The Family Table
Feeding the Faith of LEFC Families
TFT: Video Chat with a Godly Gram
October 1, 2023
Dear LEFC Parents,
Here are some items to set the table for family discipleship in your home this week:
Challenge Conference – Advanced Planning
The 2024 Challenge Conference has been announced for July 1-5 in Kansas City. We’d love to send a group from LEFC as we have in past years. To do that we need interested youth (grades 7-12) and willing adult leaders. That seems like a long time from now, but it will be here before we know it. (Read more about Challenge on the official conference website.)
God’s Big Promises Storybook Bible
It’s here! The brand new storybook Bible that we recommended in last week’s Family Table has arrived in the church library. When she opened the box, Heather Mitchell immediately said, “This is really impressive!” One feature that stands out is a color-coded system for tracking God’s promises, made and then kept, through the storyline of the Scriptures. See Heather if you have questions about how the library checkout system works.
Pray for the DFM Search
As Cody Crumrine recently shared during worship, the search for the part-time Director of Family Ministry is now in full swing. The job description is located in the foyer and will soon be posted online. Please pray for locating God’s person for that role, for diligence for the Elders in searching, and for patience for all of us as we eagerly wait for God’s answers. Do you have someone in mind that you think might be a good fit for this position? Talk with Cody or Pastor Matt.
The Gospel Project at Home
Today’s Bible Study is “The People Rebuilt the Temple” (Volume 6: Unit 17: Session 3). Ask your kids what they learned in Kids Bible Class this morning and/or do the family devotional you can find at this link.
Snack and Yack
When the auditorium empties after worship, girls and boys (grades 3-7) who listened to the sermon (remember to fill out a handout!) are invited to Pastor Matt’s office for a tasty treat and a brief discussion with one of the LEFC elders and their wives (and sometimes guest preachers?!) about the message. Parents, if you would like to help host the discussion by providing the snack, see Holly Crumrine to get involved.
And for dessert…
My (Holly’s) oldest child has just turned 11, and we’re starting his new year with a new Bible study. The idea came from one of our church library books on family discipleship (did you know we had a whole section of books on this topic?). He’s going to have a weekly video chat with one of his godly grandparents, and they’ll walk through this study together. His grandmother lives a few hours away, so it will give them a chance to keep in touch better while also building a discipling relationship with a more mature Christian.
She did a lot of research on which book to do, and it turns out to be a study on the Gospel of John, which coincidentally is Pastor Matt’s current sermon series. It’s called Jesus in the Spotlight, by Kay Arthur. I read through it and love how it introduces basic Bible literacy and inductive study – looking for the main points, repeated words, main characters, and more. The theme of the study is imagining you’re making the book of John into a movie, which is going to be a lot of fun for my son. He won’t hardly notice the good study lessons he’s going to be picking up!
(And if inductive Bible study is new to you as the parent, I highly recommend Jen Wilkin’s Women of the Word, for either men or women. It’s my source for how to dig deeper into a text, and is the more grown-up version of the kid’s book recommended above.)
Happy digging!
Matt Mitchell, Pastor
Holly Crumrine, 2023 Family Ministries Coordinator
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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!