Archive for September, 2010
Family Value #5…Widen The Circle
by Carey Nieuwhof
As much as most parents want to be the primary voice in a child’s life, healthy parents understand that they shouldn’t be the only influence. When parents widen the circle of influence in their children’s lives, they find surprisingly powerful results. Parents who seek out mentors, small group leaders and peer groups who would say the same things that a parent would say discover they have given their children an incredible advantage in learning how to make wise choices. Church leaders can help parents immensely with this through a healthy group structure.
Closing Thought
As a church and as a student ministry, we know that the parental influence doesn’t end after 5th grade. We know that what happens at home continues to be the most significant influence in a student’s life. No one has more influence on the life of a teenager than a parent. And God seems to be okay with that reality. After all, He arranged us in families.
As a student ministry, we know that we can either compete with parents or cooperate with them. But we believe that by cooperating with parents, we give you and your teenager a chance to succeed that could never happen if a church (or a parent) tried to go it alone.
Family Value #4…Create A Rhythm
by Carey Nieuwhof
So if you are going to develop your children’s spiritual and moral character, how exactly do you do it? More specifically, how do you do it when your family schedule is already full? Parents who make spiritual formation a part of everyday life (Deuteronomy 6:7) discover something that works faith and character into the rhythm of our lives.
Saw You At The Pole Rally F.A.Q.s
Yes, it is raining.
No, we’re not canceling the Saw You At The Pole Rally tonight.
Yes, we need you to help us spread the word…
Saw You At The Pole Rally
Levelland Intermediate School Auditorium
7:30 Tonight
Family Value #3…Make It Personal
by Carey Nieuwhof
When you sign up for parenting, you sign up for sacrifice. But there is one thing a parent should never sacrifice. In fact, if you do, you may lose the thing that will ultimately be the most important thing in your child’s life as well as in yours.
Your child needs to see you make relational, emotional and spiritual growth a priority in your life. If it’s not personal for you, it may never be personal for them. In Deuteronomy 6:4, Moses reminds every church leader and parent that we have to commit ourselves what God has given us. Our kids will be deeply influenced by whether it’s personal for us or not.
Family Value #2…Fight For the Heart
by Carey Nieuwhof
Rules. Relationships. Families are a mixture of both. Sometimes, though, in the midst of dealing with rules, families can lose the relationship. When you lose the relationship, you can lose your child’s heart.
The more parents fight for the hearts of their children, the stronger the family will become. After all, God is passionate about our hearts. As Deuteronomy 6:5 says, it’s all about a love relationship with God. As parents fight for the hearts of their children, ultimately they’re opening up the way for a child to also pursue a relationship with God, which can lead to obedience. Why? Because we tend to listen most to the people we love most.
Family Value #1…Imagine the End
by Carey Nieuwhof
No child comes with a manual attached. And as diligent as you are, parenting can be overwhelming. The urgent can overtake the important.
How do you keep your focus on the right things as a parent? Part of it is learning how to ask the right question. More important than “What do I want my child to do?” or “Where do I want my child to go to school?” or even “Who do I want my child to marry?” is this question: “Who do I want my child to become?”
“Who do I want my child to become?” defines the end parents need to bear in mind. It values character over competency, and it inevitably leads parents and children back to the core truth of Deuteronomy 6:4—that the Lord, our God, is one. Nothing . . . nothing is more important than our relationship with our heavenly Father.
See You At The Pole
Every year on a Wednesday morning in September thousands of students all across the world gather at their school flag pole to pray together for their schools, their communities, and their nations. This year See You At The Pole will take place Wednesday, September 22 at 7:30 in the morning at our local schools.
This year our local youth ministers have gotten together and decided to have a community Saw You At The Pole rally that Wednesday night instead of taking all our individual groups to various rallies in Lubbock. The Saw You At The Pole rally will be at the Levelland football stadium at 7:30 Wednesday night, September 22. There will be a band and a speaker sharing with all our students and we will use this as a time to promote unity among our students for the sake of growing the Kingdom of God in our local schools.
I hope you will encourage your kids to be a part of See You At The Pole next Wednesday at 7:30 am as well as Saw You At The Pole next Wednesday at 7:30 pm.
Rhythm
XP3 got off to an awesome start last Sunday. If you haven’t heard, XP3 is our brand new youth worship and small group time that takes place every Sunday from 5:30 – 7:00.
This week we will continue our Rhythm series by talking about what has captured our sense of wonder. The truth is that we were all created with a sense of wonder and if the thing that has captivated that wonder in our lives isn’t God, our entire life will be out of rhythm. Take a look at the Parent Cue for some ideas on how you can continue the conversation at home.
Next week I will be posting a short article each day written by Carey Nieuwhof on a specific family value based on Deuteronomy 5:1 and 6:4-7. Have a great weekend and I hope to see your kids at XP3 Sunday!
XP3
XP3 kicks off this Sunday for all 7th-12th graders. XP3 is our brand new youth worship experience that will take place on Sundays from 5:30-7:00. Here’s an overview of our first series, Rhythm, along with some ideas for you to continue the conversation with your kids beyond Sunday.
WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT:
Here is an overview of what we’re talking about. Listed below the summary is a “parent cue” to help you dialog with your child about the session. The question is intended not just to be asked by you, but to be responded to by BOTH of you. Use this opportunity to find out what God is teaching your child, and allow your child to see what God is teaching you as well.
Rhythm:
Series Overview
Have you ever noticed how connected everything is? It’s almost as if there was some type of unseen structure to all of life, a rhythm. Many of us are oblivious to it until things are out of sync. We know something is wrong, and we can maybe pinpoint a few things around us that are culprits, but deep down we know there is something more going on. We are out of rhythm—with God, with ourselves or with others.
Session One (September 12)
In the beginning, God created a song, a rhythm. Humanity existed in harmony with God, with ourselves and with each other. But then humankind settled for another song–a lesser one–and the rhythm started falling apart. Yet even then, God didn’t walk away, and because of that, we have a way to restore the rhythm with Him, with ourselves and with others.
Session One Parent Cue: The first week of the Rhythm series is designed to help students understand that in the beginning, God established a rhythm. They will unpack the story of creation and the harmony that existed between Adam and God, Adam and nature, and Adam and Eve. They will entertain the idea that from the start, everything worked together in perfect harmony like a beautiful song. But then Adam and Eve made a choice that destroyed the song and threw the rhythm off. They will also look at God’s response to Adam’s sin, and they’ll see that God continues to seek relationship with us even after things have fallen apart. Talk with your teen about how he or she sees the brokenness in the rhythm around them. Feel free to share your observations as well.
Session Two (September 19)
If you’ve been in church for a while, you’ve heard it all and seen it all. You know the stories. You know the songs. You know the words. Many of us even think we know all about God. We think we have Him figured out. We think we know everything about Him, and in our lives, He’s very small. But the reality is that we will never fully grasp how awesome and amazing He is. We can spend a lifetime in awe and wonder, and even an eternity, because He’s that big . . . and that good.
Session Two Parent Cue: This second week, students will be challenged to look at God in new ways. Many times we find that we are so familiar with “churchy” descriptions of God that we forget who He really is. And when we forget who God is, how awesome and surprising He can be, then we are tempted to turn our attention and affection to other things and our lives fall out of tune. In week two students will be challenged to discover a God who is bigger than our attempts to define Him. Discuss with your teen ways that God has surprised you and your family with how big He is.
Session Three (September 26)
You’ve heard the words before–“love your neighbor as yourself”–but most of the time we don’t really hear the second half of that. We don’t love ourselves. Perhaps it’s because it just seems wrong. After all, as followers of Christ, we are supposed to become less as He becomes more. But for some of us, somewhere along the way we’ve confused humility with self-hatred. God wants us to be in rhythm with ourselves because when we aren’t, it throws off the rest of the song.
Session Three Parent Cue: This week students will explore the things that create tension in their own self-perception and learn the ugly truth: Being in rhythm with ourselves and being in rhythm with God go hand in hand. How we view God our Creator affects how we view His creation, ourselves. They will consider the masks they wear and the faults they try to cover up, and they’ll receive a challenge to begin to shed those masks and be at peace with who they really are. Talk openly and candidly with your student this week about the things both of you have a hard time accepting when it comes to the faults you see in yourself. How can you better accept yourselves as you are?
Session Four (October 3)
No person can have a life of rhythm unless he or she is at peace with other people. That’s easy to say but hard to live, isn’t it? But following Jesus means being passionate about what He is passionate about–and Jesus is passionate about people. So if we want to be in rhythm, we not only have to be in sync with God and ourselves, we also have to be in sync with others.
Session Four Parent Cue: No person can have a life in rhythm if they are not at peace with the people around them. In the final week of this series students will be challenged to be in rhythm with others, to be passionate about serving those they encounter and to seek forgiveness and reconciliation when needed. How can you work at making this a regular practice in your family?
Learning to Say “No”
I’ve had to learn how to say “no” sometimes to some really good things so that I can say “yes” to some of the best things. I really appreciated this article by Carey Nieuwhof on learning to say “no.” It’s definitely worth a look!
