Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your should and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall team them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down. and when you rise.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them down on the doorposts of your house and your gates.   

 I think we would all agree that we as parents are called to train our children and the next generation to then pass that on to their children and so on and so on.  I believe if we asked, in a survey: As a disciple of Jesus Christ, do you think it is your responsibility to train your children in Godliness?  I think the overwhelming response would be YES!  Absolutely.  The more difficult question would be: How?  

How do you train your child in godliness.  What does that practically look in your day to day life.  My wife and I sat up the other night for quite sometime thinking and talking through this vital issue.  How do we, now with two girls, train our children to grow up to seek the face of God.  How do we train them to be passionate about the gospel, serving others, the church etc.

 I would love to hear responses from those who are in the midst of raising their children, already have raised children, or are looking forward to one day having their own.  

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I graduated from Kent State University almost 4 years ago.  For all you who are still in college, I definitely feel for you in regards to your late night times of study and endless hours of home work, on top of dealing with many classes that you just don’t understand how you will ever use this 10 years from now.  Though these things are frustrating at times, there were many things in college that I did take away, that I am very thankful for and still truly enjoy today...maybe a bit too much.

For one I began drinking the greatest drink ever made by mankind, Starbucks.  Yes the later the nights became, the more I thought about taking up coffee and I believe it was my sophomore year that I decided it was time to become an addict.  I can proudly say that this addiction is still with me today and Starbucks is always at the top of my "things to do" list as I sit here enjoying one now.

Next, Apple.  Yes I went to college and fell into envying all those with the beautiful little apples on their computers, watching them work endlessly with various tasks, as I continued to have to hit the restart button on my Dell.  While in college, I never had the enjoyment of working on one myself, but did have many minutes watching others as I sat waiting for my Dell to restart.  

Lastly, one I still do today is writing.  Yes writing.  Now I’m not saying that this is something I am good at or do I excel, as many are probably seeing all the writing mistakes I have made throughout this, but I do enjoy. The idea of writing is very simple and archaic to many, but for me this still continues today. 

So I'm by no means a smart guy.  In high school I managed to go to class everyday and get by in order to graduate somewhere in the middle of my class of over 300.  While in high school, I hated writing.  I knew for the most part I could get by without it, but once I entered college something changed.  I think the change was mainly due to not really knowing how to study.  I tried the note card thing and had little to no success with it, except in my Astronomy class.  Why Astronomy you may ask?  My professor allowed each of us to bring in one 4*6 note card for our tests.  That may sound like no big deal, but when Mr. Richards gave us the test a week ahead of time, it was no problem to go and copy it, shrink it down to a 4*6 note card and then use our magnifying glasses.  No this was not cheating. Mr. Richards actually encouraged us to do this.  Needless to say, I received an A in the class right alongside everyone else.  

Getting back to why the enjoyment of writing began in college and still holds strong today.  I came to an understanding that the only way for me to do well, outside of attending every class, was to write my notes time after time, after time, after time.  What did this do for me?  In my head I could visualize or picture my writing on the page of my notes, to then answer the questions on the test weather that was essay, short answer, multiple choice or true/false.  Yes this took time and effort, but this was the way I was able to succeed.  That discipline of writing then turned into journaling and has carried to today and is where I get the title "Journables?"

Since coming to Faith in Christ alone, I have somewhat struggled with my ability to visualize scripture.  What I mean by that is, is having the ability to know exactly where in the word of God something is, outside of simply memorizing it which is also an important practice and vital to being filled with the Word so we can discern in order to live holy lives.  I went back to what I knew and learned in college.  Writing the scriptures time and again.  This is why I am ecstatic about Journables: 

"In Deuteronomy 17, Moses is leaving final instructions concerning the future of Israel. As a prophet of God, Moses foretells of when Israel will place a king over the nation (v. 14). In verse 18, the king is commanded to not simply acquire a copy of the law (the entire book of Deuteronomy) from the “scroll publishing house,” but to hand write his own copy of the law.  Thirty-four hundred years later, educators are “discovering” that students that physically write out their notes by hand have a much greater retention rate than simply hearing or visually reading the information. Apparently, God knew this to be true of the kings of Israel also. From such understanding came the conception of this series of books."

This is a simple yet concise idea of how to journal through the bible.  I think many struggle with just their daily time and being fed by God's words and this gives us structure through daily writing, while also giving the ability to be accountable to others as they can see our time spent and our thoughts on whatever passage we are working through.  This is by no means a tool for depth study, but daily accountability. This is just a thought and something to consider for your daily walk.      

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rethink by Steve Wright

 Chapter 3

Remodel: a Biblical Framework for Student Ministry

We have been working our way through this as a a youth staff at our monthly meetings and would like you as parents and students to follow along with us.  

I.  Intro

a. Is the parents or churches' job to disciple teens?

b. How can the church partner with parents?

      i. First book of the Bible God began first institution for discipleship: family

      ii. New Testament we see a second institution for discipleship: the Church

c. Our ministries must co-champion the family and the church. 

d. For to long what has been missing is a co-championing mentality that places equal importance on family and church.

      i. Paragraph 74-75: "The idea of Co-Champions, even in discipling teenagers, is to fuzzy and not flashy enough to sell out a student ministry conference.  For too long what has been missing is a co-championing mentality that places equal importance on family and church.  Parents have, in most contexts, handed over their biblically assigned task as primary disciplers to a church pastor who has been taught to accept it.  Some people, in other contexts have made a case to abolish student ministry, remove teens from student activities, and try to disciple their kids while excluding the church.  Neither is biblical.  Neither is ideal.  The two institutions must step closer to one another to be based on a biblical model.   Teens need family and church working hand in hand surrounding them with truth and godly models to follow."   

II.  Championing the Family

a. "As you read through God's word who do you find God gave the primary role of a child's spiritual formation to?"

      i. Parents- Dt. 6 and 11

b.  George Barna says, "The responsibility for raising spiritual champions, according to the bible, belongs to parents.  This is not a job for specialists, but for parents." (81)

      i. "Parents carry more weight-for good or bad- than they give themselves credit for.  How a child thinks and acts is still molded by his or her home life, which means the crumbling foundations of the faith among this generation is as much a parental problem as a church problem, if not more so.  If we are going to reclaim the next generation, the home and the church must join forces together like never before."  (86)

III.  Championing the Church

a.  Should we then shut down student ministry?

       i. Two polarized views

            1.  Church only and ignore the family

            2.  Exclusive focus on the family

       ii.  Focusing on the family is becoming ever so popular in some circles teaching to do away with age-graded ministry:

             1.  Voddie Baucham says, "Let me be clear...there is no such thing as Biblical youth ministry."

             2.  Vision Forum Ministries argues, "The only two biblical ways to disciple children are teaching by parents and preaching."

                        a.  Their Solution: Stop  all age segregate ministries and keep  families together at all times.

         iii.   Steve Wright Questions that Logic:

             1.  Luke 2:46- example of Christ sitting in the midst of rabbis or teachers, listening to them and talking to them. 

             2.  Galatians 3:24 alludes to the Hebrew idea of a tutor, instructor, or school master (related to the word "paideia" which cannot mean to preach and never refers to parent.)  Rabbis would teach in the synagogues in Talmud and Mishnah schooling, which were teaching different aged children. 

                        a.  "The point I want to make is that more than parental teaching and preaching was involved in the process...Sure it was called Mishnah then, (which was age-graded) and we call it Sunday School or teen bible study today.  There is biblical precedent for age graded ministries and for parents allowing non-family members to teach their children. 

              3.  Hyperfamilisim- This is what some critics are calling this family-only thinking approach, because they believe the church should spend all its time enriching family life and no time meeting other needs or providing other ministries. 

          iv.  Other end of the spectrum- Student ministry better off with no parental involvement. 

               1.  Lets be cautious of those who say to champion one institution at the demise of the other.  Getting rid of either the family or the church would be unbiblical. 

                         a.  Acts 2.

IV.  What's the Purpose: (Pg. 94)

            i.  The church accomplishes things the family does not and visa versa...we need both.

                1.  Extremists who want to eliminate student ministry have not seen how it can work when it is a partnership, rather than a competition with the family. 

                2.  "When students see worship at home, at church, on the road when we lie down, when we get up (Dt. 6), with mom, with dad, with other adults, with other students etc. they fully understand exaltation."

                        a.  Purpose: Edification- Heb. 10:25, Eph. 4:11-13

             i.  Encouraging, instructing, caring, teaching, equipping

             ii.  Our job is to equip all of God's people with the tools they need to impact their families, their community, and the world for Christ.  Families cannot do that themselves; they need other Christians in the church to lock arms with them and provide all they need to make a difference. 

                1.  Page 98: why the church and student ministries are needed. 

V.  Co-Championing the Family and the Church

a. We must find a middle ground between the extremes and learn how to co-champion the family in the ministries, so each institution can function as God intended. 

b. Church ministries must shift their framework to give families the tools to succeed in a society that wears down and breaks apart this institution. 

              i.     A disconnect has formed over the past 50 years between the two institutions that were designed to work together.   

                 1. "The Christian church and the Christian home as an institution are closely bound together.  They are like Siamese twins: if you cut them apart you may sever an artery of life and cause one or both to die.  The church cannot function, as she should in a disordered world unless she employs the home as her main reliance in Christian nurture.  I feel certain that the family cannot be a Christian family or happy family unless it stays in the circulation of those spiritual influences of which the church is the great custodian."

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Due to Summer Camp and a trip to Mexico, I have not been able to blog for quite sometime.  What a blessing it has been over the past couple weeks as reformingyouth was able to hear the word of God about the myth of Adolescence taught by Sean Higgins and then followed by a week of service in Ensenada, Mexico.  While flying to and from Mexico I had the opportunity to read a book titled Serious times by James Emery White.  In the book he argues that just as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson lived during very serious times and turned the course of history, we also live during serious times. 

Within this book he challenges the reader about the most serious times for the church, is now.  I was amazed at the chapter titled Devloping Your Minds, as White went through astonishing statistics about how we are becoming a mindless culture.  He communicated 42% of American adults cannot locate Japan on a world map, 15% cannot locate the Unite States, 50% of American Students were unaware of the Cold War and 60% of American students had no idea how America came into existence.  Along with those, even more astonishing were that 60% of the adult population of the U.S. has never read a book of any kind and only 6% reads as much as one book per year.  

Romans 12:1 says, "do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."  We wonder why our children and adults within the church are heading down a path of continually being conformed to the world and being less and less conformed to the church.  We wonder why generation after generation are not able to defend what they believe and why they believe it.  We wonder why being open to everything and standing for nothing, is now considered the new intelligence.  We are living in an age of mindlessness where everyone based on their own opinion, without any sufficient biblical data, simply makes their own God as they fulfill their own pleasures and conform to the image of the world, rather than the image of God.  

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This is chapter two of the book ReThink by SteveWright who I had the privilege of listening to over this past weekend at a conference in Raleigh North Carolina.  

4 areas to look at:
1.    Separation from parents or partnership with parents?
2.    Student Ministry or Student Development?

1.    Separation from parents or partnership with parents? (p. 46)

a.    Here are quotes Steve Wright has heard over the 20 plus years of student ministry from other student pastors pertaining to partnerships with parents. 

i.    “Student ministry wouldn’t be nearly as difficult if it didn’t involve dealing with parents.”

ii.    “I don’t know if my parents are on the same page with me and my ministry.”

iii.    “I don’t think to many parents desire to disciple their children.”

iv.    “Our parents see spiritual formation as primarily my job.”

b.    We live in a society where things have become extremely specialized.  If you want to pay someone to do it for you name it and it will be done.

i.    “Some parents and churches unfortunately view student ministry in the same way: as a spiritual drop off service best left to the professionals.  Those parents think they are only responsible to take their child to church- put him or her in a spiritual environment and out comes a morally sound young adult…. What’s missing from the scenario?” (47)

1.    Is this our view based on our actions?

ii.    Churches must also take some of the blame.  Student pastors and churches have accepted responsibility for teen’s spirituality and have not equipped parents to take their responsibility seriously as the primary spiritual disciplers. 

a.    How can we do better?  What are some suggestions?

2.    “Traditional student ministry has come to value freedom from parents and neglect the importance of partnership with them.  The problem is two fold: 1) It isn’t biblical. 2) It doesn’t work.  The research is now pointing this fact out to us.” (48)

c.    Research done by Bruce Hunsberger in his book “Amazin Apostates” about children when they reach college and leave the faith.  Here are the conclusions they found. (p. 48)

i.    “Parents play an extremely important role in developing religious attitudes (good or bad) and practices of their offspring.  Parents are the most important influence in this regard.”

1.    What type of religious attitude are you instilling in your child?  Do they see your love for Christ not when gathering with the church body but also in the home?

ii.    “We acquire religion from our parents almost as certainly as we inherit the color of our eyes.”

1.    Would you want your child’s walk with God to look like yours?

iii.    “If today’s young people seem less religious than their parents, it may be traced to their parents’ neglecting to pass on the grandparents training.”

d.    The current student ministry model values freedom from parents due to its convenience. (p. 49)

i.    “Parents are often seen as a hindrance to ministry, as a source of endless opinion and criticism, and in extreme cases as a necessary evil.”

1.    We must strategically create a partnership that goes beyond a spiritual drop-off service.

e.    Current Student Ministry Model: (p. 50)

i.    “Spiritual formation becomes viewed as only something that happens at church by the students and their parents.  The obvious problem is that most teens are only at church a few hours a week compared to the dozens of hours they spend at home.”

1.    About 4 hours compared to the 166 other hours in the week. 

ii.    “Because parents aren’t engaged it seems the only time parents come to staff is when something has gone wrong or if they have a complaint.”

1.    Is this Faith Bible Church?

f.    Student ministry from a biblical framework views parents as an indispensable ministry partners. (p. 52) 

i.    “We must begin to champion the God-given role of parents and revalue our student ministry so that student pastors, volunteers and parents see each other as essential ministry partners in ministry.”

a.    Busy, busy, busy.  “Guys are busier than ever trying to keep the student ministry machine going, while they are losing those they were intended to care for.  It’s as if they spend all their time running from event to event and activity to activity knowing the busyness is preventing them from focusing on what will last.” (p. 53)

b.    The Barna Research Group found that the most common reason students gave for attending church was to “better understand what they believe.” 

i.    Is the foundation of what they believe forming at home and can they defend what they believe?

c.    Paul’s purpose of developing Timothy was not so he would be good at games and pleasure, but better able to defend the faith. (p. 54)

i.    Are we giving students what they can easily get from the world?  We will never outperform the pleasures of the world. 

1.    “We have to spend more time developing students and those who greatly influence them and less time on the machine that demands more and more…”

d.    “Has today’s model prepared students to answer this basic question and foundational question: Why do you believe Jesus is the Messiah?” (p.57-58)

i.    How would your child respond?

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Heb. 13:8 aJesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 

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The last two months have been a whirlwind in some respects and each and every moment I just want to freeze and cherish.  Being a father has been a blessing, privaledge and honor and Sheryl and I give all the praise and honor and glory to the Father for allowing us to be parents.  

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I feel like I haven't been in the world of blogging for quite sometime.  Well that is really the truth, as it has not been for over a week since I posted a short quote from the book titled, Wordliness by CJ Mahaney.  Since I posted that, I must say that the scariest thing in my life ever occured last Wednesday. 

As many of you know, my wife and I had a baby girl, Summer, 10 weeks ago today.   Last Wednesday I had just given Sheryl a kiss goodbye and she left to go to Kent to work for a short couple of hours and I was getting ready to take Summer to my in-laws.  I was walking out the door, with Summer in her car seat and covered in her Buldle Me.  A Bundle Me is one of those baby covers to keep the baby warm when it is cold outside, for those of us who live in Ohio.  I swung open my side door and to my surprise the door immediately swung back in my face.  During this time I had a cup of coffee in my hands.  Needless to say, the door hit the cup of coffee which then dumped into her car seat.  I immediately threw down my bag of books and went into panic mode as I ripped her out of her car seat, laid her on her back on the kitchen counter and quickly took her clothes off of her.  Instead of calling 911 I grabbed her, placed her on my lap and drove to the fire station, that was about a mile down the road.  

As I arrived, I was speechless with tears in my eyes wondering what damage this cup of coffee could have done to the new bundle of joy the Lord had just brought into my life just a short time ago.  The paramedics took her from me and immediatly begun to wrap gauze around her as she cried and cried. 

When the situation began to calm while driving to the hopital, the paramedic who I played higshcool football with, began to tell me I'm guessing for some sort of information for encouragment, that the best thing that I could have ever done was immediately get her clothes off of her.  I'm thankful the Lord gave me those immediate instincts to react fast.  I'm also thankful that Summer is doing great at home and her wounds have healed rather quickly.  But as I continue to think back over this experience, there is much to be learned from it, from a spiritual perspective.  

The paramedic told me the best thing I could have done was rip her clothes off of her as soon as possible.  Why?  Because the longer the coffee sat on her skin, the deeper the burn would have engraved and the more likely the coffee would have left a scar.  Is this not the same with the sin in our lives.  The sin in our lives as we continually let it hang around and be played with the more and more it will penetrate and ultimately leave long term scars.  The more we allow sin to prolong, the harder it is to get rid of.  Just like with the coffee; if it would have continued to penetrate, sure it could have been covered up with make-up, but the wounds would still be there.  

Isnt it easy for us to mask our own sin.  We cover it up with makeup like nothings wrong, as it continually eats away at our lives.  It makes me think of the song that has a line in it that says, "are we happy plastic people."  In other words, do we come to church with the nice outfits, the smiles on our faces and all the right things to say, but when we begin to really dig into one anothers lives we then see that we have been covering things up with makeup and the coffee or sin has penetrated much deeper than percieved,  and many times not seen at all.

With the same experience we can think about parents and their children.  Is it a greater tragedy that your child is wounded physically or that they are wounded spiritually?  Do we worry more about them learning the word of God to fight off the sin and philosophies of the world or do we worry more about them being accepted and looking great on the outside, getting straight A's, being popular, but lost and hopeless with no true understanding of who God really is?  What is most important; our physical state or our spiritual state.  I'm guessing by what our priorities are, we can clearly all answer this most important question.   

Ephesians 4:22-27

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