The Family Table

Save the Date: Dads & Kids Mario Kart Tournament

Dads and Kids, coming up in just a few weeks, join us on the evening of Friday January 16th at 6:00 for a Mario Kart Tournament! Spend an evening connecting with your kid(s) and other families playing Mario Kart on various gaming systems, snacking, and spending some time in the Word. This is a special event for dads and kids to enjoy together. See Jordyn if you’re able to provide a gaming system with Mario Kart, a spare TV we can use, or are willing to bring a snack along!

WinterCON

Students in grades 6-12, you’re invited to join us March 13-15 at WinterCON, a conference that will encourage you to go deeper in your walk with God and grow your ability to live out your faith in your everyday life. Taking place at the Kalahari Resort in the Poconos, one of the largest indoor water parks in the country, you’re sure to have a meaningful and fun weekend with us! Abe and Jordyn Skacel are planning to lead the group from LEFC. For more information, visit the website and see the FAQ sheet that you may have received in your church mailbox. If interested in attending, please let Jordyn know ASAP. For more information, email [email protected].

Family Bible Week 2026

Save the date for Family Bible Week June 14-18, 2026! Be sure to plan your family vacations and activities around this date so your family can participate as we shine a light on who Jesus really is! Be considering how you might be able to fill critical roles to make this year a success.

This Week’s Challenge: Bible Reading in 2026

The new year is just about upon us! With it brings a fresh start and a chance to curate new habits and routines that serve your family well. One of those habits that we encourage is Bible Reading. Do you currently have a plan in place for reading your Bible in 2026? This week’s challenge is to make a plan for how you’ll feed yourself and your family the vital nourishment of the Word of God next year, and take the first steps into the water  beginning on Thursday!

If you’re looking for a broad sweep through your Bible, perhaps because you’ve never read it in it’s entirety or want to consume a greater chunk of scripture, consider a Bible in a year plan. You can find these in the church foyer, or check out this list of options from Ligonier Ministries that can help guide you to the right plan. You likely won’t go too deep into any one book or passage, but you’ll cover more ground.

Maybe you want to slow down the pace and dig in deeper to smaller chunks of scripture for study, but not necessarily cover the entire Bible in a year. If that describes you, consider checking out this Bible Study series, Knowing the Bible. Contained in each small workbook you’ll find helpful commentary and questions to guide your study. I (Jordyn) have used several of these and find them helpful for studying scripture more deeply and thoroughly, something you may not get as much of in a Bible-in-a-year plan.

If you’re someone who is looking for a devotional-style guide, check out New Morning Mercies by Paul Tripp. This book provides a devotional each day that is written by Tripp and a passage that goes along with it. This is one of the best devotional books you can find and we’ve recommended it and the teen version, New Morning Mercies for Teens (which is on sale now!), to individuals before. It’s great for giving you “food for thought” and challenging you in your Christian walk. A word of caution would be that the passages of scripture it recommends are often relatively short, so you won’t cover a whole lot of ground in your Bible. This isn’t problematic, but you may want to pair it with another plan so that you take in more scripture, or read the entire chapter of the passage it provides instead of just those select verses.

For younger kids, check out these options  by The Biggest Story suite of resources to find something that may fit your child’s age range well. Maybe they’re old enough that they can read on their own, but need a Bible that is more understandable for their age and provides kid-friendly notes. Maybe they’re young enough that they need you to read the Bible to them, or maybe you’re looking for a deeper curriculum to help you teach the Bible to your kids beyond just reading them a passage. You’ll find plenty of options from The Biggest Story.

“Daniel’s Prophecies” 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 “Daniel’s Prophecies” (Volume 6: Unit 16: Session 4), 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 an insightful interview about teaching our children how to pray.

On the last Sunday of the year, I (Pastor Matt) always encourage everyone to make a plan to both listen and talk to God as we turn the cover on our calendars. Last year, I emphasized planning to listen to God by reading His Word as a family in 2025, “Eat this Book!” Today, I want to emphasize planning to talk to God by teaching your children to pray in 2026.

This week, I listened to a podcast conversation with Kristen Wetherell who is a mother of three, a writer, a speaker, and an EFCA pastor’s wife. She has recently published a beautiful book for 8-12 year-olds that teaches them how to pray in a sort of encyclopedic way.

In the short interview (only 36 minutes), Wetherell addresses several key topics that most parents can resonate with:

– Challenges We Face When Explaining Prayer to Kids
– Misconceptions to Guard Against When Teaching Kids to Pray
– Sample Prayers for Honesty and Obedience
– Tips for Helping Kids Pay Attention During Prayer
– Helping Kids Who Are Shy
– How to Build a New Habit of Prayer

I thought it was really encouraging and helpful. For example, one key idea was to use the A.C.T.S. approach to prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) with the kids asking them to “fill in the blank” at each step specifically as parents pray with them:

“Lord, I praise You for being . . . ”
“Lord, I am sorry today for . . .”
“God, thank You for . . .”
“Lord, would You please . . .”

In the course of the interview, Wetherell also talks more about her new book Teach Me to Pray: Praying God’s Word from A to Z which I haven’t seen yet myself but sounds really good. The publisher describes it like this:

“Organized alphabetically, this book guides children through key topics from a biblical perspective—including anger, confession, envy, friendship, gossip, healing, identity, justice, and more. Perfect for individual, family, and church contexts, each engaging reading features a memory verse, a short devotion, relevant follow-up verses, and a heartfelt prayer. With this accessible resource, the next generation is better equipped to build a solid biblical foundation while learning to love God and others more deeply.”

More:

– Listen to the interview on YouTube.
– Listen to the interview on Spotify.
– Learn about Teach Me to Pray and read the first chapter online.

May your family experience much blessing as you seek the Lord in a new year together.

Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor