Post Time
Becoming Extraordinary, Church Calendar, Sinking In, and Dad Trips
Hey gang.
I hope this newsletter you finds you well. It’s been a busy week here in Louisville. It’s Derby week, which likely doesn’t mean much if you’re outside our fair city, but folks here have been celebrating for two weeks with fireworks, marathons, parties, charity events, and all the rest. All that craziness to gear up for a two-minute horse race. What a world we live in.
Outside of the normal buzz of Derby madness, things were a little nutty in our personal world as well. We got our roof replaced after a six-month battle between our insurance company and some roofers (it didn’t go well for us). I got guilt-tripped into chaperoning a field trip with our youngest, and then immediately yelled at by the older two since I never did that for them (real youngest kid energy they say). And real cherry on the cake was our new-ish oven going kaput in the middle of a frozen pizza (sad day for the boys!).
All that to say, while there have been plenty of bright spots (book club with the boys chatting about I Cheerfully Refuse was a good one!), it’s definitely been a week. Soooooo, I’m leaving you on your own for a devo this week. Enjoy the weekend! Find some time to gather with friends, get your hands dirty planting something green, or make an excuse to sip something on a patio (perhaps a mint julep in honor of Louisville’s big day). God’s often easy to find in the mundane moments of life if you can find the space to stop and look.
Becoming Extraordinary (Parenting)
“Your child truly can do all things through God who gives them strength. God has amazing plans for your son or daughter. So encourage them to seek him in faith, love, and obedience. Remind them that their feelings of frailty or insignificance are okay because that’s the ground level where God starts building.”
Our pal, Joshua Cooley, is back on the blog this week with a piece for parents exploring the power of God in empowering our kids to do great things. He takes a stroll through several quick Bible stories where God’s power is on display in spite of the weakness or limitation of the person God had called to step in. David was a shepherd, how’d he become king? Daniel was a slave living in exile, but God chose him to serve as a prophet. These heroes of the faith trusted that God would supply the strength, wisdom, and gifting that they would need to fulfill the task he set before them.
In this piece Joshua is teasing a new devotional book that drops next week. Heroes of the Bible 2 is the follow-up to a similar devotional he published a few years back. It highlights the stories of a pile of characters from the Bible, and provides 90 devotionals that work through the successes and failures of their lives, how God used them for his glory, and what those stories mean for kids (and us!) today. The art style has a comic book look that kids will enjoy. So if you like Joshua’s insights here, you’ll definitely want to check out this book for a deeper dive.
Church Calendar (Discipleship)
“Yet the Christian calendar is more than a tool for catechesis. It’s also built on the conviction that ‘the heavens declare the glory of God’ (Ps. 19:1)—that the sun’s daily course, the moon’s monthly circuit, and the changing seasons are all imbued with the gospel story. Summarizing Martin Luther’s thoughts, editor Elizabeth Rundle Charles wrote, ‘Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.’”
Our guy, Jared Kennedy, has a piece over at Mere Orthodoxy this week about the value of keeping the church calendar. I don’t usually spend a ton of time thinking about the liturgical calendar, but it was already top of mind hearing our pastor talk about the season of Easter several weeks after I ate the last candy egg. Jared pulls in a lot of great wisdom and insight from writers and church leaders on how the church has historically thought about the value of the church calendar in the life of normal folks in the pew.
What I found most helpful was the calendar’s role in teaching people about the movements of the gospel. For example, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and the new life offered to us in a season where you can look out your window and see shoots of green popping out of the ground. While the Bible gives us all we need for life and faith, the world we find ourselves in has plenty of gracious reminders of God’s goodness, truth, and beauty. Keeping an eye on the church calendar helps us to see those connections when the days are bright and beautiful and when the night seems to go on forever.
Sinking In (Kids Ministry)
“Like a lot of churches, we have our fair share of statements that end up on the wall. . .But what happens when what is On the Wall doesn’t translate to what is In our Walk? In other words, how do we correct actual behavior when it doesn’t compare to aspirational statements?”
This is a super short, super helpful post from Danny Franks, and I think it’s one that’s useful for just about any ministry leader. It’s one thing to build a vision statement or set of distinctives for your ministry, but it’s something different to see them sink into the attitudes and service of your volunteers. Danny walks through how to go from “on the wall” (signage, talking points, email signatures, etc.) to “in our walk” (how we’re seeing ministry play out day-to-day).
He gives leaders four pieces to consider as we try to shepherd our people to live out these principles that we long to shape our ministries. As with most of his writing, it’s straightforward in how to implement these changes in thinking and behavior, and is honest about some of the difficulty that’s awaiting you as you steer the sheep in a new direction. While this handful of paragraphs won’t take long to read, there’s a whole mess of growth and progress that can come from putting them to work with your team.
Dad Trips
Spring time showing up means it’s time for dads to do two things—start grilling, and taking some dad “field trips” with the kids. I wouldn’t recommend this particular strategy, but sometimes you’re feeling yourself as a parent and need a little Steph Curry heat check to see if you’re actually on fire.