Monthly Archives: October 2015

Choosing Solid Content over Bells & Whistles

October 27, 2015

In her interview for CREDO magazine, Sally Michael was asked:

In all your years of ministry, what is the #1 mistake one might make when structuring and developing a children’s Sunday school curriculum in a church for the first time?

Here is her answer:

I think the number one danger is making a curriculum choice based on the “bells and whistles” that make children’s Sunday school fun at the expense of good content. To evaluate material based on interesting graphics, video content, or the number of activities, rather than on evaluating the biblical content of the material and how it is presented is to err on the side of entertainment, rather than focus on real learning. Real learning involves engaging the mind, not providing active or entertaining components. The goal of the material should be to present solid truth and promote spiritual growth.

Vision Parenting

Smartphones and Our Children

October 26, 2015

On a recent podcast, Dr. Russell Moore answers the question: Should I Get My 12 Year Old a Smartphone? Every parent should carefully listen to and consider his 8-minute answer here. (As a side note: Our daughter is now in her 30s and has never owned a smartphone. Our son didn’t get one until his mid-20s. We are happy to report that they have both survived.)

(Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)

Teaching Vision Theology

Looking Backward to Minister Forward

October 21, 2015

Are you looking for some dynamic new teaching device or technique to transform your Sunday school classroom? Is there a new model of youth ministry everyone is raving about? Is your church thinking about revamping family ministry to appeal to a more media-driven culture?…It does the church good to be thoughtful and forward thinking in our approach to ministry. But sometimes we forget that the most important wisdom regarding these questions and decisions comes by looking backward, and not by what’s trending around us. How so? In preparation for an upcoming seminar titled “Catechism: Out of Date, or a Tried and True Teaching Tool of Eternal Truths?,” Sally Michael has been reading Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way by J. I. Packer and Gary A. Parrett. Here is a quote that impressed her:

Teaching Vision Parenting

Children’s Books Based on CDG Curricula

October 20, 2015

Many of you are already familiar with our curriculum and are using it in your churches. And a growing number of you are familiar with the books from the Making Him Known series published by P&R. But did you know that each title is based on a specific Children Desiring God curriculum? Therefore, each book makes a wonderful home devotional companion to its corresponding curriculum. God's Names was adapted from the How Majestic Is Your Name curriculum.

Teaching Vision Parenting Theology

Don’t Settle for Earthly Success

October 19, 2015

Here is a great reminder from Timothy Paul Jones:

Every child is an eternal soul whose days will long outlast the rise and fall of all the kingdoms of the earth. They, their children, and their children’s children will flit ever so briefly across the face of this earth before being swept away into eternity (James 4:14). If these children become our brothers and sisters in Christ, their days upon this earth are preparatory for glory that will never end (Daniel 12:3; 2 Corinthians 4:17–5:4; 2 Peter 1:10-11). That’s why our primary purpose for the children that we educate in our churches and homes must not be anything as small and miserable as earthly success. Our purpose should be to leverage children’s lives to advance God’s kingdom so every tribe, every nation, and every people-group gains the opportunity to respond in faith to the rightful King of kings.

(“

Teaching Vision Parenting Theology

Will Our Children Know the Trinity?

October 13, 2015

One of my concerns with the current emphasis on “seeing Jesus in all of Scripture” and of focusing Bible teaching almost exclusively on what it says about Jesus is this: Are we inadvertently minimizing the essential doctrine of the Trinity? Please don’t misunderstand: I am NOT saying that we should minimize Jesus! Rather, I am wondering if, in doing so, we have sometimes failed to show our children and students the importance of recognizing and understanding the triune nature of God and why it is essential to the Christian faith. As Dr. Bruce Ware has stated,

This doctrine is, at one time, a very significant distinguishing doctrine of the Christian faith. In another sense, it is a doctrine that is crucial for us in understanding much other doctrine of the Christian faith. Let me give you just one example…Think, for example, of salvation as we think of that as Christian people. Do you realize that it must be a Trinitarian God who

Vision Parenting

The Vital Role of Prayer in Discipling Our Children

October 12, 2015

ID-10095434 If I would have changed just one thing in my parenting, it would be this: I would have prayed more specifically focused prayers for myself, my husband, and our children. What do I mean by this? Here is a wonderful article by Gregory Harris that I highly recommend for every parent. Here is how he begins,

As with most items related to discipleship—and parenting is definitely a God-ordained and commanded aspect of discipleship (Eph. 6:1–4)—prayer plays a vital role.

When our children were younger, they would frequently accompany me many places I went, including the seminary where I taught. I was asked dozens of times, “How do you get kids at

Teaching Vision Parenting Theology

Leading Them to God-Esteem

October 06, 2015

I once saw two different posters depicting runners. One pictured a man confidently running down a sandy beach with the caption,

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.

Now compare this to the second poster I saw. It depicts a runner sitting on a bench in obvious despair, with his head in his hands. The caption reads:

Failure–When your best just isn’t good enough.

On the face of it, these two posters seem at opposite ends of the contemporary focus on self-esteem: high self-esteem vs. low self-esteem. But as strange as it may seem, they are really just two sides of the same coin, because they both have a common focus: SELF. Just as high self-esteem is dressed-up pride, low self-esteem is dressed-up despair. What’s the point of bringing this up? Because this same kind of self-esteem emphasis may subtlety creep into our children’s ministry.

Teaching Vision Encouragement

Future Pastors and Elders in the Nursery?

October 05, 2015

Read on, he is not talking about the little baby boys in our nurseries:

As I’ve observed, many seminary students and other brothers aspiring to pastoral ministry are always on the lookout for opportunities to serve in the church. Regrettably, I think sometimes we have our sights set on only one type of service—public teaching. Of course, nothing is necessarily wrong with desiring to exercise your gifts, putting them under the evaluation of the church, and cultivating pastoral skills for future ministry. The problem is that many aspiring pastors fall into the trap of thinking this only happens by engaging in the adult teaching ministry of the church.

Serving in the nursery may not feel like a time to cultivate your pastoral gifts, but that may mean you have a too narrow or professionalized view of pastoral ministry. We cannot reduce pastoral ministry to proclamation and teaching, though that task