Tag Archive - Family Equipping

Thursday Book Club: ApParent Privelege

ApParent Privilege. Steve Wright with Chris Graves.  Inquest Ministries: Wake Forest, NC.  175 pages.  $14.99.

Steve Wright, as a follow-up to his book on the new reality in youth ministry, ReThink, spoke directly to parents in his book, ApParent Privilege. Steve, pastor of student ministries at Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC, along with his wife, Tina, have 3 teenagers under their roof.  In this book, they give practical and theological advice to other parents who are, with God’s help, trying to raise sons and daughters in the 21st Century.  His premise is that the parents hold the biblical mandate to be the primary spiritual shapers (disciplers) of their own children.

From the outset, I would highly recommend (and or give) this book to everyone who is expecting a baby, has a baby, toddler, child, or teenager.  No matter what age, it is never to late to start training your children in the ways of God.  Over the past 2 ½ years, I’ve had the privilege of getting to know Steve and Tina, and know they practice what they preach. Continue Reading…

Notes from the Family Ministry portion of The Gospel, Counseling, and the Church Conference

You probably know that Sojourn recently hosted a conference called The Gospel, Counseling, and the Church.  SojournKids hosted a pre-conference “family track” for leaders in children’s, student, and family ministry.  I asked Patrick Aldridge, Pastor for Children and Youth at Redeemer Fellowship Church, St. Charles, IL, to take detailed notes for the blog.  He did:

Jared Kennedy asked me to “take detailed notes” of the pre-conference family ministry stuff as well as the break out sessions on parenting dealing with Gospel centered children’s and youth ministry.  He was whining something about his wife being ready to give birth again and he wasn’t sure he was going to be there.  I think he was looking for a way of getting the information without doing any of the work; but whatever he’s a good and godly friend so I am happy to bail him out.

[at the time of posting there is still no baby, so maybe I was just trying to get out of work--Jared]

Tuesday morning and early afternoon a group of us who are all involved in children, youth, and or family ministry got together to talk through some of the issues and struggles we all have.  After a round of introductions, Mark Prater from Covenant Fellowship shared about making sure the children’s youth, and family ministries are Gospel centered.  A ministry, any ministry, which is Gospel centered will bear its own fruit (Col. 1:6).  It’s not about methods or models, it’s about the Gospel.  The Gospel is the central truth we seek to teach and apply. Continue Reading…

Jones: Equipping Families to Do Discipleship

Children Desiring God Breakout Session 2
Equipping Families to Do Discipleship
Timothy Paul Jones

Download the slides for this presentation.
We have a responsibility for being the primary disciple-makers in our homes.
God wants families to engage in cosmic warfare.  Our families are not equipped to do so.

The testimony of Scripture:
(1) God has called parents to serve as primary disciple makers of their children (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:18-21; Psalm 78:5; Proverbs 1:8-9; Ephesians 6:4)
(2)    The church is responsible to look after “spiritual orphans” while passionately seeking to disciple their parents (On God’s compassion for the fatherless, see James 1:27; Isaiah 1:17).
(3)    Where God’s kingdom is present, generations are drawn together, not driven apart (Malachi 4:6; Luke 1:17; cf. Isaiah 3:5)
(4)    What you do for God beyond your home will typically never be greater than what you practice with God within your home (1 Timothy 3:4-5; 5:1, 8).

Continue Reading…