Mar 12

Written by: Perrysburg Campus
3/12/2008 3:20 PM

I don’t know about you, but when a new school year comes around, my husband and I start dreaming about how we are going to make this the best year ever for our boys and their school experience.  We try to get into a homework routine, and the like.  We also try to purposefully schedule fun times with their friends, so that we can build into relationships.  Each year we seem to fall a little short of our goal, but simply because we purpose in our hearts to make great things happen, we get somewhere close. 
 
As we were doing this very thing this year again, I began to think about ministry as well.  As I spent time with God in prayer about it, I asked God what might be the new goals for Family Ministries this year and what might be the role that I need to play on the team as we move forward.  Parenting and Marriage is what I feel like God has put in front of me to tackle for this year.  I recently had a meeting with Judge Andy Devine and the director of Cherry Street mission; Dan Rogers.  This meeting confirmed in my heart that I need to do my best this year to direct the people in our church toward better solutions for their marriage, and parenting. 
 
Coming soon, I will be sharing with you some simple things I will be encouraging you and any parent that you might know to do or pray for during the forth week in September, which is when leaders around the city will gather to discuss how we can bring the value of good parenting back into our culture.
  
You might ask how this fits our mission; great question.  If any of you have spent time reading George Barna’s research published in his book titled “Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions”, you know that the easiest time to share Christ is when a child is young.  When the environment is right in that child’s life and home; they see their parents or parent in love with Jesus, and even better loving each other when there are two parents in the home, the child usually wants to know all about why they love Jesus and inevitably ask how they can have a relationship with him too. 
 
As a church, if we are lucky, we get one hour a week with most children.  This is only 52 hours in a year.  We try our best here at CedarCreek to make that the best hour in their week, simply because they get to learn and grow in Christ.  On the other hand, parents get to decide how their child will spend their 8,760 hours in that year.  Who can make a greater impact?  Long story short, if as a church we are helping parents be spiritual champions in their home, we are growing the kingdom one family at a time.  The math is a little better than one life at a time.  So stay tuned, reading the weekly blogs will hopefully help you parent you children in positive ways, and help your family fall in love with Jesus!

- Chantele Henry

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