I Love Being A Dad!!!

Since tomorrow is Father’s Day, I thought I would celebrate with all the dads out there and encourage them with some articles and videos on fatherhood… some new ones and some older ones that are well worth reading.

Happy Father’s Day,
Dale

1.) Fathers: Key to Their Children’s Faith by Michael Craven at Center for Christ and Culture

2.) Two Sermon Ideas for Father’s Day by Joe McKeever at Pastors.com

3.) Without Fathers, Who Knows Best? by Jeff Myers at Passing the Baton

4.) Courageous (movie about fatherhood)

5.) Ten Conclusions About the Power of a Husband and a Father by Brian Dodd

6.) Action Points for Fathers

7.) 40 Ways for Fathers to Make a Difference

8.) Superdad or Superdud: Which One Are You?

9.) The Council of Dads

10.) Dad’s Duct Tape from Bluefish TV

11.) Fatherhood Matters

12.) The Tragedy of America’s Disappearing Fathers

And the classic…….. Dad Life

And here are some things I’ve written with “dad the family shepherd” in mind…

• A Few Notes on Family Worship
• A Few More Notes on Family Worship
• Discipling Your Kids
• Passing the Baton to the Next Generation
• Raising Her Up in the Lord
• Shaping Culture for Christ
• The Legacy We Leave to Our Children
• Choose This Day
• The Shepherds are Few
• A Basic Key to the Universe: My Life for Yours
• Thoughts on a Covenant Home
• Thoughts on Reading to Your Children
• Pass It On: To Our Children and to Our Children’s Children
• Shepherding Sons
• Future Men (My Introductory Thoughts)
• Passing the Baton, Part 1 (from a sermon I preached in June, 2009)
• Passing the Baton, Part 2
• Passing the Baton, Part 3
• Covenantal Blessings
• The Value of a Family Dinner
• Great Bible Story Series for Your Kids
• Fathers Are Essential (Added April 8, 2011)

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Great Articles on Discipling Your Kids

New Horizons takes Christian families seriously. They generally have at least one great article each month that I find helpful, (as a Christian father), to navigate my family in and through life with covenant faithfulness.

This issue that I’m highlighting is especially helpful. I encourage you to check out these articles. Read them. Digest them. Pray over them. Put them into practice. And share them with others.

Kids, Character, and Catechism by L. Charles Jackson

The Lost Art and Practice of Family Devotions by Brad Winsted

The Divines’ Intent by Sidney D. Dyer

Edification—not Provocation by Arie van Eyk

If you would like to search New Horizon’s great archive of past articles, click here.

Enjoy,
Dale

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A Few More Notes on Family Worship

Here are the rest of my notes from this past Sunday’s lesson on family worship. Click here to get the notes from part 1.

Possible outline for your family time together…

Caveat: What I have provided in this packet is a variety of different resources for Family Worship. By no means would or should you try to do all the things I have provided. I tried to include things that would be appropriate for the various ages that might be around the table in a variety of families. In fact, it might be better to use these resources throughout several days, not just during one day. Here’s a sample of what you might include during your time of Family Worship…

Open in prayer (it might be a good time to pray for the Lord’s blessing during your time together and to thank God for the opportunity to get together.)

Read something from the Bible. (in your packet I have included a chapter from the Psalms as well as a Bible story from the book of Acts). Not all children’s story Bibles are created equal. Of course, the best book to read is the Bible itself. But there are some fine Bible story books that faithfully capture the biblical text and yet communicate the text in a way that is helpful to children of a variety of ages (including the adults). Click here to learn more about the one that we use.

Sing a hymn or praise chorus (or even the Doxology or Gloria Patri). Remember this is Family Worship. Worship includes singing. When your kids are young, they think you sing great, no matter what the truth is. Worry less about how you sound and more about doing it. If you need to, buy some CDs with songs you know. As my children get older, we’re able to sing hymns from our hymnals. You can purchase used hymnals at used bookstores, flea markets, etc. Buy one whenever you see one. Old hymnals are great spiritual investments.

Read a devotional. (the good thing about devotionals is very often they come with questions, prayers, etc. You can really get the children involved with these.) One of our favorites is called, Sticky Situations. A moral/spiritual dilemma is presented for each day of the year. And for each dilemma, four or five possible responses are offered along with an appropriate Bible verse to help your family reflect on what the right choice should be. My kids LOVE doing this.

Apostles’ Creed, Lord’s Prayer, or Catechism. Work on memorization. Catechisms were used throughout most of Christian history to teach children (and adults) through a sequence of stated questions and answers (with scriptural support). There are some good children’s catechisms available. You’ll be amazed at what your children can memorize. Memorizing is key (understanding it will grow as they get older). Of course, memorizing Scripture should be your top priority.

Prayer – Have time of prayer. Initially mom and dad lead. Take prayer requests. Remember the church, the sick, family, friends, etc. Also, pray for the day (or the next day). Start teaching your children to be thankful. Find things to thank God for. Also, start teaching your children how to pray for forgiveness (repentance). You’ll also want to spend time praising God for who he is. We also pray for missionaries and Christians around the world.

You don’t need to cover every aspect of prayer every single time you pray. But throughout a week, you ought to cover most of it. You don’t want your children growing up thinking that the only time you pray is when you need something from God.

Offer your family a benediction or blessing at the end. Make up something your family might remember and that will be meaningful to them throughout their lives (it could become a family tradition… as well as comforting). Or even better, find a blessing in the Bible and tweak it to make it your family’s official blessing.

Last thoughts…

Again, you won’t always cover all of these components every single time you gather for Family Worship. Sometimes you might. It might be that you do different things throughout the day (in the morning, at dinner, before bed, etc.).

At the end of the day, there’s no magic formula or resource. What will work best for your family will be what you follow through with. In other words, no matter how many resources you have, if you don’t use them, they won’t work for you. Find what works! Don’t stress out. But do something. Be intentional. Trust God.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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A few notes on Family Worship

Family Worship is one of my favorite things to talk about. I had the privilege to speak on just that topic to one of our Sunday school classes yesterday. What follows is from the outline that I gave the folks in the class.

Family Worship
Sunday Morning, July 18, 2010
Intergenerational Summer Sunday School Class

Family worship (or family devotions) is as much about the experience of worshiping with your family and modeling your commitment to Christ to your children… as it is imparting information about our faith (maybe even more so). Of course, you do want to use the time together to instruct, but don’t underestimate how powerful the experience itself will be in the life of your family.

The point here is that you are worshiping as a family, not just having Bible study (Although, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a Bible study as well. But that’s another topic). The act of worshiping with your family day after day, month and month, and year after year, in and of itself, will be instructive in the life of your children as the various components of Family Worship sink into their hearts and minds and the Spirit does his work of formation and transformation in their lives.

This is not to mention the wonderful memory that will be with your family throughout their lives as well as the great tradition that is being modeled and hopefully will be lived out generation after generation.

There’s a story that I like that makes this point. I’ve heard several versions of it, but the one that I first heard went like this: There was an atheist in England who wrote the local paper and said that if preaching was so important to Christians during their worship services, why didn’t more Christians remember what was taught in those sermons. Supposedly, the next week a pastor wrote the same paper and responded by saying that he had been married for 25 years and for all those years his wife had cooked him dinner each night. He said that even though he couldn’t remember everything she had ever cooked him, the point was that all those meals still resulted in nourishing him.

Family Worship is a lot like that. To be sure, your children will remember various things that they were taught, devotions that were shared, prayers that were prayed, etc. But they won’t remember most of the specifics. It’s doubtful that one of your children will approach you one day and tell you that the gem that you shared with them on Tuesday, July 2, four years ago, still lingers in their minds as a monumental moment in their spiritual formation.

However, I hasten to add that I wholeheartedly believe that their experience of receiving the daily or weekly blessing of gathering with Mom and Dad and brother and/or sister to pray together, read Scripture together, sing together, etc., will nourish their hearts, souls, and minds, and it will be effectual in their lives as believers.

Stay tuned for a few more of the thoughts that I shared yesterday.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Join us Sunday

This Sunday we will be learning about (and doing) Family Worship (or Family Devotions) during our Intergenerational Sunday school class in the Family Life Center.

 

The passing down of our faith is a very important theme that runs through the whole Bible. Parents (and grandparents) are encouraged to disciple their children and their children’s children.

 

Yet, I have found that quite often folks don’t practice Family Worship because they’ve never done it before. Or, they think that they are required to do it in a particular way. I believe that one of the key ways we learn to do something and get comfortable with it is simply by doing it.

 

Therefore, this Sunday morning I’ll share a little about Family Worship, it’s importance, my family’s experience with it, etc. And then… we as individual families are going to “do” Family Worship. I’ll provide an outline of possible components that families can do together so that they can experience this wonderful blessing from God.

 

As important as passing the baton of faith to our children is, equally as important is imparting the lasting memory of worshiping God together as a family. That will be a memory that remains in their hearts and minds all the days of their lives. It will also serve as a formative experience that will help them continue growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

See you Sunday,

Pastor Dale

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Passing the Baton to the Next Generation

I’ve written many articles and posts, and preached my fair share of sermons on the topic of the importance (which doesn’t seem to be a strong enough word for my taste) of passing our faith on to the next generation. The covenantal nature of our faith requires that we pass it down from generation to generation. The practicality of keeping our faith alive and well, humanly speaking, also demands it.

I mentioned in another post that this past summer I taught a course by Jeff Myers called, Passing the Baton. It was outstanding. I highly recommend it. I told the folks in my church that this was not exclusively a parenting course. It was for any and all adults who work with children and youth, whether those children are your own or students you teach or mentor. We all have the opportunity to influence the next generation for Christ so that his Kingdom might be extended into every sphere of life. Myers helped our class understand the importance of passing on our faith, and was also very practical regarding how that could be done. Again, I highly recommend it.

Yesterday I received via email an article written by Myers (I’ve provided an excerpt and link below). It is a fantastic article which I encourage you to read and act on. But not only is it such a great article, it’s also timely. Here’s why: Today at lunch, my wife and I made plans to send our daughter to a camp this summer that is put on by the Worldview Academy. It’s basically like the Summit Ministries camp that Myers talks about, except that it’s for students 13-18 years of age. Awesome timing. (and by the way, we’ll definitely be sending our children, God willing, to the Summit Ministries camps when they’re old enough.

So, read the following article by Jeff Myers. And after you read that, take a look at some of the things I’ve written on this and similar topics (which I’ve linked below). If we would seek to change the world for Christ, then we must be intentional with those whom God has given us influence.

The Lord bless you,
Dale

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Here’s an excerpt…

This fall, nearly two million American students will leave for college for the very first time. Their education will cost $12,000 a year for a public university and up to $50,000 for a private one. Scholarships and grants reduce the cost for most families, but still, the Wall Street Journal reports that the average student leaves college with $23,186 in debt.

 Nationwide, the total cost for this transaction is somewhere between 25 and 40 billion dollars per year.

 At least families are getting their money’s worth.

 Or not.

 A recent study confirms what many parents have long suspected: going to college can make kids forget what’s important and embrace values that are counter to what they learned growing up.

 Before I share this study’s results, let me say this to parents: leftist professors don’t feel sorry for you. As far as they’re concerned, you’ve been oppressing the masses to get that money anyway, so it’s deliciously ironic that you not only turn your children over to the indoctrinators, but that you fork over 50k to 200k and for the privilege of doing so.

 Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what the late Richard Rorty, one of the most prominent philosophers of the 20th century, said on the subject:

Click here to read the whole article.

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And here are a few of posts that I’ve written on similar themes.

• Raising Her Up in the Lord
• Shaping Culture for Christ
• The Legacy We Leave to Our Children
• My Life for Yours
• Choose This Day
• Discipling Your Kids
• Some Thoughts on Family Worship
• Thoughts on Reading to Your Children
• Thoughts on A Covenant Home
• Pass It On
• Shepherding Sons
• From Generation to Generation
• Future Men (Introductory Thoughts)
• Generation Joshua
• Passing the Baton, Part 1
• Passing the Baton, Part 2
• Passing the Baton, Part 3

Hopefully those will get you started (or keep you moving) in the right direction.

Blessings,
Dale

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Raising her up in the Lord…

This is a picture of my daughter, Natalie. As my oldest child, she’s part trailblazer and part child-rearing experiment. That is, she is, in many ways, a trailblazer in that she is setting the pace for her three younger brothers. Where she is, they will one day go (except where her mother and I really goofed… which is what I meant when I said she is also an “experiment” in child-rearing).

Suzanne and I have done our best (at least, most of the time) to bring her up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). We have tried to cultivate a Christian atmosphere and culture in our home. We try to model what we pass on to her and her brothers. We educate her at home so that, in addition to what we believe to be an excellent “academic” education, we might also pass along our worldview, values, etc., to her. This year we also started sending her to a classical Christian tutorial called, Providence Extension Program, which she truly loves and which her mother and I thank God for daily.  Add to that Bible studies, active church participation, Christian small groups, Christian friendships, etc., etc. etc.

The point of mentioning all of that is not to pat Suzanne and myself on the back (as much as it may seem that’s what I’m going for). Instead, my purpose in sharing that is to say that we have done our best to be intentional in raising our daughter for Christ and his Kingdom. And… it’s with a lump in my throat that I share with you that in two-and-a-half months, my precious daughter will turn into a….. TEENAGER!!!!  And the truth is… I’m completely at peace. Here’s why…

Despite racing hormones, peer pressures, etc., I do not think it’s axiomatic that teenagers must rebel against their parents. If I had a dollar for every parent who has come up to me and said, “You just wait until she’s a teenager.” It’s as though there’s some irresistable gravitational power that forces every teenager, against their will, to rebel against mom, dad, and every other authority figure there is. But I don’t buy that. Never have. I know that there are plenty of kids who have. But I also know many who did not and are not. I don’t think its required. I could speculate as to why I so often receive such comments from other parents, but I’ll let that go… for now.

Let me also quickly add that I don’t believe that because Natalie has been in a lot of Bible studies and raised in a Christian home that she will, therefore, not rebel. The way we are raising our children is not some sort of magical  incantation that will guarantee that we will be exempt from rebellion in our home. The Lord knows how many Christian families struggle with such things every day.

All of this rambling is to set the context for this statement: This is an exciting time to be a Christian parent and a Christian teenager. There are so many resources out there to help educate, equip, and encourage our Christian teenagers that it staggers my imagination and thrills my soul. Because I will have a teenager in two-and-a-half months, I’ve been thinking much on the topic of what comes next in Natalie’s development as a young Christian woman. She’s godly, bright, mature, wise, creative, etc., (Please pardon the excessive “proud papa” stuff. I’m sure I”m working through something here.). We are so blessed to live in a time when we, as parents, can draw from those great resources to help us nurture our children – to help them grow deeper in their faith, cultivate their spiritual gifts and their talents, cultivate their intellectual life, etc.

Suzanne and I remind ourselves at the beginning of every school year that we only have X amount of time left with each one of our four children. And that leads us to ask: How will we spend this year? Will we be faithful to Christ’s call in our lives to raise them for his glory and purpose? Will we trust him for the results… even when a hormone or two makes an appearance? Will we persevere in his strength and with his wisdom? Those are not insignificant questions and the answers we give are vitally important. We really do want to raise world-changers for Christ and his Kingdom. That’s obviously an order that no mere mortal can fill. It will require grace, grace, and more grace. That’s what Suzanne and I, by faith and obedience, seek to empower and direct our efforts.

On the subject of an exciting time to be a Christian teenager (high school and college student), below are some links to a few ministries that I can’t wait to learn more about and possibly send my children to. If you have any firsthand knowledge about these ministries and organizations, please drop me a comment and share your experience with the rest of us.

One last caveat: Parents are the primary and most important disciplers of their children. Everything and every one else serves to supplement what mom and/or dad are doing in the home. So having reiterated that, here are some great links for you to check out…

The Lord bless you,
Dale

• Providence Extension Program (as I mentioned, this a fabulous way to educate, equip, and encourage your child(ren).
• Summit Ministries
• Ridge Haven Conference and Retreat Center
• Worldview Academy
• Focus Leadership Institute
• The Rebelution
• Generation Joshua
• Trinity Forum Academy
• Nehemiah Institute
• Myers Institute
• Boundless Webzine
• CCO Campus Ministry
• Center for Parent/Youth Understanding

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