The Family Table

Dear LEFC Parents,

Here are some nourishing items to set the table for disciple-making in your family this week:

Fall Retreat Recap

Check out the Fall Retreat recap video created by Joe Quick to get a glimpse into the fun we had last weekend!

104 Sundays of The Family Table

This is the 104th edition of The Family Table! Our weekly email for feeding the faith of LEFC families launched on October 30, 2022. Thank you for reading along.

Praise for the West Branch Trunk or Treat

Praise God that we were able to hand out glow sticks and informational flyers to the families in our community at the West Branch Trunk or Treat! Pray that this outreach opportunity will yield fruit and prompt families to consider stopping by LEFC!

Join us for youth group!

The new youth group will continue meeting tonight at 7:00 at the church and will be studying Ephesians. All students in grades 7 and up are invited for games, snacks, and fun while learning to study the Bible together. Teens are encouraged to bring their own Bible (let us know if your student doesn’t have their own). Bring your friends along, too! See Cody and Holly Crumrine for more information.

Children’s Ministry on Sunday Mornings

If your child is an infant through 7th grade, we have nursery, Kids Bible Classes, and Snack and Yack available for your family on Sunday mornings. Check out more information about these ministries here!

“A Wife for Isaac” Kids Bible Class Devotional
You have free access to a family devotional based on the curriculum our kids are studying each week in KBC! It’s called “The Gospel Project at Home.” Today’s Bible Study is “A Wife for Isaac” (Volume 1: Unit 2: Session 4), and the devotional can be found at this link.

Scroll down to the bottom of this email for more information about how to access The Gospel Project at Home.

Contacting our Director of Family Ministry

You can contact Jordyn Skacel, our brand-new Director of Family Ministry, at families@lansefree.org or 814-592-9280. She would love to hear how she can serve your family well!

And for dessert…

Our recommendation for family discipleship this week is a timely book to help parents to equip their young children to love God’s good design for sexuality and to love the people they meet who think differently.

In Parenting Without Panic in an LGBT-Affirming World, Rachel Gilson begins with her own rush of fears in parenting her kindergartner when she learned her daughter might be assigned a kindergartner teacher who was “a woman married to another woman.” And even though Gilson has put much thought into the topic and written and taught about how to navigate LGBT questions for many years, she still felt scared and unprepared.

She writes, “I don’t know how you’d feel if you had been in my shoes. Maybe you would feel conflicted because you yourself still have questions about what the Bible says about sexuality. Or perhaps you feel secure in what the Bible teaches, but the postures of people who argue both for and against a traditional Christian perspective seem off-putting and uncomfortable to you—not much like the Jesus you encounter in Scripture—and you don’t want to become one of them. No matter where you are personally, I know each of us have big questions and big emotions as we come to this topic and our kids.

I’m writing this little book for parents because I myself needed and need it. What’s more, I know from my conversations at churches and conferences that I’m not the only one feeling these fears. We simply don’t feel prepared to help our children navigate these questions because most of us aren’t sure how to navigate them ourselves. If no one has equipped us first, how can we avoid being anything but the blind leading the blind, with both ourselves and our children ending up in a pit?” (pg. 12).

Pastor Matt says, “Every Christian parent with young children should read this book right away. Parenting Without Panic in an LGBT-Affirming World should be required reading for raising a little kid in today’s culture. Given her own story, Rachel Gilson is a perfect person to write it. Her earlier memoir Born Again This Way was one of my top books of 2020, and I’m very glad that she’s now giving out this practical, well-written, insightful, realistic, and biblically balanced advice. I wish it was written earlier! I especially appreciate how Gilson counters all the big fears we all feel. These fears are not baseless, but they should not define or drive us. Read this, soak in the principles, prepare your kids, and fear not!”

This short book (only 113 easy-to-read pages) is aimed at parents of preschool through elementary-school children.

– Read reviews of Parenting without Panic in a LGBT-Affirming World by church leaders at the EFCA Blog: “Starting the Conversation”
– Listen to an interview with the author at the The Family Discipleship Podcast.
– Hear Rachel Gilson talk about the book with her best friend Rebecca McLaughlin at the Confronting Christianity Podcast.
– Find the Table of Contents, Introduction, and First Chapter online.

Parenting without Panic in an LGBT-Affirming World is available in the church library.

We hope your family eats it right up.

Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor