More Ideas for Sunday School

Gained some great insights today while chatting with a parent whose family goes to a church with a thriving children's and youth ministry.

So sketching out some ideas for the Youth Ministry...

Grade 4-6: Preteen Ministry (on Sundays)

Grade 7-12: Youth Group night once a week? fortnight? Involve them in preparing and serving morning tea, hosting Congregational Lunches, greeting visitors, helping in Sunday School

All we need now is a regular critical mass of young attendees, which depends on there being a regular critical mass of supportive and involved parents.

God Spaces

A friend took the time to share with me today a concept she's learning in Bible College.

It's called God Spaces, and is pioneered by Dr Diane Divett, a pastor and originator and developer of the holistic counselling theory and practice called Refocussing, which has as its central component the use of 'God Spaces' to connect to God.

(Extracted from http://cityviewchurch.co.nz/godspaces/)

It's a process that enables Christians and non-Christians to:

• find and experience God 
• be empowered 
• make decisions about their future, dreams, vision, purpose and healthy holistic living.

Another one for my learning list.

Expanding My Geographical Comfort Zone

Flights booked.

Accommodation booked.

Train and bus schedules printed.

48 hours to my first solo interstate trip to attend training with my mentor in Sydney.

A year ago, I don't think I would have got this far in my thinking.

Too far. Too scary. Too many unknowns. Floods and storms!

It's been a process, but hey, God didn't put me here just to be comfortable and safe.

I'm here to grow, learn, take risks, make mistakes and (hopefully) survive so I can write about them.

Even more important, I'm here to model for my children that this is what real life is like, so that they will have more options and be more resourceful when their time comes.

The 'A' Word that Perfectionists Dread

Today is a very special day.

I booked in two accountability coaching calls to tackle vital aspects of my business.

I'm celebrating because these are areas that I've been avoiding, all the while knowing I need to do something about them, but always finding a reason to do something else instead.

One of these was to do with overhauling my non-performing website.

I appreciate the frankness and constructive feedback of the marketing expert I spoke with and now have a two-page record of what we discussed and what I need to do to turn my business model around.

The second was a Skype consultation with a lawyer-cum-accountant on the subject of asset protection.

Again, I appreciated his incisive and straight-to-the-point approach and know exactly what I need to do next.

Am feeling re-energized about my business now that I've taken care of the major blockages.

What are your top values?

Currently working my way through Dr John Demartini's book The Values Factor.

I have been to his seminars and love his story of overcoming poverty, dyslexia and lack of direction to doing what he does today: travelling the world and teaching.

His book has sat on my shelf for a few years, and only last week did I begin to read it in earnest and to ask myself: do I really know what my top values are? Am I living my life in harmony with these values? Am I setting goals that align with these values? Does my work and my business represent my highest expression and fulfillment of these values?

The first question has stumbled me for a long time, and I am still getting to the point where I can confidently declare "Yes! This is what I believe. This is what is most important to me. This is what my life is about." I realized I was easily able to come up with my top 10 values, but I could not order them with conviction, because that would mean having to decide that X is higher than Y and so on down the list.

My lack of clarity and conviction hit home most painfully when a social media marketing expert whose 7-day challenge I'd responded to rang me on the weekend to chat about my business and I realized, oops, there's other stuff I'm more interested in at the moment than talking business. I even had difficulty articulating with conviction what it is I do, when just the day before, I'd enthusiastically put up my hand for his challenge.

What's wrong with me? Why do I keep swinging like a pendulum between what I want to do and what I feel I should do? Could it be that this is a clue about my highest values?

Then early this morning, I picked up Tim Keller's The Reason for God, which has been sitting on my bedside table for weeks. I'd been reading it conscientiously, then moved on to other books (as you do) and forgot all about it. And now I opened the book to the bit where Tim talks about the difference between Christianity and other religions, and what sin really is. The long and short is, that whenever I put anything else as the most important thing in my life: career, family, professional achievement, money, status - that is not God, that is idolatry ("Thou shalt have no other gods before me" - the first Commandment) and therefore sin. Because I cannot save myself or improve myself by my own efforts. The only way I can be made right with God is by accepting that God has already done the work for me through Jesus Christ, and only by turning my life completely over to Him can I find that happy place between feeling superior to others and feeling not good enough.

So now I am looking at my top four values again, and I realize God's not in the list.

How now, brown cow?

"The Reason for God" by Tim Keller

(Image: South Valley Church website, courtesy of Google Images)

My pastor lent me this book recently.

He must have been divinely led to do it, because it came at just the right time.

Here I am again at the start of a new year, feeling guilty for having backslided spiritually in the last year, for not spending enough time reading the Bible, praying and engaging with God, and for doing outwardly "good" and "worthwhile" things in my own strength and wisdom rather than His.

With the world's focus being once again on terrorism in new and terrifying forms, and two children being more and more susceptible to external influences, I need to turn inwardly and be reminded of the eternal truths that have been laid down in Scriptures.

“Religion operates on the principle “I obey—therefore I am accepted by God.” But the operating principle of the gospel is “I am accepted by God through what Christ has done—therefore I obey.” 

“In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions. Those that fit with the reality of our nature and the world produce greater power and scope for our abilities and a deeper joy and fulfillment. Experimentation, risk, and making mistakes bring growth only if, over time, they show us our limits as well as our abilities. If we only grow intellectually, vocationally, and physically through judicious constraints–why would it not also be true for spiritual and moral growth? Instead of insisting on freedom to create spiritual reality, shouldn’t we be seeking to discover it and disciplining ourselves to live according to it?” 

“The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”

Resurrecting Family Devotions

Last night, we had our first family devotion for the year - and the first in a very long time.

I am so so thrilled that hubby agreed to bring back this practice.

Even more thrilled that both girls participated 100%, taking turns to read the devotional material and to offer up thoughtful questions and opinions.

The family that prays together stays together.

And if our girls remember this and institute the practice in their own families, my happiness will be complete.