Youth Ministry in an Age of Delayed Adulthood

Youth Ministry in an Age of Delayed Adulthood

This is an interesting and relevant article. Please read it. Chap Clark is coming to Calgary October 17-18 and speaking at the Re.verse Conference.
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Family Mission Statement

Why a Family Mission Statement? My husband and I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey and What Is a Family? by Edith Shaeffer and we were convinced that a Mission Statement would help to unify our family and our goals for our family. Just as a plane without a fight plan is going nowhere, a family without a clearly defined direction and vision will tend to be led by the crush of life's circumstances. A Mission Statement gives our family a purpose and reason for why we exist as a family. Society is tearing the family apart, but a vision and common purpose will help to draw our family together.

We have read and listened to many resources from Vision Forum. This has given us a vision beyond our immediate family to a multi-generational vision including our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We long to impart a legacy of multi-generational faithfulness.

We see our children as arrows that we will "shoot out" into ministries that only they, with their God-given gifts, can accomplish. In turn, they will impact their families and others for God.

A Family Mission Statement must be created with the participation of all family members, otherwise it just becomes something imposed on the children by the parents. The children must feel ownership in it.

Be sure to ask God to reveal your unique family mission. We began by asking pointed questions during our family nights. Use your own questions, but here are a sampling of the questions we used:
What are some of the best things our family has done?
What do you wish we could change?
What would be the ideal family situation?
What do you think God would like us/you to accomplish?

Be prepared to learn new things from your children and don't judge their answers or they will not feel free to express their true thoughts! You may find, as we did, that though most may agree on one aspect of ministry, another does not. You must explore how that person could contribute in other ways, or if that is really a viable option for your family because it could eliminate unity of purpose.

We also did an exercise of describing what we thought our family might look like in 5 years...10 years...15 years. This was eye-opening for our kids. I think we all tend to get caught up in the here and now, and to look ahead to the future, at what ages they would be and the potential things they could be doing, was interesting to say the least! We read examples of other mission statements (a quick google search will turn up several) to get an idea of what a mission statement looked like.

Taking our white board, we wrote down everyone's ideas of what could be included in our mission statement. It was then a process of combining like ideas and eliminating ideas that we could all NOT agree on. Please note that this was a process that took many sessions- it was actually several months before we had our finished mission statement! Don't rush this; it is a process, not an event! Also, don't feel that your mission statement has to be long; in fact , the more concise, the easier to remember and implement.

Once we had arranged our thoughts into a pleasing format, we wrote it out on the computer. Each person received his/her own copy to paste into a special journal. We made a larger copy to frame for our wall and all signed it. The important thing is to remember it! If it is forgotten, it will not have the power to affect change and all your work was for not.

Use your mission statement! Recite it often. What is the mission statement of the Starship Enterprise? For any trekkie fans, they can immediately recite, "These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before." Fans know this mission statement because it was repeated every show. A church planting pastor said, "You must mention your purpose and vision at least every three months." Within the family, we should better this. Encourage the family to memorize your mission statement. Use it to make decisions. For example, if family members are becoming too busy, use your statement to see if those activities are contributing to your family mission. If not, learn to say 'no.'

We have used our mission statement as a way of helping us to set individual goals. In our special journals, we each set individual goals for ourselves. These may be in the areas of health, finances, giving, school/business, spiritual, talent (ie: music) or others. Yearly we review these goals and set new goals instead of resolutions. Several times throughout the year we review our goals on family nights,one person per week, and then pray as a family for that person and their specific goals. This is very unifying!

Where Your Treasure is...

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Pure Gold Topsites

Matt 6:19 [Jesus said] Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Matt 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Matt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
This weekend Greg, Shalayne, Dallas and I traveled to Edmonton with my Mom to help her move her things out of storage. We are very thankful that she is home from Poland to stay, but this also means that she needed to distribute or get rid of much of her things in storage as she is now making her home with my second sister and her family and does not have the room or need of these things. I admire how she has been able to part with her 'stuff', from the time she and dad decided to sell everything and become missionaries. However, so many of her things hold such precious memories and I still want to cling to them! I constantly battle with the clutter in my home, and now I have added to it! I am trying desperately to recycle/donate/garbage something for every item I have added... a battle for sure! I am most grateful, too, for the 'new' bed we now have because of her, and other lovely items.

I also battle with the verse above, for I know that I am holding onto things that have no place in heaven. The kids and I are reading about George Muller, and I need to take lessons from his faith in God to provide for our needs without my manipulation. What a struggle!

Summer Memories

Caspell Campout~ August '08~ at Innisfail and the Bowden Corn Maze

Three generations

Cousins


Lammiman Campout~ July '08~ at Belfore, B.C.

July '08 at Wasa Lake, B.C.

The Fruit of My Labors

Ahh, satisfaction in a fruitful task completed.

Passion Play '08

Here is our REAL family (minus Dustin, of course, because he is on Youth Alive this summer. We miss him).

My favorite picture.

Passion Play '08

I do believe that since we have been involved in the Canadian Badlands Passion Play (this is our 5th year) this was the best year ever! Old friends are dearer, new friends have been made, rehearsals were smoother, and the performances ran so well with record attendance.

On Saturday night, the volunteers and cast held a Talent Night- what fun! Because Greg and I were Mr. and Mrs. Jairus this year, we made up a song about our 'family' and sang it with our two girls and servant for our talent.

The Jairus Family

(sung to the tune of Addam's Family)

Our family's rich and strong
We all get along
This is our song
The Jairus family.


Jairus is the leader
The synagogue greeter
He is friends with Peter
The Jairus family.


He won't take Matthew's money
It's really kind of funny
Rebecca's nose is runny
The Jairus family.


Hannah is the mother
The children all love her
She is like no other
The Jairus family.


Rebecca is our daughter
She loves her fadder
He would never swat her
The Jairus family.


Ruth's parents are dead
She lives with us instead
We keep her well fed
The Jairus family.


Our servant we abuse
We make her take off shoes
She brings us bad news
The Jairus family.


Our girls don't wear pants
they like to dance
Jesus they entrance
The Jairus family.

With Jesus they conversed
The girls rehearsed
Ruth came out first
The Jairus family.

Rebecca's shoes are stinky
She can bend her pinky
She's always feeling sinky
The Jairus family.

One day when she was lying
Rebecca started dying
Jairus started crying
The Jairus family.


Jesus shooed the morners
Into different corners
There were many scorners
The Jairus family.


He picked her off her bed
Rebecca flipped her head
She's no longer dead
The Jai--rus Fam--i--ly.