The Family Table

Three Years of The Family Table!

The Family Table is celebrating its third anniversary this week! Praise God for the ways that it has equipped, encouraged, and resourced families and individuals with disciple-making tools each week. Take a look back at some of the archives to see what you might find there that would be relevant and faith-building for you and your family.

The Family Table Survey

As we celebrate The Family Table turning three, we want to hear from you about how it is helpful for your family and how it could be improved. We desire for this resource to be beneficial, so we need to hear from you. Would you please help us out by filling out this brief survey, if you haven’t already done so in church? Paper copies will be in the bulletins next week as well if you prefer a paper version. We value your input!

Youth Group Resumes This Week

Youth Group resumes tonight at 7:00 and will feature a spam carving contest! Your teen won’t want to miss it!

Mom’s Night Out: Friendsgiving Edition

Moms with children in the home are invited to a Friendsgiving-themed Mom’s Night Out on November 15th at 7pm. We’ll have plenty of Thanksgiving-inspired snacks, a guest speaker, and a fall craft. Come enjoy a night out of the house with fellow moms, and invite others to come with you! Nursing infants are welcome. Registration is now LIVE and can be found here.

Fall Retreat Recap Video

Have you seen the Fall Retreat recap video yet? Joe Quick created an awesome video to recap our weekend spent at the retreat last month. Check it out if you haven’t already to get a glimpse into the fun that was had and to get a taste of what you can expect and plan for next year if you weren’t able to come along. Click the photo to watch!

“The Northern Kingdom Was Destroyed” 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 Northern Kingdom Was Destroyed” (Volume 5: Unit 14: 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…

Our recommendation for family discipleship this week is an excellent biography of the Christian leader, Martin Luther, written especially for young readers.

Today is Reformation Sunday when Protestants celebrate the rediscovery and recovery of the gospel of grace among Christians in Europe in the sixteenth century. These Christians were trying to bring needed reforms to the church in their day.

One key leader of this movement was the former monk Martin Luther (1483-1546) who, in many ways, launched the Reformation by nailing up his “95 Theses” to start a public debate about Christian truth on a church door on October 31, 1517.  Luther got in major trouble for his views with religious leaders of his day and was given a chance to take his words back. But Luther refused, saying in his now famous “Here I Stand” message, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen.”

Luther’s courageous stand has lasting consequences to this day.

To help the kids in our homes to understand the life and legacy of Martin Luther, Simonetta Carr (author) and Troy Howell (illustrator) have created a short biography that gives the interesting outline and highpoints of his story. It’s really well written, and nearly every page has a picture, some of which photographs of the very spot where the action happened.

This book may be difficult for little ones to follow and new readers to read, but older children will appreciate it, either having it read to them or reading it themselves.

Because it’s so short (only 63 pages), the biographer had to leave a lot out, of course including any discussion of the more problematic parts of Luther’s legacy (which should be acknowledged and wrestled with at the appropriate time and place). But what is included is well-sourced history from Luther’s birth to his death with a pile of fascinating facts about him stacked at the very back. I (Pastor Matt) know Luther’s story, but I still learned some things!

The publisher describes the book this way:

“Five hundred years ago, a monk named Martin Luther wrote ninety-five questions, hoping to start a discussion about sin and repentance at the University of Wittenberg in Germany. In a few months those questions had stirred the nation; a few years later, the continent. Today we know that those questions changed the course of both the Western church and world history. In this volume for children, Simonetta Carr tells the compelling story of this father of the Protestant Reformation, tracing his quest for peace with God, his lifelong heroic stand for God’s truth, and his family life and numerous accomplishments. The Reformer’s greatest accomplishment, she writes, ‘has been his uncompromising emphasis on the free promise of the gospel.'”

Does your family know what the Reformation was all about? This book may be a good place for you to start.

More:

– Read the table of contents, biography of the author, and watch a video introducing the book.

– For even younger kids, remember The Church History ABC’s which we have recommended before form the church library.

– Martin Luther is available in the LEFC church library for check out.

We hope our families eat it right up!

Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor

P.S. Simonetta Carr has created 10 books in this series of Christian biographies. Our church library also has the one on Lady Jane Grey.