Thank you volunteers and parents for letting us share life with your beautiful kids.

This past Sunday I preached from 1 Samuel chapter 2:12 ff. It is the story of Eli and his three sons (I am counting Samuel as an adopted son). I focused on the comparison of the two biological sons (v. 12) against how Samuel is presented in the story. Here, I would like to discuss a part of the passage, I was not able to spend too much time on.

1 Samuel 2:13-14 “The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, 14 and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot.”

I find the phrase, “The custom of the priests with the people. . .” to be very interesting. Earlier, when the law outlines how the sacrifices were to be collected, slaughtered, and burned, there was no mention of the practice that is mentioned in the rest of the verse. There was no mention of a three-pronged fork, boiling the meat, etc… Something happened between the giving of the law, and the actual carrying out of the law that resulted in a “custom.”

This “custom” in an attempt on the part of the priests to make their job more comfortable or even convenient for themselves. And the people have a “chance” to get more meat back since, “All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself.” So if the priest hooked a little piece the people got to keep more of the meat. So this led the people to be greedy with that which was to be the Lord’s.

Whenever you seek to make God’s Word more convenient or comfortable (by adding to it, or changing it in some way) you take away the God given tool that is designed to keep people from acting upon their sinful nature that is within them. God’s Word and the leaders who teach it, are there to fight against creeping “customs.”

Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Along these same lines is keeping a balance between being culturally relevant and staying true to the original meaning and teaching of Scripture. God has called all believers to study, memorize, apply, and love His Holy Word. Teachers of the Word are admonished to “15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 3:15)” Jesus looked around and used illustrations (seed, people on a journey, bushes, etc.) as a way to help people understand spiritual things. Today teachers still look around a see (wiis, iphones, cars, etc.) and make the cultural connection. It is not as easy as it may seem on the surface. If you reference a popular television show that many people are watching (hence it being popular) but the show may be filled with course comments, sexual innuendo, rude behavior. . .then have you endorsed the show? Do you want to spend time (precious time) talking about what’s wrong with the show? So don’t mention the show, but now you have left out a huge chunk of where the “culture” is focusing their attention.

So obviously we pray, study Scripture, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us along this arkham’s razor.

Let us just make sure that we don’t try to make God’s Word more convenient for us (or others) to change the meaning which will lead to others sinning (2 Timothy 3:14,16).

*http://www.marklawrencegallery.com/ The picture above is from this web site. I really like his abstract work as it relates to biblical principles.

Music is a gift from God that moves the soul like nothing else. This Sunday Matt C. our worship director wrote a new song regarding Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and it was very powerful. The praise team did an awesome job, of leading us into a worshipful time with the Lord. Our children also sang a special, guided by a wonderful sister in Christ Pam. G. They met for several practices and finally had their Easter debut. My kids listened to a cd of the song every night for weeks, and enjoyed practicing with their friends and eating pizza at rehearsals.

This Sunday, we began a new preaching series entitled “Parenting Under Attack” in which we will look at parents from the Bible (where they got it right, and where they got it wrong). Thank goodness they didn’t always get it right, or I would feel pretty bad.

Lately I have been thinking about the strategy that the church uses as a means to encourage the spiritual formation of others, specifically children. The following is the beginning of a series of articles that attempts to understand how we can do this (better).

Before any effective and biblical strategy can be developed, the church must understand its role and how it relates to the role of the home. If the church does all the intentional spiritual teaching and the parents do little or no intentional spiritual teaching, then the child suffers. This reliance of the parent upon the church is not only a poor use of time, but also an abdication of their God given responsibility. Children are highly influenced by the environment around them. Parents spend far more time with their children than the typical Children’s Ministry teacher on Sunday morning. If a child attends a school, then he is further influenced by that school’s philosophy of education and by their peers around them. The Children’s Ministry teacher spends far less time with the student than any other major influence in their lives. However, if the parents are relying on a one hour a week Sunday morning program to educate their children in Christian foundations, the church has to fight against these other influences that have far more access to the child.

Barna has said, “When a church—intentionally or not—assumes a family’s responsibilities in the arena of spiritually nurturing children, it fosters an unhealthy dependence upon the church to relieve the family of its biblical responsibility” The church and the home are partners. The home bears most, if not all, of the responsibility and the church bears the biblical mandate to supplement that teaching and to give biblical guidance. Since there is this preferred symbiotic relationship between the church and the home, it would be in the best interest of each to work together. Also, the church has no oversight regarding the activities the child does when they are away from the church classroom. It is the parent’s responsibility to have oversight of the child and to keep him safe.

Fields, while relating specifically to youth ministry, gives several ideas on how to bring the home and church together. Developing a growing relationship between the church’s educational team and the parents is very important. Fields says, “It is impossible to create healthy teamwork with people you don’t know.” As this relationship develops, parents can inform the teachers of issues that are going on in the student’s individual lives in times of difficulty. As the children grow older, the parent’s control and influence will decrease. This may bring feelings of fear, inadequacy, abandonment, or failure. By working together the church has invaluable background about the students, and the parents have a support network. Another benefit of working together is that the weekly flow of life can be better managed. The home and the church can work together to ensure that both calendars are balanced. If a children’s ministry has an event planned and desires for it to be a success, then it needs to make sure the parents are aware of it and thoroughly informed well in advance. Many precious resources have been wasted, when a church event or program is planned and few people show up. The same is true for the home. Once parents are committed (financially or personally) to an activity, they feel as though they miss out on a much desired church activity.

(blogger won’t let me add footnotes, so there are many assumptions above that I will footnote elsewhere.)

Mrs. Denise Portis and Chloe (her hearing assistance dog) came to Cub Scouts tonight to help the boys earn their Disabilities Awareness belt loop. The boys sat quietly as Denise explained hearing loss, how Chloe helps her, and what the color of the dog’s vest mean (among many other things).

Thank you Denise and Chloe!