[caption id="attachment_340" align="aligncenter" width="199"] Teach children how they should live, and they will remember it all their lives. (Proverbs 22:6)[/caption]
Discipling our kids well at church necessitates that we use an interactive and theologically-solid children’s church teaching curriculum. But where do we find one of those? Here's a suggetion. This past summer, GCI Generations Ministries (GenMin) provided a children’s companion to its standard camp curriculum for teens. This companion curriculum, titled Celebrate the Grip, is free to GCI congregations to use with their children. It’s quite good!
The first teaching segment in the curriculum is posted below and the full curriculm is posted on GenMin's website... Read the article
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Happy New Year! Through the five articles linked below, this month's Equipper addresses some of the commitments that are key to our journey of renewal.
[caption id="attachment_2841" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Cast Your Nets on the Right Side by Greg Olsen (used with artist's permission)[/caption]
From Greg: Mutual commitments in 2017
Greg Williams discusses some of the commitments that the Holy Spirit is leading us to make as we continue together on a journey of renewal.
Commitment to prayer
Michelle Fleming discusses the importance of being committed to prayer and offers a "best practice" called one-word prayer.
On Leadership: Commitment to high support - high challenge
Rick Shallenberger discusses the importance of... Read the article
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Rather than providing just one sermon this month, we're providing five! Going forward, we plan to provide four or five in each issue to help our pastors and other preachers implement a "best practice" we've long advocated---preaching the RCL (the Revised Common Lectionary). As noted in an earlier article in Equipper from pastor Sam Butler, the RCL lists for each Sunday a set of related Scripture readings (lections). The sermon and other elements of worship then focus on one or more of these lections, as explained in an article on the Vanderbilt Divinity Library website:
The Revised Common Lectionary is a three-year cycle of weekly lections... built around the seasons of the Church Year, and includes four lections for each Sunday, as... Read the article
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This article is from Michelle Fleming, who recently moved to Southern California from Florida to work as CAD's communications and training coordinator.
[caption id="attachment_2938" align="alignright" width="150"] Michelle Fleming[/caption]
There is something about starting a new year that fills me with energy, excitement and hope. The flipping of the calendar from December 31 to January 1 is a built-in rhythm of renewal in my life.
It wasn’t always that way, but about five years ago I heard about a viral trend called #OneWord365. The premise is to get rid of resolutions and choose instead a single word “that sums up who you want to be and how you want to live.” I embraced this idea and prayerfully considered a single word to... Read the article
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Dear Pastors and Ministry Leaders,
Happy New Year! I pray that the year ahead will be for you one of joy and fruitfulness in Christ.
[caption id="attachment_21" align="aligncenter" width="200"] Greg and Susan Williams[/caption]
As I noted in last month's Equipper, "Renewal" will continue to be our guiding theme in 2017. For us to travel that Spirit-led journey together, it's vital that we make some mutual commitments. There are several I could mention (and we'll explore more of them as the year unfolds), but in this issue of Equipper, we focus on our commitments to prayer, to providing one another with high support and high challenge, and to discipling our children. In this issue, we also introduce a new feature, which provides... Read the article
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