FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PRAISE LUTHERAN CHURCH

Posted by Pastor Brown on May 14, 2011

For more information on Praise Lutheran Church, please visit our other site at www.PraiseLC.org or call (260) 490-7729

FEEDING ON THE WORD OF GOD – PART I

Posted by Pastor Brown on May 14, 2011

To live a healthy and well balanced life, we must take care of ourselves in mind, body, and spirit. Great care, time, and expense go into caring for our mental health through the years of formal education we attend in grade school, middle school, high school, and for some, college and graduate school too. Many of us spend huge amounts of money and expend great effort to care for ourselves physically. And although our spiritual lives are the most important of the three, people in general spend far too little time nurturing and building their faith. God freely and generously gives us His Word for our spirits to be fed. What does it say when we aren’t in Sunday school on a regular basis to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity?
Parents, you are responsible for your children’s spiritual growth. You are responsible to provide for your child’s spiritual wellbeing. Some parents of slightly older children might claim that they don’t send their kids to Sunday School because the young ones or teens don’t want to go. My answer to that… send them anyway! I was recently asked if parents should force their kids to attend church, even if the children don’t want to attend. My answer was undoubtedly and a resounding, “yes!” Would parents allow their kids to skip junior high school because the kids found it more desirable to sleep in each day? Obviously, parents do force their children to go to school because they know it is best and it is what they need. Would parents allow their kids to eat nothing but candy bars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Obviously, parents do force their kids to eat vegetables and engage in other activities that are best for their physical health. Why would it be any different for our spiritual lives? Proverbs 22:6 reads, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Parents, bring your children to Sunday School! At Praise we also have youth groups for 3rd to 12th graders which meet on Wednesdays. Youth should be coming to Sunday School too. This is not up to the children to decide.
At Praise we place a high value on the spiritual growth of our members, and especially our children. There are many other “religious” groups that treat church as merely a wonderful place to go for terrific social values. While that may be a bonus, and certainly God wants us to develop strong relationships with each other, our primary purpose for attending church, Sunday School, and youth group is for our spiritual growth and to be fed with the Word of God and His sacraments. Some other churches don’t have Sunday School for their youth and don’t even encourage their youth to attend regular worship services. This may seem attractive at first, but we all know neglecting our spiritual growth can have long-lasting consequences.
Until children are grown and living out of your house and removed from your direct care, they are not the ones to be making decisions for their own health. They need to be given the correct RDA (recommended daily allowance) of all the things necessary to help them grow in mind, body, and spirit. Parents, please feed your children!

FEEDING ON THE WORD OF GOD – PART II

Posted by Pastor Brown on May 14, 2011

Last month I wrote an article in the Pulse that encouraged parents to step forward and take action in training their children in the Word of God. I noted that parents don’t let their kids make unhealthy decisions for themselves in regard to their mental or physical health. Instead, good parents step in and mandate what needs to be done to keep their children healthy and safe. I exhorted parents to treat their children’s spiritual lives with the same, if not more, kind of critical care. The bottom line was that parents need to force their young ones to come to church, Sunday School, and youth group.
I do hope, however, that it wouldn’t have to come to forcing young ones to come to church. One way to instill it in their lives and help to make it a desirable activity is if they witness mom and dad exuding a healthy and happy faith life both at home and in the church. If mom and dad make church a priority, kids will see the importance of regular spiritual encouragement and strengthening. If mom and dad make Sunday School and Bible Study a integral piece of their life within the church, kids will see the importance of growing in a greater understanding of God’s holy Word. If mom and dad make service to the church (with both time and finances) part of their regular routine, kids will see the importance of getting involved (youth group) and sharing in the community of God. If mom and dad make family and private prayer time a necessity, kids will learn that there is no real life without being regularly connected to God. Think of 1 Corinthians 11:1 as Paul said, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” Also consider Titus 2:7, “In everything set them an example by doing what is good.”
And yet, your ultimate goal is not simply to get them involved for the sake of keeping busy or even to just immerse them deeply into the institution of the church to perpetuate its existence. Instead, we have the very best in mind for our children. Our efforts are there to set for them an example as Christ set an example for His church (1 Peter 2:21) and to model a healthy Christian life so they will not stray from the path when they get old (Proverbs 22:6). We want to show our kids what it is like to live out our faith and become recipients of God’s grace which is given to us by the Holy Spirit and found solely in the arms of Jesus Christ, the one who sacrificed His very self that we might be His own. With this our children will be well on their way to being rooted in the faith and having their lives securely built upon the strong foundation (Ephesians 2:20) of that which is most important for their spiritual health.