The Family Table
Feeding the Faith of LEFC Families
TFT: Cream of the Crop
January 12, 2025
Dear LEFC Parents,
We hope you had a good Christmas and are preparing for a Christ-centered new year. Here are some nourishing items to set the table for disciple-making in your family this week.
Register for Summer Camp!
Has your child ever considered attending a summer camp at Miracle Mountain Ranch? Now is a great time to think about registering for one of their various camps, as those who sign up by February 1st will receive a discount. Camps are available starting at age 6. Visit their website to learn more about camp offerings, dates, and costs. See Marilynn Kristofits with questions or for more information!
Easter Egg Hunt 2025
Mark your calendars now for the LEFC Easter Egg Hunt on April 19th, the day before Easter. Be thinking about how you might want to volunteer to help out in various ways. We will also be looking for donations of candy and prizes when the time comes.
Family Discipleship Conference
Pathway Church writes, “Join us for our 3rd Annual Family Discipleship Conference sponsored by Geneva College. For this year’s event we’ve invited back Cornerstone Wellness, who joined us at our first ever conference! This will be a day full of practical learning, fellowship with other parents, and encouragement for you and your family as we seek to support one another in parenting and discipling our kids to know and love Jesus. The event will take place February 1st from 9am-1pm. The cost is $20/individual and $30/couple. Our youth ministry will be offering a one-day VBS childcare option as a fundraiser for their upcoming Summer Mission trips (requested donation is $10/kid, please pay in-person at registration on February 1. We will accept credit card, check or cash). Registration is now open at familyatpathway.com.”
We would love to see parents from LEFC attend this valuable event. Maybe join up with another family to carpool together, or make it a day out for mom and dad! More information can be found at the link above.
Save the Date for Family Bible Week!
Family Bible week will be held July 7-13, 2025! Save the date and plan to join us for a week of spiritual growth and fellowship. We are also in need of volunteers to join the FBW committee and lead in various areas, from teaching to crafts to decorating. We will soon be recruiting people, so consider whether you might be led to fill one of these needs. See Jordyn Skacel if you would like to volunteer!
“The Golden Calf” 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 “The Golden Calf” (Volume 1: Unit 5: Session 2), and the devotional can be found at this link.
Visit the Family Ministries page on our website for information about how to access The Gospel Project at Home for the first time.
And for dessert…
This week’s recommendation for family discipleship is a short list of some of the top resources we’ve recommended over the last twelve months.
At this time of year, I (Pastor Matt) always try to choose and share my “Top Books” list for the previous year, and this year’s list had 3 books that we have featured as desserts on the Family Table.
These books were all “must reads” published in 2024:
1. More to the Story by Jennifer Kvamme [May 5th Dessert]
This book was the happiest surprise of 2024. As I said in my incandescent review, “I have been searching for a book like More to the Story for a very long time. As a Christian pastor, I want the young people I care for to have really good answers to the difficult questions they are all asking about sexuality these days. And to be really good answers for today’s teens, they have to be realistic, biblical, confident, joyful, hopeful, comprehensive, concise, and readable. That’s a tall order! How pleasant it was for me to discover that one of my EFCA friends had written such a book…Give a copy of More to the Story to every sixteen-year-old you know.”
Several of our teens got to actually meet the author at Challenge ’24!
2. Parenting Without Panic in an LGBT-Affirming World by Rachel Gilson [October 27 Dessert]
About this one, I said, “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!”
3. The Mythmakers by John Hendrix [December 15 Dessert]
Most people (not just Christians) have heard of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien because of the tremendous reach of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. But many people do not know that these two Oxford-scholars-turned-
In The Mythmakers, New York Times bestselling, award-winning creator John Hendrix has beautifully crafted a unique way of spreading the story of their collaborative friendship. I knew the outline of the story and had even gotten to visit some of the key locations where it all happened during our sabbatical in 2023, but I still learned a lot, especially how all the different parts were connected, and I thoroughly enjoyed how Hendrix wove his tale with both words and images. There is nothing quite like it.
We would love to get a copy of any and all of these cream-of-the-crop books in your hands.
We hope your family eats them right up!
Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor
P.S. If I had to pick just one audio resources that I have recommended in 2024, it would probably be the episode of “Recorded” about youth sports, healthy families, and the future of the church. Have you listened to that one yet?
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EXPLAINER: THE GOSPEL PROJECT AT HOME
For the last several years, our Children’s Church ministry has utilized The Gospel Project as our Bible study curriculum. The Gospel Project is really excellent–it takes our Little Learners and Bible Explorers chronologically through the whole Bible over the course of three years while always focusing on Jesus as the center of the big story. If your student was in Little Learners or Bible Explorers this morning, they received a coloring page and take-home sheet that corresponds to this lesson. You have also been given a full-color Big Picture Card that you can use to reinforce the lesson with your child, as well.
To reinforce what your kids are learning each week in Children’s Church, you can now access The Gospel Project At Home online. Each week in this email, there will be a link to follow to get this free resource which includes:
1. A guide to using the Gospel Project at Home.
2. Scripture to read and discuss with a recap video of the Bible Story (Preschool and/or Elementary).
3. Scripture memory verses and a song to sing together.
4. Prayer prompts and family activities that correspond to the lesson.
Please consider setting aside at least 10-15 minutes once a week for a family devotional time using this resource as a guide. We are hoping The Gospel Project At Home will help keep all of our LEFC kids “on the same page,” and feed their faith in Jesus.
This might be especially helpful if for some reason your child has to miss a week of Children’s Church. You can show them the Bible story video to keep them up to speed on what the other children are learning.
**Note: The first time you access the link, you will need to register a free account with Lifeway’s Ministry Grid. This will also provide you ongoing access through the “training” tab to many other discipleship resources including the Gospel Project at Home for previous weeks. Many hours of excellent things to absorb for free!