TFT: Created for Work
September 6, 2026
Youth Group and Roots Starting Next Week!
Our Youth Group and brand new Roots will kick off for the school year on September 13th, next week, at 6:30pm. 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 under two months on October 16-18! We want you there! This is a 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 to take advantage of our Early Bird discount of $5 off, running through September 20th. Join us for a great weekend!
Fall Retreat Theme
We are excited to announce the theme of this year’s Fall Retreat! During our two sessions on Saturday and Sunday mornings along with breakout sessions on Saturday afternoon, we will be digging into “Hard Work and Real Rest.” Come join us as we explore what it looks like to diligently work and take time for rest.
See You At The Pole
All are invited to join West Branch’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes for a time of prayer at the school’s flagpole. Students will meet at 7:10am on Wednesday, September 23rd. Adults, please park at Gethsemane, walk to the flagpole, and join the kids as they pray for their school.
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: Discipling Our Kids’ Friends
Does your kid have a best friend that they spend a bunch of time with? Do they have a “friend group” formed from a sports team, club, or other shared activity? No matter the source of the connection, you’re probably familiar with at least some of the kids your own kids are hanging around.
This week’s challenge focuses on discipling our kids’ friends as well. Just as we know it is incredibly important to be intentionally teaching, training, and leading our own kids in the faith, we have another opportunity right at our doorstep. We are commissioned to “make disciples” beyond (but including!) those living within our four walls in Matthew 28, and your kids’ friends need to be reached as well. Maybe you’re thinking that their friends already come from Christian homes, so you don’t need to do anything. What a great encouragement you could be in their faith spurring them on! Maybe their friends feel so unreachable that it’s not worth the effort. If that’s the case, who better to make that effort than you, someone who cares about that kid’s spiritual wellbeing? Many probably fall somewhere in between these two ends of the spectrum. Great opportunity exists for those youth to have an adult speaking truth into their lives and exposing them to our good God.
This week’s challenge is to think through and plan for how you will take one intentional step in the discipling of your kids’ friends. This does not have to be complex. Here are some ideas:
- Plan to have your child’s friend over at a time that would overlap with a meal. Before your pre-meal prayer, explain to the friend that prayer is an important part of your family rhythm, and ask if there are ways that you could pray for them.
- The next time your child’s friend is around, ask them if their family attends church. Ask good follow-up questions like “what have you been learning there” for kids who say yes, and “do you have any thoughts or beliefs about God?” for kids who say no. Of course, it’s always helpful to share your answers to these questions, too, to spur conversation.
- Invite the family of your kids’ friends over to your home for a campfire, cookout, or movie night. Share with them in conversation that your faith is an important part of your life. For families that you know a little better, maybe share something that you’re pondering or learning in your faith journey.
- Equip them. Buy an extra copy of a favorite book, devotional, or Bible and gift it to them. Tell them you’d be happy to read it with them or answer questions that come up as they read it.
You can have a tremendous impact on other kids around you! Some of your kids’ friends may have nobody else in their life intentionally thinking about their spiritual health. You can be that, and your efforts may have an impact beyond what you imagine being possible!
“Jesus Brings Truth” 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 in Parables” (Volume 9: Unit 25: Session 1, 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…
Our recommendation for family discipleship this week is a book boys will enjoy about the dignity and delights of diligent work.
Tomorrow is Labor Day when we as a nation celebrate the valuable contributions of workers to our society. The value of work is often overlooked, and yet it is vitally important according to God’s Word.
A number of years ago, I (Pastor Matt) took a youth boys class through Created for Work: Practical Insights for Young Men by Bob Schultz who was a Christian contractor from Oregon. The boys and I learned a lot!
Schultz was a gifted storyteller. Each of the 34 readings features a homespun yarn drawn from real life on the job in just a few pages with a moral that is easy for a boy to grasp and to put to work in his own life. At the end of each chapter there is an inspiring scripture verse and discussion questions to get boys talking.
In the introduction, Schultz points out the educational value of work as an effective tutor. He writes:
“A boy who loves to work will master math when it’s needed. He’ll put out the effort to read what’s important. In the meantime, his interaction with things that are ‘actual and practical’ will provide the wisdom he needs to direct him into useful pursuits, and empower him to provide for a family of his own in days to come.
Within every man is the desire to work and produce. Some men don’t even know that it’s there. However, when necessity or some pressing authority pushes him into a useful position of employment his sense of work comes alive. I’ve employed many lazy boys who couldn’t imagine work as something other than a necessary evil required to gain money for a toy. However, given time and proper instruction, these lazy lads have turned into dynamos working for the simple pleasure of work, disregarding the hardships and the pay.
This book is an attempt to express a biblical perspective of work and the richness of life it brings. It’s written in a format for boys, yet it touches the fiber of old men and was first taught to my wife and three daughters.
I hope that Created For Work encourages you to appreciate your Creator Who is always at work and Who has made you in His image.”
I can see dads (especially) reading this book with their boys (especially middle-schoolers, pre-teens, teens, and even young adults) over the course of a couple of months and getting some really good conversations out of it–thinking about what it means to work hard to please our Lord.
Created for Work is available for checkout from the church library.
We hope your family eats it right up!
Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor