At Home with God

  The rule of 6 Imagine life if we could only mix with 6 friends. Here in the UK, this doesn’t require much imagination with current Coronavirus restrictions, but it certainly gets you thinking. How intentional would you be about those 6 friendships? What would be your mix of non-Christian to Christian friends? Imagine telling the children of your church to pair up with two other children in the church, meeting and praying together. Each child could then reach out to three of their friends to share the gospel. Imagine the impact we could have in the schools at this time. When we lived in London we led a children’s ministry that had an extensive schools ministry. With over 200 full time evangelists that we had trained up and sent out into different schools across the city. It was amazing to see the fruit: These evangelists were bold to preach the Gospel and saw many children turn to Christ, yet not once were they uninvited from the school. Imagine that! At the moment it is challengi...

I watched the child at the end of the service. He was only around six or seven years old and he was acting suspiciously. He looked around him to see if anyone was watching then knelt down and dived into a lady’s handbag. He came up triumphant, sneaking a sweet into his pocket and scurrying off to a quiet corner of the church. The lady was not his mother, or a relative, or even a friend of the family. To this boy she was a complete stranger. When I approached the young boy, he was hid in a corner, busy chewing a sweet. He looked up at me, startled from his seclusion. “Where did you get the sweet from?” I asked him. I told him I had been watching him for the past ten minutes and had seen what he had done. He had no answer to give. In my mind, this event was serious. Sure, he had not stolen her purse, or her money, or anything of real value, but he had gone into a stranger’s bag to take something he wanted. ‘I will have to tell you parents about this,’ I said, gravely. ‘Please d...

One generation ago, the value system for children was, generally speaking, consistent in a child’s life. School, church and home all shared common Christian values (though not necessarily beliefs) and spoke openly about them. This is no longer the case for most of our children. The world they are growing up in is now vastly different. As Christian parents, raising our children, there may be times when the value system of the school not only fails to support, but actively opposes the values we are seeking to instil in our children. Many parents have approached us on how to handle this conflict, so here are our thoughts: 1. Earn influence Support the teachers.  If the first time you speak to your child’s teacher is when you have an issue, it is easier for them to dismiss your concerns because they do not know you. From the start of the school year, or from tomorrow, become the teacher’s greatest supporter. Most teachers are overworked, and underthanked! Even if a teacher is to...

Halloween conjures up all sorts of thoughts feelings and fears for people. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has sat at home, willing my doorbell not to ring on 31st October. Every year children of all age groups are dressed up in costumes which are scary even for adults, and then knock on the doors of total strangers and ask for sweets or a trick will be played on them. My concern as a mum was that my children would see these graphic masks and struggle to sleep with these images in their mind. I would usher my children away from the door and tell them not to look out of the window so they didn't see the costumes people were wearing. Then God stopped me in my tracks..... 'These people are coming to your door, wanting something from you, why don't you give them Me?' Of course, I realised, I was missing out on the best evangelism opportunity of the year. All these children and families who were innocently coming to my door not really understanding what they...

Christmas has been commercialized: decorations, lights and cards that have little to do with the real meaning of Christmas and can all serve as a distraction from Jesus. Deuteronomy 11:18-20 says that we are to constantly teach children and talk to them about Jesus throughout the whole year and it instructs us to write these things on door frames of your houses. Our homes should be the centre piece of faith development. Christmas time is a time when we should be more intentional so faith is not buried under the wrapping of Christmas. So here are seven thoughts, in no particular order, about how to do this.   1.  Be intentional about keeping Jesus centre. The main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing. Build into your Christmas routine things that intentionally keep Jesus at the centre. Plan both in the time of advent and on Christmas day itself to keep definite signposts to Jesus. You would not have a birthday party where the celebrant is ignored by all, inst...