The Family Table

Back to School This Week
This back to school Sunday, pray for students, teachers, staff, and administrators who are returning to school this week. We at LEFC pray for a wonderful year of learning and growing!

Do you have a recent graduate leaving home to pursue some form of higher education? If so, please let us know, we’d love to stay in touch! Please email contact information to the church office at: [email protected] (opens in new tab).

Youth Group and Junior Youth Group Start Dates
Our Youth Group and brand new Junior Youth Group will kick off for the school year on September 13th. Be sure to let your 7-12th and 4-6th graders know and prepare for them to get involved!

Fall Retreat is Coming Soon!
Our fall retreat is coming up in just three months on October 16-18. We want you there. Today in church we shared more details about this great opportunity for your family to get away with the LEFC family and enjoy fellowship, teaching, and more. Registration is open.

Register your family now (opens in new tab) to take advantage of our Early Bird discount of $5 off, running through September 20th. Join us for a great weekend.

Youth Group Instagram
Our Youth Group has a brand new Instagram account:lansefreeyouth (opens in new tab). Follow along to be encouraged by what our Youth Group is up to and share the account with your 7th-12th grade family and friends so they can get a glimpse of what it might look like for them to participate as well.

Tell Pastor Matt What Team Your Child Is On
Pastor Matt writes, “It’s hard to believe it’s fall athletics season once again. I love to drop in to see the kids of our church family play their sports, but I need to know when and where the games are. It’s hard to keep track of who is on what team. If you could send me your kids’ sports schedules for this new season, it will help me to make it to more games and spend some quality time with your family.”

This Week’s Challenge: What is the Goal?
In a podcast this week, I (Jordyn) listened as the hosts interviewed an older couple about their experience leading their children to know Christ in their home. One of the important pieces mentioned was to consider two questions. First, what is the goal. Second, what are we as parents hoping to raise. These questions are helpful in framing how you might structure your lives with the end goal in mind.

This week’s challenge is to ask your spouse (or consider them independently in the case of a single parent) those two questions and contemplate them together. What is the goal in discipling and raising your kids. What things do you want to be true of them when they grow older. What are you hoping to raise them into. Thinking about your children in light of the future can help you to determine how you might pour into them and guide them now. For a resource on this forward-thinking mindset, check out To the Tenth Generation (opens in new tab) by Ray and Jani Ortlund.

“Jesus the Promised One” 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 “Jesus Taught about Prayer” (Volume 8: Unit 24: Session 4), and the devotional can be found at this link(opens in new tab).

Visit the Family Ministries page (opens in new tab) on our website for information about how to access The Gospel Project at Home for the first time.

And for Dessert…
Our recommendation for family discipleship this week is a media ministry aimed at sports enthusiasts to connect their love for sports and their faith in Jesus Christ.

“Back to School” often means “Back to Sports.” We had “Meet the Warriors” last week. This week I (Pastor Matt) will be buying my annual Season Pass for West Branch Athletics (opens in new tab). Football, Volleyball, Soccer, and Cross Country have all been gearing up for their Fall schedules.

Sports can be a big part of many of our families’ lives including what we do for entertainment. What teams do you and your kids follow.

Originally started in 1985 as a magazine called “SportsFocus,” Sports Spectrum (opens in new tab) is now a wide-ranging Christian media ministry that connects faith to sports. In addition to the quarterly magazine (opens in new tab), they offer daily devotionals, a robust podcast network (opens in new tab), faith-building e-newsletters (opens in new tab), and much more.

This week, I listened to an episode of their central podcast where host Matt Forte (former Pro Bowl running back) and Jason Romano (former ESPN producer) interviewed current Cleveland Browns safety Daniel Thomas (opens in new tab). The interview was well-done with lots of interesting facts about Thomas’ career (he started his career in 2020 during covid) and was edifying, too. One of the best parts was when, quoting Colossians 3, Thomas talked about how he does his work for the Lord and not for other people.

Sports Spectrum covers all kinds of sports. I see football, baseball, basketball, boxing, MMA, hockey, and much more. (opens in new tab)

If your student is an athlete, they might especially profit from the daily devotional that drops every morning at 5:00 (opens in new tab).

If your family is into sports, Sports Spectrum is probably a resource to have bookmarked.

We hope your family eats it right up.

Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor