Principles on How to Teach our Children from Deuteronomy 6.4-9

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to teach on Multigenerational Faithfulness.  During this time we looked at the role of the family, and in particular the fathers, in teaching and passing on the faith to their children.  We discovered through Deuteronomy 6 and just a few other passages, that the family is to bear the primary role and responsibility of passing on the faith to their children.  Therefore, the church, the government (i.e. public schools), and/or private schools, are to serve as secondary means and not primary.  This means that these different organizations are to serve as support mechanisms for the family.  For example, if the church provides a Sunday School for children and youth, the parents are to ensure that their children and youth are doing the required work, not the church staff.  Moreover, if students are dropping out of school at break neck speeds, which they are dropping below 59% in 17 of the largest 50 cities (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344190,00.html), it is their parents and/or legal guardians responsibility to ensure that their child is doing their assigned work, attending classes, and fulfilling other obligations and not the governments.  That’s another story for another day.

Moving on, this past Sunday I told the congregation that I would provide the remainder of my notes for the message via my blog.  The following two items will address what it means to “teach” and what we are supposed to teach our children.

post fall retreat

What a great weekend at the Bluestone Camp and Retreat Center in Hinton, WV!  It was such an enjoyable and life changing experience for some!  The area was gorgeous.  Fall was in full swing and the view of the hillside nestled up against Bluestone Lake was amazingly breathtaking.   

The vast majority of us arrived late on Friday evening, while some others even arrived later.  By the time that we arrived at the camp, Priscilla Maxwell had already prepared a fire, coffee, and hot water for cocoa.  Kudos Priscilla!  After we had time to settle down for a few moments and warm up the cabins, everyone unloaded their belongings to then rendezvous back at the lodge for some hangout time. 

attention

For those of you in The Journey, or for parents or other adults within Perrow Church, who are interested in writing or sharing about anything, just let me know and I would love to include whatever you have.  You can call me or send me an e-mail at jessewisnewski@perrow.org.  

Happy writing!

last night

Last night was an enjoyable evening at The Journey.  After making just a few announcements we played a hoax car commercial video.  To set-up the commercial, we told a little story that it was made in Great Britain and was never aired on television because of an eerie image of a ghost.  With that being said, I told everybody to watch the front of the car very closely as it went through the countryside. 

After a few short seconds, this ghoul looking figure pops up on the screen and screams very loudly.  It was an absolute riot to basically watch the whole crowd jump up and out of their seats with a loud yell.  Actually, it took me a few moments to collect myself because I was laughing so hard. 

Afterwards, we played a silly game that I only had a few minutes to prepare for.  So, I learned it is probably better not to do anything rather than throw something haphazardly together.  Nevertheless, some people were introduced to others that they normally would not talk with, so I consider that a success! 

As I said yesterday, we were going to incorporate a skit into the lesson.  So, before I actually taught the lesson from Romans 3.23-24 about An Eternally Serious Mess Gets Cleaned Up, I had two groups of 4 people come to front.  Both of the skits were the same, in that they were based upon a court room setting.  So, we had someone who played the part of the Judge (God), the Defendant (All of Us), the Plaintiff (Satan), and the Guard, playing the part of the Guard. 

Kudos to those that participated and were willing to participate. 

I enjoyed incorporating the skit because it encouraged the participation of the audience, as well as provided me with the ability to teach and explain Romans 3.23-24.  I believe we will look to include more skits, as well as drama.  

wednesday evening gathering

I’m excited for the Journey’s gathering tonight.  Tonight will be the last of two lessons taught from Romans 3.21-26 on the “Heart of the Gospel,” and the title for tonight will be, “An Eternally Serious Mess Gets Cleaned Up.”  

My wife came up with a great idea for the evening message.  After I finished studying and writing out what I was going to teach on, my wife encouraged me to take what I had and make it a skit to be acted out.  So, that is what we are going to do tonight with her help, and a lot of it! 

What will be most interesting to see is picking random people from the crowd, without any prior knowledge of what we are talking about, and see how well they act out the skit. 

 Tomorrow I will let you know how it goes.  

encountering Jesus (part 3)

Today many people say that they have “encountered” Jesus in their life.  Unfortunately many people haphazardly say that they are Christians.  Typically people look back on a time when they prayed with a man on television, to raising a hand or walking forward to the front of the worship center during a church worship service, or some sort of goose bumps that went up their spine while they were praying.  People say that such experiences prove that they have encountered Jesus.  

announcements

D-Groups are canceled for this upcoming Sunday, the 18^th of November. 

The Journey will not meet next week on the 21^st of November, or the 19^th and 26^th of December. 

The Journey Reunion will meet again on the 25^th of November from 5 to 8 PM at Perrow Church.  Bring a friend and your favorite game. 

Fall Retreat is this weekend.  For those of you that are attending, we ask that you be at Perrow Church ready to leave by 4:30 P.M. 

Photo Contest ends Wednesday, the 14^th of November.        

encountering Jesus (part 2)

Who is Jesus Christ

In general, I believe there are three basic things that we must know and believe about Jesus:

1. Believe in who He was, is, and claimed to be.

2. Believe in what He did.

3. Believe in what He taught.

So, who was and is Jesus and who did He claim to be?

encountering Jesus (Part 1)

Today there is such a fascination with Jesus.  People from all walks of life have probably owned or worn some sort of cross that symbolizes the crucifixion of Jesus.  Two of the most grossing box office movies over the past few years have been the Passion of Christ and the DaVinci Code.  There are surpluses of songs and books that have been written and sung about Jesus. 

But who is Jesus Christ?  Why all the fuss?  Why is He so important?  Why should I “encounter,” that is, meet Him?