Thursday, November 17, 2011
A couple of months ago, I told the story of my eldest son “Harry”, who had been unabashedly sharing about his faith with his friend down the street. I just wanted to update you on some news about what has happened in the lives of my kids and this particular neighbor, a 9 year old boy named “Scott”. I was in the kitchen with some church friends who were over for dinner when suddenly, Harry burst into the room, breathless and excited. “Mom! Mom! Scott wants to become a Christian!!” My hands were completely messy with food preparation and at first I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I asked my son for some clarification, and he said that he had taken…
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Wednesday, May 18, 2011
This morning I have a post on The High Calling website, entitled “Practice With Purpose,” about our family’s time at Breakthrough Urban Ministries last summer. Here is the beginning of the piece, and you can read the rest at TheHighCalling.org’s website! *** My exasperated son banged his hands on the piano keys. He was an 8-year-old with clear musical ability but no desire to practice. “Why? Why do I have to do it again? I don’t understand!” he moaned. I knew this was standard behavior for similar children his age, but the knowledge didn’t make dealing with his resistance any easier. “C’mon,” I coaxed. “You’re playing in public on Saturday. Don’t you want to be at your best?” He glowered…
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Monday, May 9, 2011
My eldest son (“Harry”) who is nearly 9 years old has been on a Jesus kick of late. He wants to know of everyone he meets, “Are you a follower of Jesus?” In the past two weeks, he has asked at least eight people this question (one newcomer to our church; three Little League coaches; three fellow baseball team members, one exterminator). This past year, he befriended a fellow 3rd grader who moved onto our block this summer, and it wasn’t long before Harry was asking theological questions: “Do you go to church? Do you believe in God? Do you know Jesus?” I have to confess that I have mixed feelings about his directness on the topic of Jesus. On…
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Tuesday, March 1, 2011
After I first started having kids, I distinctly remember how important I thought it was for our family to attend a church with a strong children’s ministry. I thought that such a ministry would help our kids understand and embrace the Christian faith in a deeper and more tangible way, and that this would be even more important as the years go by. But I no longer hold this to be a major priority for me and for my family. Here is why. A study conducted by the Search Institute a number of years ago identified the main factors influencing the faith maturity of children. And the researchers discovered that family religiosity was more powerful than even church involvement. Specifically, the level of…
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Friday, November 19, 2010
I recently gave a talk at the 2010 Missional Learning Commons on the topic of how children often embrace and demonstrate missional living more easily than the adults in their lives. For an example, look no further than Matthew 18, the passage in which the disciples are arguing about the question of who will be the greatest in heaven. As a response, Jesus places a child before them and says those famous words, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I think the child in that setting must have been beaming, full of joy from Jesus selecting him from the crowd, so amazed and encouraged that Jesus was using him as the example for the…
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