We often think of love as a noun, a word to show our affection for something. God desires love to be a characteristic that blossoms in us as believers in Him, transforming our noun into a verb.

The Love that Started it All

It’s only fitting that this topic be brought up shortly after Easter in which Christ love was beautifully and perfectly displayed. True love is laying your life down for a friends (paraphrased from John 15:13) which is exactly what Christ did for us. Setting us free from sin and purifying us. This is vital to remember in our culture, when you compare this love to all other “loves” that we feel they are quickly put into perspective.

Christ’s love helps bring clarity on what our love should look like for those around us, especially towards our family. Christ’s life was bringing alive love not as a noun, but demonstrating to all what it looks like to have love be a characteristic and using it as a verb.

Christ’s Life of Love

As we grow further into our walk and relationship with Christ His fruit will be seen in us. Christ lived a life full of love. Whether it was taking time to talk, listen and bless the “unimportant” children or going out of the city to be with the lepers and other outcast, He put love into action. He walked around meeting with everyone it didn’t matter if they were: religious leader, poor, rich, prostitute, tax collector, children, parents, or sick. Jesus took the affection He had and went to them. Love wasn’t merely a feeling for Jesus, it was the entity of who He was and because of that reason He demonstrated it in all He did.

Applying the Love

How do we show this same love to those around us? Here are a couple simple ways you can bear the fruit of love in your lives.

1. Take time to listen. Show how much you care to your spouse and your children by listening to their day and what’s going on in their lives.

2. Be intentional with those around you. Take time to be in the present. Put down your phone and get to know people’s stories around you so that Christ can shine.

3. Sacrifice. If you see a need in someone’s life or someone struggling, lend a helping hand. Sacrificing your own needs or possessions to help those around is shows our trust, dependency, and love for God and His children.

4. Forgive as Christ forgives. Bitterness and resentment kill joy and relationships, don’t let hate bring you down. Remember that you wrong just as you have been wrong and seek Christ to allow the hardness of your heart to be soften so that you can forgive and love.

Those are just a couple ways to show the fruit of love. It takes humbling ourselves and seeing others as more important than ourselves and our need just as Christ showed us. I pray you can look to Him and be filled and from there that you would be able to love those around you in a way you never have before.

Palm Sunday Procession (Recap)

One of the most beautiful things about working with children is seeing their joy in the simple things and eagerness to be a part of something. We as a church got to see this this past Sunday during the Procession and it was a beautiful beautiful thing.

As they walked through the doors they were excited to grab ahold of a palm branch. They were smiling and having a great time. The real party started when the procession and march began though. The shy children waited patiently for us to come around to them so they could join in while the more rambunctious ones could been seen running down the isle saying “Watch out, I’m coming through!”

As we trotted around the church several times the children were loving life and being the center of attention. It was a blast. They waved their palm branches fearlessly in the air like they were Braveheart riding into battle. It was a very simple yet joy-filled moment that I believe really showed to an extent the celebration that was felt the first Palm Sunday. That Sunday was a marvelous celebration of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem.

The children were able to replicate it because of their childlike joy and that’s the beauty of children’s ministry. Their spirits are high, they are joyful, they are not afraid of acting crazy, they are not public trained yet, so their ability to cut-loose and recklessly worship Jesus is something that can inspire us. As they funneled into our line and followed us around the sanctuary going up-down-and-all-around they waved they waved their branches, smiles, laughed, waved at mom and dad, and got lost in the moment of what we were doing. We can learn a lot from worship by watching children dance and cut-loose. We forget that from time to time but I hope we can remember and learn from them.

We hope you all enjoyed our Palm Sunday Procession and look forward to celebrating Easter with everybody this weekend! Have a blessed week!

An Encouraging Partnership

^{11 “}I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— ¹² that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” – Romans 1:11-12

Changing Perceptions

As I grew up I was surrounded by relationships and my confidence grew that I knew how every relationship should work. My own relationships were skewed due to the nature of sin and I saw a lot of confrontation. I soon thought every relationship was one big argument that never stopped. The day I realized that wasn’t true was a big day for me. Everything I had thought before was gone, relationships gained a whole new meaning and the possibilities of teamwork became endless.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever felt that way before, I hope not, but knowing the broken world we live in I’m guessing you have. I think we have that misperception with ministry partnership all the time. To often people in ministry try to shoulder the load of discipling the nations and to often congregations let it happen. A new light dawns now though, we can have clarity that maybe that isn’t the best way to raise our children into followers of Christ. So how should we interact together?

The Partnership

Romans 1:12 is a favorite verse of mine and my goal for every relationship I’m in: friends, coworkers, parents or significant others. Our relationships should be mutually encouraging! We should be building each other up, supporting one another, equipping one another, praying for one another, and standing by one another. We have the same goal and the reality is we need each other.

We need you as parents to be the spiritually leaders of your household because you can do so much more than we can. The time and relationship you have with your child is something we can never replicate and makes you the biggest influencer in their lives. However, you need us as a church to equip you and give your students and children the experience of fellowship and love. We are the Body of Christ and we need every member to play their part to push the Gospel forward.

What Does This Look Like?

I think being mutually encouraging starts by working together on tangible levels. I think an easy way to show this is by constantly asking about the other side of the partnership to the children. For example, after Sunday School or Youth Group after we have challenged and taught the children you can follow up with an intentional conversation at home after to help them digest and reflect upon it better. We can then be intentional with our time about asking about what’s going on in their lives to to reinforce everything you do as a family as well. Another big way I think we can work together is by being seen at each others playing fields. You need to be seen in the church working, whether as a small group leaders, a greeter, anything; we need to be seen outside the church going to children’s activities, games, recitals, anything! This helps show the importance and cooperation we have for one another and how church isn’t a segment of life. Rather it paints the picture that church and life go together like peanut butter and jelly!

If you are looking for an easy check-list of things you can be doing in our partnership, here’s a start!

• Pray for us and our ministry every night (This is even better if done as a family before meals!)
• Be intentional with your children! It’s easy after a long day to turn your mind off, take 15 minutes with your children to really inquire about what’s going on in their lives.
• Challenge your children. Don’t be afraid to ask them about their spiritual life. If they have hard questions try to answer them or work them out together, or let us know and we can help you answer them!
• Take time on a Sunday night to do a family devotion together or take time around the supper table to share how you’ve seen God work this week.
• Comment any other easy ways your family does this!

Those are just a couple of easy ideas that could change the dynamic of the house and show how important Christ is. As far as us, we will be trying to do our part.

• Teaching your children biblical truths to live by.
• Loving them and making our time together an environment where they can feel God’s love.
• Building Christ-centered relationships with the children.
• Giving you as parents, information that will encourage, support, and equip you.
• Feel free to comment any other ways that we can guide you!

So there you have it! A mutually encouraged relationship that’s been there all along, even though we might not have seen it. I look forward to encouraging each and every one of you in your families walk with Christ and I look forward to being encouraged by your faithfulness.