Family Ministry

In this week's sermon I told the story of, "long-prayer Louie." He is a man who gets in front of the church and says extremely long prayers. We saw how the book of James can transform a prayer from, "Lord, help him," to "Lord, help me."

Here's a recap and an outline that you can use at home and with your families.

I created an outline in google forms as well, you can access it HERE.

1st - What do you want? James 4:1-2 says, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God."

Hopefully there's no one killing anyone else in your household, although it may feel like…

"As you go" began with 3-4 months' worth of posts to help the families of the Utica Church of Christ navigate and adjust to life without Bible classes. The worldwide pandemic put the American church on her head. So much of what we were used to and relied on had to cease. Though tough at times, it was a stark reminder that the church, as an organization, was not ever prescribed to be an institution of usurping child-rearing and faith-building responsibilities from their parents.

The reality is though, that not a lot of Christian families do teach the Bible in their own homes. They were relying on the church to teach them. National trends would also tell us that pre-covid church attendance has been on the steady decline and Bible class attendance has been even worse. Parents of the typical North American progeny are much more concerned with their kids…

We have officially kicked off the Believe series. Materials are available for you and your children in the form of devotional books, storybooks, and coloring books. We're also sending an email with a "family page" for adapting the children's curriculum for the home.

Week 1's truth to believe is:

I believe the God of the Bible is the only true God - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Here is a link to the teaching geared for adults: https://www.facebook.com/uticacoc/videos/2473784522926262

Here is the thing about children and believing in God - they naturally believe. Obviously, age and understanding bring different observations and questions to different children, but kids are very ready to accept the idea of an Almighty Creator who loves them. This makes talking about believing in God the easiest "as you go" teaching there is...

Anytime you talk about God or to God in front of or with your…

Hebrews is a book of the Bible aimed at people who are drifting away from the Lord. It is hard to think about children drifting away because their faith is so young and still being formed. The same principles that the Hebrew writer draws on to call people back apply to the foundation of faith we are trying to establish in the lives of our kids.

In Hebrews 6, the message moves from a serious warning about falling away from God to a warm reminder of the hope we have in Jesus. Here are a couple of observations from the text (Hebrews 6:9-20).

A) Hope is an anchor for our souls, in other words, it keeps us from drifting.

B) Hope is future-focused, looking forward to something but has its foundation in past confidence. In this case that is God's promise. God has never broken a promise.

C) 6:18 talks…