Children
Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon these your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised them to the new life of grace. […]
Little chest red and naked
Rising with powerful breath.
Eyes seeing forever on.
The world is birthed anew. […]
The End of Youth Ministry? Why Parents Don’t Really Care about Youth Groups and What Youth Workers Should Do about It by Andrew Root Baker Academic, 2020 240 pages (paperback), $22.99 Andrew Root, a leading voice in the academic study of youth ministry, has published a timely book for many struggling youth workers. While this […]
Be true to yourself. Follow your heart. Believe your truth. Love yourself. Don’t let someone else stand in the way of your dreams. Speak your truth. Take care of yourself first so that you can best care for others. Cut from your life negative people who cause emotional stress. Live the best life you can, […]
Most of us recall the recent defection of former “Young, Restless, and Reformed” (YRR) author and ex-senior pastor Joshua Harris. A homeschool movement leader’s kid who went on to become a leading figure of the evangelical sexual purity and “courtship” movement with his 1997 monster best-seller I Kissed Dating Goodbye, followed by Boy Meets Girl: […]
Jean M. Twenge is professor of psychology at San Diego State University and the author of more than 130 scientific publications and numerous books, including iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood; The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement with W. Keith […]
One of the reasons for the wisdom literature in the Old Testament, we are told in Proverbs 1:4, is “to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth.” The discretion that wisdom bequeaths to those who take up abode with her is not simply a bare knowledge of right and wrong (though […]
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Easier said than done, right? What exactly constitutes “training”? Matthew 28:19 gives us a bit of help: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, […]
It's Father's Day, and Hallmark and other retail stores greatly benefit during this holiday. Revenue is increased as children, quite possibly along with a parent, flock to these venues to purchase cards and other gifts that express gratitude. Children desire to ensure their father knows how much they care about him. It's common, therefore, to […]
Even before he was born, my son interfered with my participation at church. The exhaustion of pregnancy sent me to bed at the same time as evening services began, and when I signed up to provide soup for the Lenten suppers, I had to send the food via my husband so that I could lie […]
The image of the “nuclear” family has always been an ambiguous one for me. Of course, it’s meant to convey a picture of a centered family, anchored by a mom and a dad, with children orbiting around them as satellites, together comprising one of the basic units of society—an “atomic unit,” if you will. (Part […]
Sixty percent. That's the casualty rate in terms of teens and young adults abandoning church. The analogy that comes to mind is the First World War, where most of the casualties didn't happen suddenly. Trench warfare at places such as the Somme, the Marne, or Verdun introduced a new kind of "war of attrition." The […]
All Christian parents desire the spiritual well-being of their children. We want our children to be Christians, to get saved, to know God; however we express it, we want our children to be part of the company of the redeemed. We yearn for the blessing of God's covenant grace to be on our children. This […]
I was raised in a Jewish home without a lot of theology. Okay, to be honest, without any theology really. My father never read or discussed the Bible at home, and he was downright hostile to those who were foolish enough to knock on our door spreading their religious views. There was simply no excuse […]
