Archives For Ministry

What Catechism?

samluce —  May 20, 2013 — 3 Comments

CATECHISM

Last week I discussed why Catechism is a good idea for kids and parents alike.

I thought I would give you a few options as sort of a launching off point for you to pick what works best with your kids.

1. The Heidelberg Catechism - The Heidelberg Catechism, written in 1563, originated in one of the few pockets of Calvinistic faith in the Lutheran and Catholic territories of Germany. Conceived originally as a teaching instrument to promote religious unity in the Palatinate, the catechism soon became a guide for preaching as well. It is a remarkably warm-hearted and personalized confession of faith, eminently deserving of its popularity among Reformed churches to the present day.

2. The North Star Catechism - Whether or not we sail across troubled seas, Christians are all pilgrims. For thousands of years, travelers have been guided on their journey by focusing on a fixed point in the night sky: the North Star. While other stars seem to shift with the passing of time, the North Star remains anchored in the same position. This celestial gift allowed people to know where they were and where they needed to go. Our prayer is that the North Star Catechism will offer this same kind of clarity.

3. New City Catechism - New City Catechism consists of 52 questions and answers so the easiest way to use it is to memorize one question and answer each week of the year. Because it is intended to be dialogical it is best to learn it in pairs, in families, or as study groups, enabling you to drill one another on the answers not only one at a time but once you have learned 10 of them, then 20 of them, and so on.

- What to look for in a catechism -

  • Make sure you can understand the language and vocabulary used.
  • Make sure the delivery system works for you – Heidelberg uses website and books – North Star is a PDF at present and New City is primarily through the iPad.
  • Make sure it’s something your kids can grow into
  • Make sure you have a system to track your kids’ progress.
  • Make sure it’s something you can stick to.

 

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Are you a Christian Hedonist?

samluce —  May 13, 2013 — Leave a comment

Desiring God

I am a big John Piper fan but have only recently gotten around to reading his book Desiring God – Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. In this book Pastor Piper delivers a compelling argument that our lives as Christians are to be lived chasing satisfaction, joy with reckless abandonment so long as the pursuit of those things find their purpose in God and ultimately glorify Him.

The theme throughout this book that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” God gets the glory and we get the joy. Such a powerful thought. That thought alone is worth the price of the book. This truth is so fundamental. As a pastor I see so much dysfunction in people trying to be happy rather than finding their joy in God. I find myself so often allowing my service to Christ and others to be what it was never intended to be. I am created to glorify God not through depriving myself of happiness but in finding my happiness in Christ.

CS Lewis explains this concept so beautifully “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

Every chapter had a few points that really rang true. The chapters that challenged me most personally were Money, Missions and Suffering. I plan on adding this book to a short list of books I reread.

Desiring God should be read by every christian at least once in their lives because of the truth Piper pulls from scripture are so precisely accurate and so horribly convicting.

Here are a few quotes that stood out to me.

In the New Testament, God is clearly active, creating a people for Himself by calling them out of darkness and enabling them to believe the gospel and walk in the light. John teaches most clearly that regeneration precedes and enables faith.

The pursuit of joy in God is not optional

Saving faith is the heartfelt conviction not only that Christ is reliable but also that He is desirable.

True worship must include inward feelings that reflect the worth of God’s glory. If this were not so, the word hypocrite would have no meaning.

The great hindrance to worship is not that we are a pleasure-seeking people, but that we are willing to settle for such pitiful pleasures.

Love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others.

Faith is born and sustained by the Word of God, and out of faith grows the flower of joy.

A failure in our prayer life is generally a failure to know Jesus.

Prayer is the antidote for the disease of self-confidence.

The great danger of riches is that our affections will be carried away from God to His gifts.

Generosity confirms that our hope is in God, not in ourselves or our money.

My assumption is that people without the gospel are without hope, because only the gospel can free them from their sin.

Suffering of sickness and suffering of persecution have this in common: They are both intended by Satan for the destruction of our faith and governed by God for the purifying of our faith.

How many Christians do you know who could say, “The lifestyle I have chosen as a Christian would be utterly foolish and pitiable if there is no resurrection”?

God’s universal purpose for all Christian Suffering: more contentment in God and less satisfaction in self and the world.

Paul’s suffering complex Christ’s afflictions not by adding anything to their worth, but by extending them to the people they were meant to save.

In the pursuit of joy through suffering, we magnify the all-satisfying worth of the Source of our joy. God Himself shines as the brightness at the end of our tunnel of pain. If we do not communicate that He is the goal and the ground of our joy in suffering, then the very meaning of our suffering will be lost. The meaning is this: God is gain. God is gain. God is gain.

*I was provided a free copy of Desiring God by Multnomah press in exchange for my willingness to write an honest and personal review of the book.

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Why Catechism?

samluce —  May 13, 2013 — Leave a comment

CATECHISM

Why Catechism?

Catechism in my mind has gotten a bad rap. The reasons I believe that is because people equate catechism with a nun walking around with a ruler. While this may be a bit of a caricature I do think the idea of Catechism in a classroom is less than ideal. As a father and a pastor I believe there is strong biblical support for parents teaching truth to their kids (Deut. 6). Catechism was never meant to be a classroom subject but was meant to be lived out and learned in the context of life. Parents you live catechism before you teach it. I love how Tim Keller describes the Biblical basis for it. I can do no better so I won’t try.

A BIBLICAL PRACTICE

In his letter to the Galatians Paul writes, “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor” (Galatians 6:6). The Greek word for “anyone who receives instruction” is the word katechoumenos, one who is catechized. In other words, Paul is talking about a body of Christian doctrine (“catechism”) that was taught to them by an instructor (here the word “catechizer”). The words “all good things” probably means financial support as well. In this light, the word koinoneo—which means “to share” or “to have fellowship”—becomes even richer. The salary of a Christian teacher is not to be seen simply as a payment but a “fellowship.” Catechesis is not just one more service to be paid for, but is a rich fellowship and mutual sharing of the gifts of God.

If we re-engage in this biblical practice in our churches, we will find again God’s Word “dwelling in us richly” (Colossians 3:16), because the practice of catechesis takes truth deep into our hearts, so we find ourselves thinking in biblical categories as soon as we can reason.

When my son, Jonathan, was a young child my wife Kathy and I started teaching him a children’s catechism. In the beginning we worked on just the first three questions:
Question 1. Who made you?
Answer. God
Question 2. What else did God make?
Answer. God made all things.
Question 3. Why did God make you and all things?
Answer. For his own glory.

One day Kathy dropped Jonathan off at a babysitter’s. At one point the babysitter discovered Jonathan looking out the window. “What are you thinking about?” she asked him. “God,” he said. Surprised, she responded, “What are you thinking about God?” He looked at her and replied, “How he made all things for his own glory.” She thought she had a spiritual giant on her hands! A little boy looking out the window, contemplating the glory of God in creation!

What had actually happened, obviously, was that her question had triggered the question/answer response in him. He answered with the catechism. He certainly did not have the slightest idea what the “glory of God” meant. But the concept was in his mind and heart, waiting to be connected with new insights, teaching, and experiences.

Such instruction, Princeton theologian Archibald Alexander said, is like firewood in a fireplace. Without the fire—the Spirit of God—firewood will not in itself produce a warming flame. But without fuel there can be no fire either, and that is what catechetical instruction is.

Timothy Keller, October 2012

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Bible Studies for Life: Remixed.

samluce —  April 10, 2013 — 1 Comment

bible studies for life

Let me start by saying that I have never used Bible Studies for life. So I have nothing to compare it against. LifeWay supplied me with a 3 week pre-release sampler gave me no talking points simply said look this over blog about it good, bad or ugly. So here are my thoughts.

1. One point focuses the lesson – same lesson adults – youth and kids. – This has so much potential. I love the idea of the family learning one thing. The problem is taking a biblical truth and translating it across all age groups is very difficult and very time-consuming.

2. Studying a book of the bible is a powerful launching point for a family to grow in their faith. – I really like that the whole family can study a book of the bible together. LifeWay has done a great job of breaking down each book of the bible into key thoughts that are transferable across all age groups.

3. They seem very intention in ending the exposition of scripture in application. – I really liked the fact they were so big on application. Often it’s very easy to get hung up on expositional stuff and language stuff. LifeWay really focused their energy not only on creating application but in helping teachers know how to recognize and apply truth to those they are teaching.

4. Leveraging social media to connect with digital natives. – We now use The Gospel Project and I have to say that the Gospel project app is the best kids ministry curriculum app out there by far. My kids love it. LifeWay has done a great job of building apps kids actually use and creating content that is very easy to put up on facebook and twitter. (Side note I really think Instagram will continue to be a more and more popular would be great to see insta-ready promotional stuff – very easy to make)

5. Video teaching – allows for flexibility. – You still need a good teacher – There is a video teaching for kids especially and some pretty cool video stuff for youth. I may be old school but I still believe that if you have the man power you should have a live teacher and use the video teaching to supplement or as a training resource. Video teaching has it’s place but you as the pastor have to know where that is for your group however video teaching is a nice option.

So who is this curriculum for? It has usefulness in any type of church as the content seems to be very solid and from what I understand Bible Studies for Life has been around for some time this is more of a major upgrade to a product that is already in 30,000+ churches.

Where would I use it? For our context and how the curriculum is written it could be used as a kids church curriculum but in my opinion it would be a much stronger option for a midweek, sunday school or even small group in the home curriculum.

For more information their website. Order yours today. 

As well as a blog for Kids, Students and Adults.

 

 

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How to make an Easter egg hunt a family event.

samluce —  March 25, 2013 — 8 Comments

Before I start this blog post let me be clear about a couple of things.
1. I am insanely jealous of Bible Belt weather this time of year.
2. I am not a big fan of children killing each other in the craziness we call egg hunts.

Why am I jealous of the Bible Belt this time of the year? Well, most often when it’s time to do an Easter egg hunt this is what it looks like outside our church. (No exaggeration as this photo was taken 3 days ago)

snow_redeemer

 

We were looking for a way to do an Easter egg alternative and one of the women on our team Lori Buck came up with a brilliant idea. Do an Easter egg hunt indoors. I have to admit my chaos meter was going crazy. She began to explain her idea and it was brilliant.

Here is what it looks like.

1. Buy foam eggs online or at Hobby Lobby
2. Use “Blue Painters Tape” to tape said eggs to the wall.
3. Hide them in a specific room or all over your kids environment.
(Here is what it looked like taped to the wall)

easter egg hunt

4. Create a starting point and supply maps of the locations you want the kids to search for the eggs.
5. Provide the maps and pens
6. Do not allow kids to do this on their own – by forcing parents to help you create a shared experience with parent and child.

egg hunt map

 

7. Have the parents and kids search for the eggs stuck to the walls once the egg is located circle the part on the map where the egg is located.
8. Once finished return the map for a prize. (We did a 3 tiered prize system based on how many eggs the kids found.) All the kids walked away with candy.

easter egg hunt candy

 

Here is what I loved about it.

1. It was FAR CALMER than any egg hunt I have ever been to.
2. Parents and kids did it together. Families were working together to find these eggs hidden all over the walls. Kids loved it and parents loved as much or more than their kids.
3. It was different, fun, orderly and just enough crazy to be fun.
4. Because we leveraged the parents we needed only a couple of volunteers.

uptown egg hunt

 

Huge thanks to Josh Lange and the team for pulling off a massively successful event that was fun for the family and built into our value of ministry to the family where we set parents up to win. It was a blast I literally can not wait for next year.

 

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