Connect 4 with Your Kids - Tommy's Notes March 25

This past week we discussed discipleship resources for our kids. We should strongly encourage them to begin reading the Bible and teach them to do so. I strongly suggest that every kid have their own age appropriate Bible and spend time reading it daily. Even toddlers can have a Bible board book and pretend to read as they look at the pictures.

When our children learn to read, they should already be in the habit of spending time with their Bible each day. Continue to get them new Bibles and allow them to complete them and then move on to a more advanced children's Bible.

We handed out the Wonderzone Kid devotional books. These are 60 day devotional books for children (grades 3-5). There are six different books and the can be found at https://mail.icelebration.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.wonderzone.com. I also keep some in my office to give out to parents and kids.

We also talked about online websites that encourage bible reading and learning the bible:
https://mail.icelebration.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.awana.org
https://mail.icelebration.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.wonderzone.com
http://www.jellytelly.com/

These websites have great kid games and daily devotional ideas for children. It is vital to get our kids enjoying and learning to read the bible on their own. One day they will leave our house and we pray that their faith will be theirs and not just that of their parents. It is our desire to see them grow and in turn make disciples of their children.

We walked around the bases (visual on board) as we desired to see our kids:
1- Saved
2- Baptized
3-Grow
4-Become a Disciple

It is our prayer that they would repeat the process with their own family some day.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Tommy's Notes:

This week in Family FX we talked about sharing the Bible at home with our children. We discussed the importance of having family devotions at home. We have goals in mind for our children as they grow up (intentional or unintentional), but if we want them to be godly young men and women we have to lead them in that direction.

If you want your child to be a great baseball player; you would have them play on teams, practice all the time, take them to watch big league baseball, buy them good equipment, etc. But what if you want your child to be a godly young man or woman? What do you do? Go to church? Is that enough to lead your child to be godly?

The bible teaches us in Deuteronomy 6 that the parents are to pass on their faith in God to their children. We are to do so as we get up, as we walk throughout our day, and as we lie down at night. I believe one of the greatest things we can do with our children is have a weekly time together of learning God’s word.

Yes, we all need daily reading and prayer, but a weekly family time gives us an outlet to teach our kids biblical truths as they grow up in our homes. Imagine if you did weekly family times every week for 18 years. You would not look back and say; “I wish I would have told them about…” You would have more than enough opportunities to cover most of the choices and temptations they will face in life. It is one of the best ways to guarantee that we get ample time to teach and train our children.

We pay $60 - $100 to sign our kids up for soccer, piano lessons, basketball, etc. Why not make an investment in family time and get some tools to help you teach your kids biblical truths in a fun way. Below is a list of resources we discussed this past week at Family FX.

Parent Resources for Family Devotions

BLAST lessons (weekly lessons from Sunday morning)
Review lessons with family devotional at home during the week. You can find them online and a weekly hand out at BLAST

www.famtime.com
These are great family time activities for children of all ages. You can purchase these books online or download their free on per month. We have some listed on our church website under Family FX. These are about $20 per book and they would last several months.

Family Devotional Books (we had several books on hand for parents to look at)
Family Night Tool Chest
Family Devotions2
Focus on the Family Activity Books

Unit Studies – www.christianbook.com and search for family devotion. For under $20 you can find some great family devotional books that will last for months and some all year long.

10 Tips for a successful Family Time

1. Make it fun
2. Make it relevant – it needs to be age appropriate
3. Make it short and meaningful – it should not be long and boring
4. Pick a theme or a topic – it is great to have a family calendar and place your themes or key words on your calendar. Your kids will know what is coming and look forward to that time.
5. Add your family extras – quiz night, game night, special dessert night, theme song, quick –no-mess dinner, etc.
6. With older kids – let them help lead and pick future topics
7. Be consistent and faithful – yes you will have some duds, but pray for God’s guidance as you lead your children. They will remember more than you think. Be faithful to protect your family time.
8. Change the scenery – it’s OK to leave the house, some of their best memories will be when you took them downtown to visit the homeless and teach them about helping others
9. Share the passion with others. It’s OK to invite friends over to be a part. You may change a family simply by opening your doors on family night.
10. Dad – lead the way. It is biblical and best when dad is leading. If that is not an option, then mom feel free to take start the ball rolling.

No Greater Joy! March 4, 2009

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 1:4

We started off in small groups discussing when we accepted Jesus.

We made observations from Romans 10:9-17:

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Then we saw Lindsey's baptism testimony video from when she was barely six years old.

1. Pray for your child's salvation. Never stop praying, be patient.
2. Prepare yourself to lead them to Christ. Know your own testimony and know the steps from God's Word.
3. Be patient as you continually provide spiritual nuture in age appropriate ways about God and His love, Jesus, sin, repentance, faith and eternal life; even before they accept Christ. Chrisitan attitudes, actions and truths need to be taught to the child before the child is saved. You create the environment; the Holy Spirit convicts and reveals the love and way of God.
4. Deal gently and with understanding when you see that their desire for salvation is an effort to please peers, to please you, to get praise, to join others in baptism, or to get out of trouble.
5. As age appropriate, let your child read scriptures aloud that deal with salvation. Ask them what the Word is telling them. Lead them in explaining the main points of accepting Christ in their own words.
6. Lead them in praying to accept Jesus, but let put it in thier own words. Also, have them follow up with a brief prayer of thanksgiving to God for their salvation.

We had the groups come up with a plan to present the gosple to a child.

We also watched "The Gospel for Kids" video from http://www.essentials.tv/site/c.bqLKI1OKKtF/b.486373/apps/s/content.asp?ct=617785

We handed out Plan of Salvation bookmarks with a simple Roman Road gospel presentation: Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:23 and 10:9.

Remember:

• Salvation is a point in time and it is a life long process.
• Nuture and encourge them to trust God. They will need to trust Him for salvation and daily living.
• Repentance and faith are not one time acts but ongoing attitudes of the heart toward sin.We may lead them to Jesus, but it is the Holy Spirit who brings conviction and reveals to them their need for Jesus.
• Don't get ahead of the Holy Spirit, by coaxing your child into making an empty profession of faith. There is no set age a child should receive Christ.
• Don't get in the way of the Holy Spirit when He does start spontaneously working in your child's life.

We ended with a resource to use with your child after they accept Jesus: I'm a Christian Now! It comes in a version for younger children and one for older children. Both can be obtained from our Children's Pastor, Tommy Hendricks.