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Church Life

Nov 14
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Pastor All the Sheep

By Christian Living, Church Life, Family Discipleship

I recently was asked to give a very short talk to pastors about the pastor’s family.I wrote about the subject several years ago here: How Churches Can Care for Their Pastor’s Children How Pastors Can Care for Their Children *The following are my rough notes from my most recent talk.*Having pastored for over 30 years and raised my children as a pastor, what advice would I give that is unique to a pastor? Here are three specific thoughts. 1. Pastor all the sheep. When you study the life of Jesus you see that there was a priority in discipleship: the crowds, the 70, the 12,…

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Sep 29
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Tim Challies – Walking Through Deep Sorrow and Loss

By Christian Living, Church Life, Family Discipleship, Parenting: Childhood, Parenting: Early Years, Parenting: Teens and Beyond, Podcast
It's every parent's nightmare. An unexpected phone call, an unexpected funeral burying your own child. How do we react in the days and months and years ahead? On November 3rd, 2020, Tim Challies received just such a call. He received the shocking news that his son Nick had died. During those days, months, and year of loss, Tim began to write. And the content of that writing is what we're going to talk about in this episode. We're going to talk about his most recent book, Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God. Play Video...
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Sep 27
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How You Can Use The Disciple-Making Parent in Your Church – An Interview with Guy Wilcox

By Church Life, Family Discipleship, Parenting: Childhood, Parenting: Early Years, Parenting: Teens and Beyond

Recently, I sat down with Guy Wilcox to discuss how they seek to equip their parents to disciple their children. Guy serves at University Baptist Church in Fayetteville, AR, working with both students and music ministry. I thought I would share how he uses The Disciple-Making Parent in his context and might be an encouragement to get something like this started in your church context. At UBC, he takes men and women through 10-week studies on parenting. You can see the details below. Chap: Why did you choose The Disciple-Making Parent? Guy: It covers a lot of different parenting topics…

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Sep 21
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Ray Van Neste – Reasons a Preacher Should Address the Children

By Church Life, Discerning Culture, Family Discipleship, Parenting: Childhood, Parenting: Early Years, Parenting: Teens and Beyond, Podcast

Could it be that we’re ignoring a large group in our worship service, even when they show up week after week? I planted and pastor to church for 25 years, and I know that everyone has a wonderful idea about what you should be doing with your time. But I would ask you to think about one little section of your sermon. That’s what we’re gonna be talking about in today’s podcast. We’re talking with Dr. Ray Van Neste about his recent blog post entitled: Preacher, Don’t Forget to Speak to the Children. And in that post, he lays out…

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Sep 07
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Deepak Reju -Establishing an Effective and Safe Children’s Ministry

By Church Life, Discerning Culture, Family Discipleship, Parenting: Childhood, Parenting: Early Years, Parenting: Teens and Beyond, Podcast

This Sunday, hundreds of thousands of parents will drop off their children at the children’s ministry of a church. And hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours will have been spent in preparation, but is the ministry safe? And is it effective? We’re going to be talking with Deepak Reju about two of his very helpful books. In the first part of the interview, we will talk about the, his book Build on Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide for Gospel Based Children’s Ministry. In the second half of our conversation, we talk about a second book On Guard: Preventing and Responding to…

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Aug 17
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Why Should You Have a Family Ministry Strategy

By Christian Living, Church Life, Family Discipleship, Leadership

I believe every church and leadership team should have a conscious family discipleship strategy. How are we as a church planning to build up the family? Below are six reasons to have a family ministry strategy. Reason #1 Because Leadership Training Begins in the Home Church after church decry their lack of spiritual leaders. Who wouldn’t gladly receive numerous individuals who will shepherd others for their spiritual good? When Jesus saw the crowd and had compassion, he prays for spiritual workers. But how will those spiritual leaders be trained? To begin with, they learn how to shepherd In their homes….

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Jul 13
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7 People God Tells Us to Honor

By Christian Living, Church Life, Family Discipleship, Grandparents, Parenting: Childhood, Parenting: Early Years, Parenting: Teens and Beyond

I have been bothered recently by a trend I see both in the church, in our culture, and in a younger generation. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I heard of good friends who were “canceled” by their professing Christian daughters. Sharon and I raised our children with this couple, and while they certainly were not perfect, as far as we can tell they were not abusive. A second close family had a similar situation happen to them. They relayed their story to us with broken hearts. Both families have been cut off from their grandchildren. In addition, the…

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Feb 12
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Jeff Dalrymple: Making Our Church a Safe Place

By Church Life, Podcast

Nothing is more precious to us than our children and their innocence. But how do we know that when we drop them off at school or church it is a safe place? And what can we do to make it safer? In today’s podcast, we are going to talk to my friend Jeff Dalrymple about a ministry that can help diminish the threat of sexual abuse in the church. This is a vital topic both for the safety of our children and the reputation of Christ. Jeff has been the catalyst behind a new national organization – The Evangelical Council…

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May 08
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What is a Family Pastor?

By Church Life

As I travel around the country  and speak at mid-sized churches I have been introduced to those who have the title of Family Pastor. Interestingly, when I ask them to describe their responsibilities, I hear varied answers. In larger churches, the title is usually given to a young person who is responsible to minister to the youth and oversee the children’s ministry. He also might be given other roles that accompany an associate pastor. But his primary responsibility is to oversee the children and youth. As one who has a heart for family discipleship and as a former lead pastor,…

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