Sharing the Gospel, there's an app for that!

Did you know that Awana has a free app that digitizes their Gospel Wheel to make it fun and accessible for kids, teens and adults?

My kids are smart phone obessed, so I love having some Godly content they can play with!  It also give you a super cheat sheet for sharing the Gospel message with the adults you know.

 

You can find it in the Apple App Store or the Android Market.

Have the lesson continue all week . . .

Sorry I have been gone so long.  I'm learning that starting off a fall of Children's Ministry is VERY different than fall in Youth Ministry.  Let's just say I've been working WAY more than my 20 hours a week.  :)  I just emailed all the parents from my church last night filling them in on what we are learning and how they can apply and further those lessons at home.  I hope that is information that will be helpful to many of the families.

As the primary faith shape-ers of our kids we need to know what they are being taught so we can review, and apply those lessons in our kids and in our families. 

Your Sunday school program may offer sheets to bring home that help keep you informed.  USE THEM.  They cost our churches good money, but you are getting them because we want you to be equipped with tools to lead family devotions and use "God moments" to provide your kids with teachable moments.  Those sheets will feature things like verses to read, questions to talk about together or activites that will help you all to understand the point more clearly.   Student activity sheets may also give you some of this information.

If your kids' classes don't send home lesson information go and ask for it.  Find out what section of Scripture is being studied and the main point of the lesson.  Then your family can reread the story together.  Ask questions like "why did God want us to know this story?" "who are the main characters?" or "how does this apply to our lives today?"

Find out if your kids had a key verse and work together so you ALL memorize it during the week.  They will see that you don't just talk about hiding God's Word in your heart, but you are actually doing it.

Working with the children's minstry lessons from church can give your family an easy topic for family devotions and tons of ideas for creative faith shaping adventures.  If you are still stuck for ideas ask your Children's Ministry person for help.

Do you have any other ideas?  Please share with us!

Characteristics of Kingdom Parents

According to Ken Hemphill being a Kingdom Parent means trying to interpret everything through the lens of God's Word.  Earlier this month Ken shared for two days on one of my favorite radio programs, FamilyLife Today (hear the programs HERE).  "Parenting with Kingdom Purpose" is now very high on my "to buy" list.  If you've read it let us know how it is!

FamilyLife has a website full of free resources, free podcasts and stuff we can purchase to build up families that focus on the Lord, grow lasting faith in our kids, and have marriages that model Christ-like living.  Take some time to see what they have to offer!

52 Ways to Teach Memory Verses

We have taught our five year old son a number of memory verses from the Bible, and it's a habit that is important to us to continue.  Our son will also be starting Awana this year, which also includes a lot of memorizing.  Because of that I was excited to find the little book "52 Ways to Teach Memory Verses"  from Rainbow Books to give us more ideas to help our kids.

This is an old book, but I'm glad to have one to help us hide God's Word in my kids' hearts.  You can order this book from Amazon to look into all these ideas with your kids. 

A whole new library at my finger tips!

As of today I am the Director of Children's Ministries at Bear Creek Community Church!  I am in my new office today and going through the LIBRARY of resources here.  I'm excited to find all the new ideas and will try to share my new favorites with you.  If I highlight a resource on here that I found at BCCC it will have the tag "BC3 Library" on the post.  If you attend Bear Creek just ask to borrow it!

Just give me a little time to go through things!  lol

I am also cleaning out my office at First Covenant Church where I have been the Director of Student Ministries for nearly five years.  I'm finding some of my old favorites there as well.  My personal books will be tagged "Melanie's library."

"House or Home?" by Chip Ingram

Today I'm sharing another sermon series.  From the Living on the Edge Radion program, Chip Ingram recently broadcasted "House or Home? Eight Essentials for Becoming a Close Knit Family."  I really enjoy Chip's sermons, they build me up as I try to get my house cleaned up.  This 8 part series was especially encouraging to me, and I hope to you as well.  He also has a number of complementary resources for sale HERE.

"the Case Against Happiness"

An excerpt:

But I wonder if the questions would change. Instead of asking parents and non-parents whether they are happy right now, we might ask whether they are becoming more like the people they want to be. And then we might see children not as factors that may or may not be contributing to our happiness, but as opportunities to practice what most of us -- perhaps me most of all -- need to do more often, which is to put someone else before ourselves.

Read the whole article from The Atlantic HERE and let me know your thoughts.

I have a lot more to post in the coming months, but I was on vacation last week and I'm in Chicago at a youth conference this week.  Busy, busy, busy!  Please pray for my husband who is being the single dad this week.

Thanks to Chad for sharing the article on Facebook.

ReCreate by Ron Luce

You don't have to look very far to see that the cultural war is hammering our kids. Whether it's MTV, or point-and-click pornography, or the garbage just off regular television, the music world, video games and all that. This is the parent answer book. It's called Re-Create: Building a Culture in Your Home Stronger than the Culture Deceiving Your Kids. This is the book of hope for parents who are saying, "What in the world do I do?"

Well there are a lot of practical things that we can do. This is a book of practical things that we did do with our kids as they were growing up to make our hearts stayed close with them, and that Christianity was real with them. There is a lot of practical information on how to measure how much influence the culture is having on your kids, and how much intake you're allowing of the culture into your home. Instead of them growing up and all of a sudden they're 16 and they say, "Hey, I think I may be pregnant." And you say, "I thought I raised you better than that."
Well, maybe you didn't raise them after all. Maybe the culture raised them. Maybe the media raised them.

You may say, "Well, that won't happen to my kids." You know, almost every one of these church shooters were church kids. They grew up in youth group. They grew up in Sunday school. And they're shooting kids. Those parents never thought it would happen to their kids either. Kids who end up pregnant or on drugs, too many of them are church kids.

(Quote by Ron Luce taken from http://www.cbn.com/, go read the whole article HERE )

Ron Luce is SERIOUS about building serious teenage Christ followers. Teen Mania's Acquire the Fire conferences give a powerful gospel message and inspire youth to give God all they have. The ReCreate book and study materials are to equip parents to manage the culture in your home. You can buy the book HERE, and check out Teen Mania's free related parent resources HERE.

(Melanie has these resources in her personal library, if you are local and want to see them let her know)

Parental Priorities by Alistair Begg

I spend a lot of time listening to sermon and radio show podcasts, and Alistair Begg's Truth for Life is one of my favorites. Who can resist listening to that accent? ;)

I was recently encouraged by his sermon series on "Parental Priorities, God's Design for the Family." This 7 part series covers moms, dads, kids, family and parenting in a Biblical no-nonsense manner. You can download the podcasts for free or order the series on CD.

If you listen to any of these please leave me a comment and let me know what encouraged you!

Welcome!

Welcome to "Be a Deuteronomy 6 Family"!

Too many families have given child formation up to the media, schools, friends or even the church; but God has called PARENTS to be the primary shape-er of our kids. How do we create healthy Deuteronomy 6 Families that love God and apply our faith to all aspects of our lives? Here you will find a collection of resources and ideas to help you.

I (Melanie) have a diverse history of working with youth, children and families, as well as being married for ten years and a mom to two young boys. I love working in church family ministry, but I know that no matter how great of a job I do, it's what the parents do that matters the most. I have been collecting resources for 15 years that have encouraged me, and I want to share them with other parents that need tools to take charge of the culture in their homes and families.

I would love your ideas, recommendations, reviews and comments! Please email me at dt6family@gmail.com if you have something to share or if you want to apply to be a co-blogger with me!