by Kimberly | Feb 6, 2010 | Uncategorized
A full week again this week (when is it not). But, I have been a little more disciplined in my planning of menu this week in light of food and money. So, here you go:
Leftovers: beef stew – still gotta finish that off – still yummy. Bourbon chicken from Super Bowl dinner.
New recipe of the week: Bon Appetit’s Consentino’s Spaghetti with Tuna. I have all the ingredients. No need to spend money and the carbs will be good for running.
Baking: Peanut Butter truffles (actually, no bake) and Vday Sugar cookies for the Foster BYOB Party on Thursday night.
Thursday I think I’ll be enjoying a Founder’s Cafe Veggie wrap – so good – for lunch.
Saturday I am meeting up with some vegetarian/vegan folks for a meeting at the Zen Tea House – can’t wait to try it.
Then on Sunday I’m having dinner with a SBTS prospective student and her family. Don’t know where we’ll go yet.
by Kimberly | Feb 5, 2010 | Uncategorized
My life this past week has (for the most part) been very undisciplined.
Most people would not see that as an issue, but for me, if one area gets out of “disipline” than all of them seem to fall.
Think it started with being sick, so my eating, sleeping, and exercise got out of whack. Being sick and tired I didn’t go to church last weekend (I was supposed to head to Nashville). That didn’t give me the encouragement from being around the Body. My reading in B90x has been off so this weekend I am playing catch up. My house is very out of sorts with boxes everywhere. I have been sleeping on my very very comfy couch, which isn’t a problem, because actually I’ve been sleeping better. I’ve been reading, but not as every day as I need to be. My exercise has been off because of the weather, or staying late to work, or stress at work and just not having the energy when I get off.
This wknd won’t be normal: snow, housing office, power yoga session (can’t wait), hanging with a family, 2 morning services (one to be in a toddler’s class, one for church), lunch with a pastor and his family, Super Bowl, sleeping at a friend’s house after the big game.
So…now I have the task of getting my life back on track – my whole life. Wow – this is a big undertaking – and it has really only been a week! I am a firm believer that every area of life affects the other parts:
Even though I can never be an Elder in the church, I still want some of the qualifications to be seen in my life: (Titus 1)
If anyone is above reproach…as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
by Kimberly | Feb 5, 2010 | Uncategorized
Ok – so I’ve been eating way too much this week…
1. Changes at work bring stress
2. Hormones
3. Sweets at work
4. Just not motivated
I need to snap back in to it! I need to challenge myself for the next 2 months. I need some attainable goals.
Can you as readers help? Thank you. I set my February goals – but how do I actually attain them now?! The scales has to go the other way!
Need some motivation! HELP!
by Kimberly | Feb 5, 2010 | Uncategorized
Love the perks of knowing the baristas at your neighborhood Starbucks. They give you samples. My friend broke into the new items – Two Moms in the Raw granola packs – and gave me a sample.
Here are my thoughts:
1. I know its healthy for you. All natural and organic ingredients. All raw and sprouted. There are definitely health benefits.
2. It is way expensive.
3. It you are going to call something blueberry granola, then the product better taste a whole lot like blueberry. This didn’t. The only ingredients in the list after blueberries were agave, cinnamon, and sea salt.
4. Good crunch for the granola bar.
5. 220 cal 9 fat 4 fiber
6. Good for those who are allergic to wheat or gluten or dairy.
7. I wouldn’t trade any granola bar I’ve had so far for it. Kind Bars are great and Starbucks has started carrying those.
Two Moms in the Raw – any other products I can review? I am always up for samples. And from past experience, just one disappointing food adventure doesn’t always lead to others.
by Kimberly | Feb 5, 2010 | Uncategorized
I went to First Baptist Church, Plant City, FL for most of my high school years. Tommy Warnock had such an amazing impact on my life in areas of discipleship, leadership, and missions. His faithfulness in ministry and love for others was contagious. I’m so glad God put me there; much of the future of my life was rooted in that one decision to go to that church.
Time span: 1995 (graduation) to 2010 (now). I have grown in knowledge of the Word and the turns and styles of ministry. Being in many churches since high school graduation and attending seminary, and now working at a seminary has definitely had an impact on how I think about and am active in ministry.
This book highlights one of the latest “styles” in how to do children and youth ministry. 5-10 years ago no one would have had a conversation about family-integrated, family-based, or family-equipping ministry models. I read Mark Devries‘ book Family-Based Youth Ministry in college as I minored in youth ministry, and applied it to the youth ministry in which I was working. I quickly forgot what I read and couldn’t tell you one underlined statement from that book – but I remember its implications.
The youth ministry staff I was on was a thriving youth ministry, boasted the largest youth ministry in St. Augustine. I loved teaching the Word every week to 70+ middle schoolers, playing games, going on ski-trips, having 5 middle-school girls sledding down my stairs on a mattress – those were the times. I love those girls I had in their youth group years. I love the parents who participated in the youth group, went on the same trips, loved teenagers, taught Sunday School, cooked brownies. They were so cool. But I also remember the parents who whipped through the parking lot of the church (dodging the kids shooting baskets or skateboarding) to drop their kids off for youth group by 6.10pm. I pray I had an impact on the lives of those girls. My first discipleship opportunity with a young lady was amazing and life-changing for both of us as we enjoyed dinner with her family every week one summer and then studied a Max Lucado book together upstairs. I loved that time. She is thriving in life and ministry right now. But, I guarantee that has more to do with the fact that she has parents who model a life of following Christ every day than that one summer I had with her, Wed night youth group meetings, ski trips, and Sunday School classes.
Anyway…this discussion of style of ministry is fairly new. When I started working at Southern Seminary in Fall 2007, the first I ever heard of this was because Steve Wright wrote a book entitled RE:Think. Timothy Jones and Randy Stinson continued the conversation and were teaching principles based on the Word, and dubbed “Family-equipping model”. This is the culture I have been immersed in over the last 2.5 years. This has provided me much to think about and wrestle with. This is what I have come up with.
God created the family – Gen 2
God gave the mandate to the parents for discipling their children – Dt 6
God gave the ministry of equipping the saints to the pastors – Eph 4
The call of disciples of Christ is to evangelize the world – Matt 28.
This book, edited by Dr. Timothy Jones, with authors Paul Renfro, Brandon Shields, and Jay Strother, is a good introduction to these three models (mentioned at the beginning of this) and gives the reader much food for thought. This book would be extremely helpful to people training for ministry, or for church staffers looking at making a change to existing ministries.
Personally, I thought Renfro’s was the strongest argument, Jay Strother’s was the most practical, and Shield’s was the weakest. That doesn’t mean anything – that may just be the style of writing. I liked the humble dialogue between the authors as they brought out points that most readers may not have thought of while they worked through the styles of ministry.
Here are some quotes from the book:
“Church programs have usurped a responsibility that Scripture and church history place first and foremost at the feet of parents.” – Jones, 21
“Family ministry is not another church program that a pastor can add to the present array of programs.” – Jones, 41
Jones definitely accomplishes his task with this book: “My goal is not to convince readers that one of these models is better than the others. I do want to equip them with the knowledge needed to discern which model might work best in their congregation.” – 45
“Who is better able to discern the condition of their children’s hearts and to know if true repentance has occurred than those who live with them every day? The home is the best context for discipleship.” – Renfro, 63
“Could it be that family-integrated churches so heavily emphasize traditional family structures that they subtly give non-traditional families the impression they are second-class citizens?” – Strother, 86
“When attempting to reach another culture, there is a fine line between relevance and accommodation.” – Shields, 110
“So many American families are merely a shell of what God created them to be. In such families each family member has personal agendas and schedules; homes are merely pit stops for the washing of clothes, the provision of food, and a few hours of sleep.” – Renfro, 121
“In the typical church it will require significant changes not only in the message communicated to parents but also in the church’s internal paradigms to send a loud and clear message that parents have the primary responsibility for their children’s discipleship.” – Strother, 129
“We must go where they are, preach to them in their language, compel them to come to Jesus, and consistently create attractive environments where persons from any background can grow in their relationship with Jesus.” – Shields, 137
Why must we create attractive environments? That is my area of disagreement with the above statement.
“Family-equipping ministry must represent the congregation’s convictions about the entire nature of church and ministry.” – Strother, 161.
This is not merely a youth ministry question – this is an entire church life question.
My thoughts: I am not a parent. I have been in youth ministry/college ministry/kids ministry now for 15 years. This has given me much view of typical American families. I see failures and successes. Not every teenager that comes out of a intact, Bible-believe home is a radical Christ follower. Not every teen that comes out of a divorced, broken home is a loser who wants nothing to do with Christ. This isn’t a 100% no-fail solution. God is still in charge of radically changing the lives of sinners like me. He called parents though, Christian parents, to disciple their children in the ways of God. The church is called to equip and evangelize. Evangelize the lost, and disciple them to do what they are called to do. One of the things they are called to do, if parents, is to disciple their own children.
Much more is to be discussed on this topic: broken families, single parents, single adults, etc. But…this isn’t my dissertation on the topic of family ministry. This is my response from reading Jones’ book on it.
I am thankful for all 4 authors as three of them have had a personal impact on my life and ministry and all 4, through this book, have made me think.
