We have been super intentional to equip and invite parents into the faith formation of their children. The scriptures outline this is God’s plan in Deuteronomy, Psalm 78, Isaiah 18, etc. 

When young adults who never strayed from the faith are asked the how and why, they speak to learning to read/listen to the Bible as a regular habit. First and by far, foremost. Followed by the family minutes, moments, and milestones which impressed the priority of their faith in Jesus in community: home first, then church.

Let’s be real. There are 168 hours in a given week. Even if we throw everything we have into that one hour of developmentally appropriate faith formation in a typical Sunday school setting, it will never be enough for a robust faith in Jesus in any culture. 

A multi-level plan (developmentally appropriate), over time (habits), in community (home, car, extracurricular, church) is the best strategy. That’s a big elephant to eat. We can eat that thing one bite at a time and over a period of time, but we need permission for accountability.

We can’t tap into the accountability of ‘if you’re not here for practice, you can’t play.’ We can’t lay out expectations to parents like a teacher can at a parent-teacher conference of ‘Sue is lost and I would suggest a faith tutor to meet with her every week, sometimes twice a week, to get her up to speed.’ We can’t send a note home with ‘Joe has already been absent 9 days. One more day absent and he’ll be held back to be sure he gets the material to be successful.’ None of these options are reasonable for the local church.

So what do we have? 

Side note: Our parents have more than enough guilt. They lay awake at night questioning their parenting skills already. I’m not adding to that. Every parent I’ve ever met wants the best for their kids. The very best! They have dreams and hopes for their children and want desperately to make available every opportunity for success. Christian parents want their kids to have a robust faith in Jesus. An hour a week, even if they come every week, is not gonna cut it for a robust faith in Jesus.

So what can we do?

We can equip and train parents and grandparents (the greatest untapped faith formation resource in any family) and offer space to make all their minutes, moments, and milestones count for Jesus. Everything we do must point to Jesus. Everything!

We offer Parenting With a Purpose classes each fall and spring. Last week it looked like this with a PowerPoint and a Ziploc bag of 167 M&Ms + 1 jumbo gold gumball (representing the weekly Sunday school class): Parenting With A Purpose – A Blueprint.

6pm-6:30pm Kids had pizza dinner (+water, fruit) with 3 kid’s Bible study leaders wearing candy corn flashing headbands (a visual that this is a special night); greeted and checked in by an Ambassador (relationship with an older kid); eat and check in with friends (relationships; food; table life).

Parents set up in another room to get a chance to breathe, get water and cookies, take a bio break, chat with who they sit beside. Hospitality time for me to work the room saying, “Hey ___, do you know ___? She goes to the 11am service and has a 3rd grader” to intentionally introduce the commonalities of participants. Then give time for them to chat before the program starts at 6:15pm.

6:30pm-7:30pm Kids bring in buckets of building toys they chose from the Children’s Welcome Center and sit together at the feet of their parents to play. The visual for parents and children was intentional.

Program: Though six Biblical holy habits are important only one, the research tells us, bears the greatest weight, so we will focus on Bible Reading.

Read the Bible, not a devotional, not a study Bible. Read the Bible. Listen to it in the car on a Bible app. Use Breath prayers to remember phrases and words from the scriptures. Begin with a book with a narrative like the Gospel of Luke. Introduce the author as Dr. Luke and the gospel is his letter to his friend Theophilus. I wonder if Theo was short, tall, quiet, or his loud friend? Dr. Luke investigated and determined these events to be true, historical, and worthy of defense.  

The Next Generation Ministries suggests the narratives of the New Testament first. Then the Old Testament. Then a Chronological Bible. Several of our kidmin leadership team took an online conference of Discipleship Begins at Home sponsored by Women In Apologetics last summer which taught and offered the Blueprint resource to all participants to share with our families in their local churches. 

They reminded us that if a kid can read a chapter book, they can read the Bible as a family and in Christian community.  “This is what Christians do and we are a Christian family.” At middle school, purchase a study Bible. Invite the grandparents to purchase it and make notes in the margins of their favorite passages. The kids can read. The parents can read aloud. A Bible app can read it aloud for you.

Each participant received a children’s book on a hard faith subject (the Trinity) and what I think is the best Bible Handbook in print (which is hard to find) published by Gospel Light (I miss them) which is child, youth, adult-friendly to give context to the family Bible reading.

Parents are front-line disciple-makers and the saints the local church is supposed to equip. This is one very intentional way we are living into Ephesians 4:12.

At the end of class, I gave them each a heads-up. By walking out with all those resources, they are inviting me and everyone else in the room to hold them accountable. 

That accountability might sound like a hallway conversation, “How are you doing with your family Bible reading?”, or “Have you started with your family Bible reading yet?” That’s what partnership looks like. A life coach does that. A pitching coach does that. A personal trainer does that. A math tutor does that. 

Let me ask you, “How did you do last week in your Bible reading?”

Nehemiah 6:3 “I’m carrying on a great project and cannot go down.”

Grandparents hold a special place in the hearts of the grandchildren. It goes both ways. Grandparents are part of God’s continuing plan to grow up disciples of His son Jesus. Take a look at Deuteronomy 6 and Psalm 78 to get a small glimpse of that plan.

We are leveraging that relationship and intentionally helping with a Grandparent’s toolbox to share their faith through a closed Facebook group entitled Faith Grandparenting and four in-person opportunities each year to share stories and resources to help them along their way we call Grandparenting With A Purpose. “You cannot be a Christian family if you are not a disciple-making family, because your family can’t truly follow Christ if you are not doing what Christ commanded – trying to become more and more like Him and leading others to do the same.” (Family Discipleship by Chandler & Griffin)

Last week’s Grandparenting With A Purpose: Holiday Edition, shared in-person and through a Facebook Live event on the closed Faith Grandparenting Facebook group, was a very special time to share life and some great ideas.

We serve a God of celebration! Through festivals, special food, visuals, decorations, and community we stop and remember the faithfulness of God: Passover, Festival of Tabernacles, Feast of Purim, Harvest time, Holy Communion. We celebrate with our five senses with special sights (lights, tablescapes, decorations), smells (food, spaces, candles), sounds (music, words), tastes (food), and touch (clothing, expressions of affection). Traditions offer rhythms for connection and belonging for which we are wired by our Creator.

Holidays like…
Thanksgiving – table cloth with names of who has shared the Thanksgiving table over the years; favorite foods and the magic of the “how” to make it; handwritten recipes and sharing the faith of the ones who started the family recipe.
Christmas – Ask “What three things will make Christmas Christmas?”; three gifts (Magi)
New Year’s – Do overs; time capsules; goals for physical, spiritual, family faith experiences.
Mardi Gras – Looking for the baby (Baby Jesus) in a King Cake; masks (God knows all of our mysteries).
Valentine’s Day – The greatest love story in all the world is John 3:16.
St. Patrick’s Day – story of St. Patrick; the color green reminds us to ‘grow in our faith’ continually and discussion of how we will do that this spring.
Independence Day – visit patriotic/historic places and share the stories of the faith of our founding mothers (Harriett Tubman, Abigail Adams, Susanna Wesley) and Christian heritage (John & Charles Wesley, George Washington Carver, Jimmy Carter).

Milestones like…
Birthdays teach our kids to celebrate others. On #1 Son’s 16th birthday we collected gifts of tools from Godly men who wrote him notes of wisdom for the tool they gifted. On Baby Girl’s 16th birthday we collected letters of wisdom from Godly women, teachers, and local officials we knew who knew Jesus and compiled a ‘Book of Wisdom’ she carries with her to this day.
Anniversaries teach kids to revisit big family moments. We will share that #1 Son and his lovely wife went to church for worship on their first date after greeting her at the end of the preschool Sunday school class she was teaching.
Spiritual Birthdays – annual celebrations of making their decision to follow Jesus with a gift, donuts (life without Jesus is like a hole in the middle of your heart), balloons (God is round about His people), they tell their faith story of when they decided to follow Jesus and how they’ve grown in the last year as we prepared a plan to move forward in the next year.
Gotcha Day – celebrating when an adoption came through to become part of the family.
Driver’s License – hold a ‘blessing of the license’; laying on of hands and speaking truth of this new responsibility.
New Home – praying through each room before moving in; a New Year’s home blessing.

Moments like….
Rediscovering the wonder of the everyday – my granddaughter remembers me when she smells biscuits and bacon.
Time to linger – breathe & sip; chill & chat
Gifts of time – my step mother checked me out of high school just to take me to lunch and we talk about the great issues of my teenage life.
Gifts of words – handwritten notes; postcards; journals; recipes; scribe the scriptures; gift a Bible.
New skills – teach about tea; take a cooking class, power tool class; shadow a church saint (Baby Girl shadowed an ER nurse from her home church to discover if nursing was really what God was calling her to. It WAS!)

For those in-person, they enjoyed an ice breaker with The Visual Faith Project, took home confetti cannons and their own Share the Love Drive-thru bags of goodies we’d prepared for our Children’s Ministry drive-thru that had taken place the Sunday afternoon before.

If the average age of a first-time grandparent in the USA is 47, this is a demographic who is leaning into Christian Grandparenting with tenacity. These are amazing disciple-makers and I want to be on their team.

How else can you build up your grandparents with a purpose of intentionally sharing their faith with their grandchildren?

“We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done.” Psalm 78:4

Listen to this and other posts on the In The Trenches with DeDe Reilly podcast.

Parenting With A Purpose classes offer tribe-building among our families with shared values and intentionality. The 90-minute classes include a parenting hot-topic, some dessert, discussion time, and no judgment. We started in 2018 with Sharing Your Faith With Your Family. As our families are navigating COVID-world, there is an even greater need to equip parents to be disciple-making-disciples. 

• Promotion Information: Parents, grandparents, and caregivers of children are invited to a discussion of practical ideas to navigate holy habits at home as we lead our children to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength AND love our neighbors as ourselves on Tuesday, 6-7:30pm. Dessert will be served.
  
• Take Away: Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian
• A McEachern saint’s famous homemade fudge. (Thank you, Rebecca McCoy!)
  
  Primary Resources:
• Resilient: Child Disciples and The Fearless Future of the Church by Valerie Bell
• Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a new Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon by David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock (Barna Group)
• Settle For Nothing Less: Engaging Kids in a Lifetime of Faith by Jana Magruder (Lifeway)
• Stride: Creating A Discipleship Pathway for Life by Mike Schreiner and Ken Willard
• Biblical exiles who ‘won’ at following God (Joseph, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Ezra, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, Esther, Peter, John)
• Plenty of personal stories

The goal of the evening was to give research and personal testimonies to the resilient disciples who continued to remain in Christian community and a growing relationship with Jesus through the remarkable moments of life at all stages and in all ages. There is more than enough information about children who left the faith or left the church once they aged into their teens or twenties. I wanted to share the remarkable stories of those who remained faithful to grow in their relationships with God and in Christian community. These exiles are the resilient disciples who lived, are living, in the tension of culture and have continued to love Jesus and His people through it all.

A person is described as resilient who is able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. A resilient disciple is a follower of Jesus who remains active in Christian community and Christian service when culture and geography would encourage them otherwise. The biblical prophets write throughout the scriptures of the remnant of God’s people who sought to live faithfully loving God for the rest of their lives no matter what their circumstances. We tell the stories of these brave few with wonder and admiration. There is not a Christian parent or grandparent who doesn’t want that for their own children, but what does it take for us to grow those muscles in our kids? What really matters, over time?

Major info to share:

Three practices of soul training which equip disciples to make the greatest strides in their faith in Jesus:
– Bible Reading
– Generosity
– Service

The #1, by far, best predictor of spiritual health for young adults is regularly reading the Bible as a child.

Screens disciple.

That which dictates our schedules, finances, and conversations is a family liturgy. The local church can provide the resources to equip families so that whatever they do, they can do all of life to the glory of God.

What does a resilient disciple look like?
(1) Meaningful relationship with Jesus: through community and holy habits they find JOY in Jesus. Bible Reading & Prayer
(2) Cultural discernment: they participate in a robust learning community where they can think and talk of the scriptures.
Share testimony and stories of God’s faithfulness
(3) Meaningful intergenerational relationships with Jesus-loving people: the best way for kids to learn to love Jesus is to spend time with people who love Jesus.
Active in community
(4) Vocational Disciples: a theology of work, activity, leisure, time, learning/education
Calling to honor and please the Lord
(5) Countercultural Mission: a resolve to live differently than culture though a full-on participant in culture as the light of Christ.

In this season where children are part of the Body of Christ, though not together or included in many local churches, they are indeed exiles. This research is a perfect starting point to determine priorities in the local church’s partnership with parents/grandparents to disciple their disciples. Lord, let me be found faithful to equip my families to have a robust, vibrant, joyful faith that will fuel how they nurture their children into resilient disciples: to love Jesus their whole lives for the rest of their lives.

“We want to welcome you to the resilient church of 2050…the church that has been loving Jesus for all of their lives.” Valerie Bell, from Resilient: Child Discipleship and the Fearless Future of the Church, pg 205

One of the most spiritual experiences of my life was the minute I delivered Baby Girl in Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I prayed that very minute that she would choose Jesus as Lord of her life at a very young age. Twenty months later, I prayed the same prayer when #1 Son was born. The Lord honored those prayers with a resounding YES! because I was on a mission to do all I could to make that happen. On April 6, 2012, we revisited that simple prayer the moment our first grandchild was born. More like a blessing over each one, all four grands were prayed for and God’s word spoken over each one anytime I get my arms around them.

Our culture leads us to believe that having fun, baking cookies, and gift-giving make us good grandparents. As followers of Jesus, there’s so much more. In Deuteronomy 4:9 God’s people are instructed to “Watch yourselves closely so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children AND TO THEIR CHILDREN AFTER THEM.” (emphasis mine) We have more than a one-generation mission to share our faith, we have a two-generation mission to intentionally tell of God’s great deeds.

Most of us learned how to grandparent by how we were grandparented. My paternal grandmother was a Sunday school teacher in her local church, but she was harsh, demanding, and that corset made her far from huggable. My maternal grandmother had the struggles of marrying at 14 in the hollers of the West Virginia coal mines. She was kind and generous though I don’t recall any conversation about Jesus. I learned much wisdom from her over a flour bowl she would use to make home-made biscuits in three times each day every summer from the time I was 10-16 years old. There was a family Bible on the coffee table and picture of a Guardian Angel on the wall of her home, yet that was their extent of grandparenting with the purpose of making Jesus Lord of my life.

The average age of a first-time grandparent in the US is 47 years old. If the best time to begin a Christian legacy in a child’s life is at the beginning, the best time to begin a Christian legacy in a parent’s life is at the beginning, it would behoove us to begin a Christian legacy in a grandparent’s life at the beginning of their tenure as a grandparent. Outside of parents, grandparents have the #1 influence in a child’s life because they typically have more time over time (long-term involvement), they’ve been around the block (offer greater wisdom), they’ve got great history with the Lord (stories of God’s faithfulness and forgiveness), and they care more that their grandchildren would have a faith in something greater than themselves. Grandparents enjoy a sweet spot in a child’s life. 

What can we do to better equip and support these disciple-makers through family ministry?  This demographic of discipleship is lacking in most local churches. I aim to be a catalyst to change that. 

“My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth…things we have heard and  known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done…which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God.” Psalm 78:1-7

With the goal of building tribes among our children’s families with shared values and intentionality, we’ve begun offering Parenting with a Purpose classes this school year. The 90-minute classes include a parenting hot-topic, some dessert, discussion time, and no judgment.  The first was Sharing Your Faith With Your Family where we shared practical ideas for holding sacred conversations, spiritual traditions, and sticky faith-formation memories for parents to initiate at home to live out Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

The second class entitled, Parenting Technology and Cell Phone Safety, invited parents, grandparents, and caregivers of children to a discussion of practical ideas to navigate parenting in a digital and electronic world as we lead families to live out Mark 12:30-31. Two hours before the event, I received a text. Our planned special guest was at Urgent Care diagnosed with strep throat. I had two hours to pull something together.

Once I caught my breath, I called on a prayer warrior to pray for me and with me. I had been reading several books on the very subject over the last several months and had just gotten one in the mail a couple of days before. I prepared a handout with a few of the items I’d underlined in each one. We opened with “What was your first experience with a cell phone?” and our discussions took over from there. These were the resources we spoke through:

• Collin Kartchner – TEDxTalk a social media activist, TEDx talk presenter, husband and dad who travels around the country speaking to parents and kids through the organization Save The Kids.
• The Screens and Teens by Dr.Kathy Koch
• Glow Kids by Dr. Nicholas Kardaras
• Viral Parenting by Mindy McKnight 
• Kirk Cameron – Right Now Media “Engage”; Netflix “Connect”
• Smart Phone Sanity by The Axis Team (newest book with practical exercises)

A few questions to ask to find out if your child is mature enough to figure out the best habits for themselves when it comes to Smartphone usage:

• Does my child proactively let me know where they are going and when they’ll be home?
  This is a great way to gauge their sense of responsibility and the respect they have for open communication.
• Does my child have a tendency to lose things?
  Phones are an expensive investment and showing a sense of care for their personal belongings means they’ll also show care for their phone.
• Does my child respect other rules like when to turn off the TV or computer?
  Knowing your child understands why boundaries are necessary can help quiet the fear of phone addiction and over exposure to radiation/blue light.
• Does my child show signs of empathy towards their siblings, animals and friends?
  While we all love our little darlings, it’s important to observe the way they treat others in real life. The hope is that they will carry empathy and kindness with them with their online activities.
• Does my child know that while most people are awesome, there are people with bad intentions that prey on the young online? 
  While this is a super scary and complicated topic, having open and honest conversation about these risks and how to spot red flags is the best way to prepare any child from online predators.
• Does my child know they can come talk to me about anything? 
  While there are years when teens and parents can feel the strain of communication we must let our children know and show them that we can be a safe space for them when they need us, to help or just to listen—even with the tricky and scary stuff.

Though not what I had planned, the event was fine. The goal of tribe-building without judgement was met. In complete transparency, this is the second time a special guest committed to me in the last six months, but was not able to follow through at the last minute. From this point on, I’ll prepare a backup program every time because my parents who have registered see these opportunities as a priority over all the other things they could choose. They deserve the best I have to offer and my job is to make sure they get it.

“You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.” Proverbs 19:21

Parenting Relationships and Friendships is a class offered through a Parenting with a Purpose initiative which has been in my heart and mind for several years. The goal is to offer a 90-minute class filled with stories, laughter, sacred conversations, and tools to grow in our relationships within our families, our community, and with Jesus. Information about prior classes can be found here.

Healthy and effective communication skills was the focus of Parenting Relationships and Friendships. We have a counseling center on campus led by an associate pastor and several counselors. They are the first responders of our local church when life happens that would leave a family in grief, chaos, uncertainty, and needing next steps. I wanted my parents to meet these gifted and trained folks before all that, ‘before-before.’ I wanted my parents to know they have access to resources provided by their church family to walk through whatever comes and before whatever comes, comes.

Class agenda – opening/greeting of the purpose and goal of the class
• Associate Pastor spoke of the intentionality of dialogue rather than lecture with small group scenarios and tending to a restored relationship over perfect behavior.
• Transitioned that the next 10 minutes would be really uncomfortable, but we’d be better after which led to the Counseling Center Counselor sharing about suicide: differences between mood swings and depression, warning signs, domain, length of season, etc.
• Last thirty minutes I led them through a Holy Listening Stone exercise with a small set of stones prepared ahead of time by my amazing assistant.
• Closed with my personal testimony of prayer for my children using Stormie Omartian’s Power Of A Praying Parent. This book has thirty short chapters with fabulous prayers to be claimed for your child(ren) for each day of the month. The prayer vocabulary and the systematic way to pray through your child’s seasons is made so much easier with a tool like this book. There are things that won’t happen unless we pray for them. There are things that may happen unless we pray against them. I don’t know any Christian who feels they have adequate prayer vocabulary. This is a must-have-parenting-resource.

Each participant was able to take away multiple handouts from the speakers, a pre-made set of Holy Listening Stones, and their own copy of Power of a Praying Parent. This I know: each Christian parent wants their child to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength AND love their neighbor as themselves. Let’s give them the tools to do it!

What are the tools and resources your local church can offer your families to battle the war for the hearts and minds of their children AND the children you influence in your world?

“Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.” Proverbs 12:15

Attending a conference with friends is the best way I’ve found to learn and sharpen my skills as a professional Christian educator. I’m a verbal processor so asking questions and hearing the take-aways from those I trust will fill my creative bucket quickly. Last week at Children’s Pastors Conference sponsored by INCM (International Network of Children’s Ministry) proved even more fruitful when I shared a house with twelve other kidmin leaders from twelve local churches attending the same conference for the entire week.

CPC does a fabulous job of intentionally adding to my resource shelves and providing content to do my job better through various breakout sessions. CPC especially pours into us as disciples in the general sessions with incredibly effective communicators.

One of the most impactful for me was the general session with Bo Barredo, an attorney and native missionary to the Philippines. He and his attorney wife co-founded Advancing Native Missions. He shared, “Hope is anticipating the best of what’s good.”
“Mamas are a child’s first Children’s Pastor.”
“Those in Christ share in His story therefore we will share in His suffering.”
“Until Christ returns or we return to Him, we must work and suffer.”
“How do I stay in my hope in the middle of my journey and remain alive and vibrant until the first moment of eternity? JOY!”
“Do not have a poor joy.”
Brother Bo offered four places where I can find joy in the waiting and even the suffering. He is spot on.

Regarding content, I thoroughly enjoyed and got my sword sharpened by the following:

Gender-Specific Ministry Matters led by Cindy Bultema (GEMS for girls) and Adam Sculnick (CIA for boys). Backed by research, we explored…
86% of teen girls say they would feel more confident if they had a mentor
The average church offers 3-6 ministries for women and girls, but only 1-2 ministries for men and boys.
Church has become A place to go rather than THE place to go to learn to follow Jesus.

Family Ministry: A Holistic Approach led by Kathleen Jaoudi sharing, “Don’t re-invent the wheel; just add the layer.” I’ll save greater details about this breakout in a separate blogpost.

Equipping Parents to Navigate Technology and Their Kids led by Ela Hammond. She shared all her resources of books, links, a musical game, QR codes, takeaways, through a parent workshop model. Ela offered breakout information for (1) Screen Time for Littles, (2) Should I give my kid a phone?, (3) Pornography Prevention, (4) Social Media Strategies, and (5) Video gaming/YouTube.
“Today’s families have food boundaries, why not technology boundaries?”
“Our kids will be discipled by something.”
“In West Virginia, the majority of kids’ caregivers are not parents, but grandparents.”

Reaching the Families in Your Community led by Jennifer Edwards gave multiple, easy ideas for being a good neighbor in Jerusalem (inside the church) and in Judea (outside the church) in the community where we live. She’s presenting at the She Leads Church Online Conference and I can’t wait! In the mean time, I’ll be implementing several of her ideas within the next six weeks.

Holidays and Holy Days: Hands-On Celebration Ideas led by Emily Snider walked us through the seven festivals God called His people to celebrate in the scriptures. The four spring festivals celebrate Jesus’ first coming. The three fall festivals remind us of what will be fulfilled upon Jesus’ second coming. For this gal who has no trouble celebrating Jesus, this breakout just added more confetti to this amazing walk with Jesus. Watch out February!

Engaging the Grandparents in Your Ministry was led by Jill Vogel, a representative of the amazing folks at Legacy Coalition. The resources abound there and are fantastic. Their blog is great, their resources are great, their books are great, and their people are great. I found Legacy Coalition at my last in-person CPC2020. It gave me everything I needed to start a new ministry with grandparents during the shut-down which grew by leaps and bounds. I came back this time with lots of resources to gift to those involved in our Grandparenting With A Purpose team, to add to our Faith Grandparenting Facebook group, and share with churches where I lead workshops on this very thing.

The greatest content? The chats around tables, pizzas, Walmart & Publix & Bucc-ee’s runs, hallways, benches, beignets, walking trails, and Animal Kingdom ride lines (2.5 hours for the Avatar ride!) with my housemates who share the trenches in ministry from Georgia to Ohio. The discounted rate for CPC24 is good until January 20th and worth every penny. We’ve rented an even bigger AirBnB and we have four extra spots because sharing together is the best way to go.

My Spirit is full, my mission is clear, my joy can’t be contained, and I’m coming in hot to share the unending hope I have with whomever will listen or not. 2023, I’m coming for ya with my hands raised high!

“Surely you have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.” Psalm 21:6

It’s Fall Break in the school systems of North Georgia. While others are headed out of town or enjoying a staycation, it’s the week I set aside to get organized for the fall and advent season. Everything was calendared months ago, published on July 1st. Now it’s time to put some details on the Advent google docs to be shared with the lead teams for each event and campaign when they return.

Parenting With A Purpose – with a focus on Apologetics (giving God our minds to defend our faith in Jesus) we will share a Blueprint for Discipleship at Home for the fall and a teaching of what God teaches us about work in a world that only wants to play for the spring.

Grandparenting With A Purpose – with a focus on engaging in sacred conversations we’ll have a table chat in both the fall and spring with other grandparents who have navigated the hardest conversations with their grands.

New Faith Milestones
I Can Tell the Story (one for Advent, one for Lent) which will be Messy Church events using images to tell the birth story of Jesus and the resurrection story of Jesus. For Advent: soup & bread, activity themes from Matt Rawle’s new advent study, The Heart That Grew Three Sizes: Finding Faith in the Story of the Grinch. It’s a post-pandemic look at the Grinch taking the redemption story to a whole new level. The adult videos, only around 10 minutes in length are so rich I was able to write the Children’s Moments, the event stations, and a lot of the Christmas Eve service from Rev. Rawle’s materials speaking of phrases kids get like hate, words and people redeemed by Jesus, truth vs lying, and the power of music and memory.

I Can Worship With My Family – interactive, intergenerational worship service for kids with adults in the room. We bring our teaching services from the summer parking lot to Big Mac (the sanctuary). It’s a teaching service at 11am in Big Mac for worship, prayer, giving, singing, Apostle’s Creed, doxology and more when the whole family learns together why we do what we do and what makes Big Mac, Big Mac. Opening a registration link for kids and families who want to take a lead lets us communicate expectations to families and not just kids. Clarity and communication builds trust. All of the other Faith Milestones we teach separately will be now be lived out in community with our church family, not only the Children’s spaces.

Part of that organization is also getting some shopping done so the resources are on hand and we’re not scrambling hoping to find what we need.  The complete details are not on the google doc yet, but today I placed orders for….
Advent Blocks (purchased in summer at deep discount/added another church to order for even more discounts)
Red squishy hearts imprinted with “Jesus loves me”
Red, green, white, lime chenille sticks
What the Bible Is All About Handbook for Kids
Discipling Your Grandchildren: Great Ideas to Help Them Know, Love and Serve God
Prayer buddies in pompoms
God Is Three Persons
Family Advent Pop-up Calendar

Let’s not forget to be clear of the goals and the why of each experience. Every experience must be a developmentally appropriate faith formation experience. Ministry leaders are not event planners, but disciple-makers who take every opportunity and effectively use what’s in our hands to give testimony to God’s goodness and His faithfulness to His people. Determine when, where, how, who, and the discipleship follow-up for sharing the good news of Jesus and His plan of redemption and restoration in truth as the priority not the add-on or side-note. Write it down so not to be distracted by a negative comment or an expectation expressed after-the-fact. Measurable goals offer clarity, purpose, and let you set priorities to filter the could-haves and should-haves. The experience is part of your over-all strategy for faith formation, not a one-and-done.

Partnering with families means they can trust that we will be prepared to be a blessing as their calendar begins to turn into fall. Partnering well with our leadership team means they will not be overwhelmed and will have on hand the tools to be successful.

How do you get organized for the next season?

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart and be thankful.” Colossians 3:15

As a Louisiana gal with weekday preschool roots, I’ve never met a national holiday I didn’t like and wouldn’t leverage to put Jesus at the center.  National Grandparents Day is Sunday, September 12 and we’ll be celebrating and teaching the Biblical mandate found in Deuteronomy 6:20 to ‘teach your children and their children after them’ the decrees and commands God has given His people. National Grandparents Day always falls on the Sunday following Labor Day.

Before the pandemic quarantine we began a Grandparenting With A Purpose initiative in children’s ministry. With the average age of the first time grandparent in America being 47, this is a demographic and a remarkable moment of life children’s ministry can step into naturally. But, it was during the quarantine we got great traction with online through a Faith Grandparenting Facebook group offering specifically curated resources for grandparents to share their faith in Jesus with their grandchildren. We also offer in-person and Facebook Live workshops, one each spring and one each fall.

The pandemic has both separated grandparents from their grandchildren and has brought others geographically closer together. Many families have reset their priorities by relocating closer to grandparents or grandparents have moved closer to their grandchildren. Though the holiday is a secular holiday, it’s a natural invite for intergenerational worship and recognition. The Legacy Coalition, which provides weekly webinars to confidently equip Christian grandparents to intentionally share their faith notes, “National Grandparents Day is an important official marker of intergenerational relationships.”

To learn more about the history of National Grandparents Day, click here.

To ponder ideas to celebrate National Grandparents Day, check out…
The Legacy Coalition: Christian Grandparenting Ministry 
GrandparentsDay.org
The Legacy Project
Proper spelling and more

We are preparing a photo station and inviting the children to bring a grandparent or grandfriend to Sunday school on Sunday, September 12. We’ll open the Welcome Center early for the children to play games with their grandparents/grandfriends. They’ll attend a 10-minute small group time together, then all will gather in the large group to sing and dance and learn a bit. I will have a dedicated photographer to get all the shots. When the children return to their small group, the grandparents/grandfriends will come with me for a short, interactive lesson on Deuteronomy 6 and Psalm 78. We’ll then share how we can partner with them to confidently and intentionally share their faith in Jesus with their grands. This is what family does and we are family.

The Children’s Moment will be a ‘hands up’ blessing with copies of scriptures to pray for grandchildren (English and Spanish) found here along with other free resources found at GrandparentingWithAPurpose.com. 

Before you think, “What about the child who doesn’t bring a grandfriend?”, I’m thinking there is a small group or two of senior saints in your local church who would be thrilled to step in. After all, we are family!

“We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.” Psalm 78:4

“The local church has adopted the language of our education system, but not the practices,” said Rev. Jeremy Bannister at the Discipleship Begins at Home online conference. He goes on to share that our school system has metrics to measure academic standards, regular conditioning for team sports, and accountability measures for every extracurricular commitment our families engage in, but not discipleship and followership of Jesus.

As leaders in the local church our job is to equip the saints to do the good work of following Jesus and making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Parents and grandparents are on the front line. Parents and grandparents know their desired outcome: for their kids to love Jesus with their whole hearts for their whole lives. It’s up to us, the Christian education professionals, to give them the tools and the metrics of what is developmentally appropriate and be honest about what it’ll take.

Be honest that one hour of Sunday school will never be enough to learn the skills necessary to beat the devil and grow a robust faith over the other 167 hours of a week.

Be honest that most Sunday school curricula offers the basic foundation of God made you and Jesus loves you over and over and over again. Repeated every year. Year after year. This will not nurture a robust faith able to engage with a loud and angry culture coming at them through every means possible.

Be honest that some parents and grandparents haven’t been trained in their own discipleship with the same standards, commitment, and metrics to confidently know what will make a hill of beans by the time their child walks across the graduation stage for that 12-year diploma or takes on their first job with a Godly resilience.

Be honest that we can do our own discipleship better by modeling our own consistent holy habits of systematic Bible reading, tithing, serving the world for the greater good, engaging in robust conversation by asking good questions, and not forsaking gathering together in Christian community in ways beyond what our jobs require.

Be honest to ask ourselves, “If every disciple of Jesus is just like me, where will God’s kingdom be here on earth?”

This is the good news. There’s no time like the present to get started.

Prayerfully consider an accountability partner to begin reading the Bible in a systematic way. How can you teach from a textbook when you haven’t experienced it as a whole to be reasonable and applicable? 

Tip: Once a child begins reading chapter books, they can read a chapter of the Bible. Not as a study, but to read. Read to learn the whole Jesus story, to learn the language of our Creator, and to recognize the voice of our good shepherd. Read the book aloud. Find an easy-reader Bible and just read. If a full bible, begin in Luke because it’s a narrative. Dr. Luke wrote what he researched from eye witnesses.

The Next Generations Ministries offers a a fabulous Discipleship for Life edition of metrics for developmentally appropriate holy habit practices beginning at birth-one year old and every year following. Not in a legalistic, check off the box way, but a gentle reminder of what starting and continuing looks like for a disciple of Jesus. They also have a 5-year plan for students and adults who haven’t begun the Discipleship for Life edition for an intentional start or re-start. These resources were shared at the Discipleship Begins at Home conference. I’ve been able to roll some of these out easily and effectively.

Prayerfully consider along with your significant other how you can grow into regular, systematic tithing. 

Prayerfully consider who you’d like to spend time with (someone older and more spiritually mature) and invite him/her to co-lead a small group Bible study for the fall. There are three seasons for small group Bible study: fall, winter/spring, summer. You will grow in deeper relationships, sacred conversations, and Biblical wisdom in community with healthy accountability. If you’re a young-married, co-lead with another who has been married for a long time. If you’re a mom, find a mom further down the road and more mature in her walk to co-lead. If you’re a more-mature, find a younger to co-lead with.

Prayerfully consider offering parents and grandparents this fall a couple of metrics for daily (Bible reading, prayer), weekly (fellowship, giving), monthly (service) soul training to be experienced at home, along the road, at the table, with conversation prompts to grow a healthy confidence in discipleship. Offer a Parenting With A Purpose class to roll it out, then follow it up with, “How’s it going?”

So. How’s it going?

“May I stand before the throne of God able to say, “Lord Jesus, I did everything I could do to make sure my children are well-founded in the person of Christ.” – Rev. Jeremy Bannister, Discipleship Begins at Home Conference, http://www.TheNextGenerationMinistries.com