Welcome
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Welcome! Thanks for visiting this blog. On it you will find a variety of ministry and family related articles. I pray you will find them helpful and encouraging. Be sure to visit our ministry sites to find out more about Lancaster Baptist Church, Striving Together Publications, and West Coast Baptist College!
Cary
Thoughts on Planning a New Year
Posted by caryschmidt in For College and Career, For Parents, For Student Ministry Leaders.Tags: family, ministry, Productivity, Time Management
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Taking a Good Look at 2009 Before It Begins
Over ten years ago, Pastor Chappell began having our leadership team at Lancaster Baptist Church prepare “ministry planners” for each new year. Our planner meeting is this week and our ministry leaders have spent a good amount of time in recent days preparing their planners. I think all of us would agree, this has become far more than an assignment. It has become an absolute essential for having a balanced life, effective ministry, and a far more productive year.
When we present the planners this week, they each will most likely be 50-100 pages—packed with vision, goals, projects, dates, and details. Working on this planner is one of my favorite projects of the year for several reasons:
Learning to Laugh With and At Each Other
Posted by caryschmidt in For Jr. High Students, For Parents, For Sr. High Students, For Student Ministry Leaders.Tags: family, humor, parenting
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A Little Helpful Insight from Our Family Antics
Yesterday, a little after noon, we finally loaded up in the car and began our traditional, annual family trek to Northern California for Thanksgiving. We’ve made this trip eighteen times now, so we’ve gone from “middle-of the-night-driving” with kids in diapers to “middle-of-the-day-driving” with kids watching Buzz Lightyear to evening driving with teenagers insulting us and each other. During yesterday’s trip, the traffic was unusually heavy, which gave us several more hours in the day together.
As you might imagine, five relatively whitty people packed into a minivan for eight hours can get pretty funny. And as my kids have grown, it seems they have inherited their dad’s, their grandfathers’, and their great-grandfather’s whit all at once. There are three of them—Lance, our seventeen-year-old, who works hard at having an “all-together” image, but eventually ends up cracking up at himself the most; Larry, our fourteen-year-old who sees humor in just about anything and always makes us laugh hard; and Haylee, our eight-year-old going on twenty five—she actually surprises us with her quick, whitty, and often unusually insightful comebacks!
Blogs and Twitters—Is There a Point?
Posted by caryschmidt in For College and Career, For Jr. High Students, For Parents, For Sr. High Students, For Student Ministry Leaders.Tags: blog, technology, twitter
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Why I Decided to Start Using Twitter
Why blog? Why Twitter? Is there a good reason for these things? That is the question I’ve been asking myself for the past year or so. I’m not usually an “early adopter” of potentially harmful things. Rather, I like to study, to watch, to pray, and to consider. I like to let the dust settle and evaluate the positive side of a new form of communication or some new use of the internet.
A little over a year ago I started blogging—minimally. And six months ago I was introduced to Twitter—a form of micro-blogging if you will. I must admit, I didn’t get it and I didn’t see a point. So I waited and watched. Is it about ego? Is it about social-networking? Does it really have a point at all? I wanted to see more than just the “dark side” of all of these things. I do believe there is a bright side!
Does God Care What We Wear? (Part 2)
Posted by caryschmidt in For Jr. High Students, For Parents, For Sr. High Students, For Student Ministry Leaders.Tags: biblical living, ministry, parenting, student ministry
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Why Have a Student Ministry Dress Standard
In our last issue we began briefly considering the question, “Does God care what we wear?” So many of you responded positively to this series of articles and I appreciate your feedback! In a day when sloppier and sleezier is finding its way into the church and the Christian home, may we reconsider clear biblical principles and transfer them to our children. God gives us many good reasons to carefully choose our dress and to set guidelines for how we “appear.” The first three reasons were as follows:
1. To please the Lord Jesus Christ and honor Him above all. 2. To submit to the biblical principle of modesty. 3. To submit to the biblical principle of appropriateness and identify with godliness. Our last article provided verses and explanations, so if you missed it, feel free to send me an email and I will forward it to you. Let’s consider the next three reasons why we should hold a high standard for our dress choices both at church and in our family.
Does God Care What We Wear?
Posted by caryschmidt in For Jr. High Students, For Parents, For Sr. High Students, For Student Ministry Leaders.Tags: biblical living, ministry, parenting, student ministry
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Why Have a Student Ministry Dress Standard
As a youth pastor I am often asked about dress standards—from teens, from parents, and from other youth leaders. Do we have a dress standard? What is it? How do we enforce it? Why do we have one? What about visitors? The questions and the reasonings sometimes seem endless, and can actually be seriously distracting from the central point of student ministry. To get straight to the point, this is a real issue in youth ministry in the 21st century and many are looking for balanced biblical answers.
As culture continually slips into sloppier and sleazier, many churches and families have all but given up this battle. Many are opting for the “well, God loves us no matter how we dress” approach to Christianity. And of course He does! No one argues that point. But God loves me regardless of how I live too! That’s just not a valid argument when considering “what to wear.” God’s love or acceptance isn’t the issue—pleasing Him and representing Him well are the issues. (more…)
Mutations, Confusions, and Transitions Part Four
Posted by caryschmidt in For Jr. High Students, For Parents, For Sr. High Students, For Student Ministry Leaders.Tags: adolescence, family, parenting, student ministry, teen life
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Helping Your Teen through Some of Life’s Toughest Years
In the past few articles we have been considering the radical physical changes that all teenagers experience between the ages of twelve and twenty. In this article, I want to turn your attention to the emotional changes.
First let’s discuss the symptoms. Have you seen your teenager recently experience any radical or sudden mood changes? You know—one moment everything’s fine, the next the world is falling apart. Have you seen an increase in frustration or even some sudden outbursts that almost look like anger? Have you noticed that one day your teen can be on top of the world and the next day seem depressed and withdrawn?
If so, read on. Teenagers do experience a wide variety of emotional changes and challenges. Their world has suddenly become a lot more random and unpredictable than it has ever been, and this can make young people seem rather impulsive, compulsive, and even insane at times. But then again, I know some adults who would fit nicely into those categories, so let’s cut them some slack in the form of understanding and guidance.
Different By Design Book and Curriculum Now Available!
Posted by caryschmidt in Books, For College and Career, For Jr. High Students, For Parents, For Sr. High Students, For Student Ministry Leaders, Uncategorized.Tags: biblical living, Books, Striving Together, Sunday School
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Rediscovering that a Godly Life is Still a Good Life!
This book/personal study and the accompanying curriculum is designed to help young adults develop not only a godly heart, but a godly lifestyle to match! It exposes the myth that God doesn’t care how we behave, He only cares about our heart. It calls Christians to embrace a pure heart that flows into a distinctive lifestyle.
This study has twelve chapters that each include ten practical points heavily supported by God’s Word. Each chapter studies a particular aspect of Christian living that pop-culture and pop-Christianity is quickly tossing aside. The lessons are written so they can be studied in in a group setting (Sunday school, Bible study, or Christian School Bible class) or worked through as a family. Each lesson has questions for personal study and also a homework for families section that is meant to involve parents in the instructing and discovery process.
Teacher’s Guide - 273 pages (paperback)
Student Guide - 158 pages (paperback)
Personal Study Book Version - soon to be released, 219 pages (paperback)
Click here for more information or to purchase Different By Design
Mutations, Confusion, and Transitions Part Three
Posted by caryschmidt in For Parents, For Sr. High Students, For Student Ministry Leaders.Tags: Add new tag, adolescence, family, parenting, student ministry, teen life
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Helping Your Teen Through Some of Life’s Toughest Years
In the past two articles we have begun discussing the radical changes that teenagers experience, and how parents and spiritual leaders should respond to those changes. In the last edition, we focused primarily on external physical changes—which are many. In these next few paragraphs we will explore the radical changes primarily associated with the teenage brain. I know, you’re already thinking, “well that’s obvious… teenagers don’t have brains!” And believe it or not, you’re pretty close to truth on that one. Until recent years, there wasn’t much medical evidence to explain what happens to a teenager’s brain between the ages of 12 and 20. But recent studies have provided some very conclusive and insightful findings.
Before we talk about the findings, I remind you that there is no excuse for “bad behavior.” I am not sharing these things that you might “reason away” a bad attitude, but rather that you might better understand how to apply biblical wisdom to this critical time of life. That said, let’s explore the process of growth that every teenage brain is experiencing!
Mutations, Confusion, and Transitions Part Two
Posted by caryschmidt in For Jr. High Students, For Parents, For Sr. High Students, For Student Ministry Leaders.Tags: adolescence, family, parenting, student ministry, teen life
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Helping Your Teen Through Some of Life’s Toughest Years
In the last issue I introduced a series of articles that will highlight the changes that a teenager faces between the ages of 12 and 20, and how we as adults, youth workers, and parents should understand and respond to those changes. I want to reiterate, these changes are not an excuse for bad behavior or an attempt to rationalize sin, but rather a look at reality so that we can better apply patience and scriptural principles as we nurture young lives to maturity.
The first area of dramatic change during the teen years is physical change! Have you noticed how much your teenager is physically changing day-to-day and month-to-month? More importantly, have you considered the impact of those changes in all of life? As our boys crossed over that thirteen-year mark, I remember commenting to Dana how radically they would change in the coming years. I was trying to prepare us both mentally and emotionally for the fact that these boys were about to quickly emerge into men. Never do teen boys change more quickly and radically than between ages fourteen and seventeen. The same is true with girls. Recently a friend who hadn’t seen one of our boys for a couple of years was literally astounded at the change.
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