How to Show Kids You Care

Here's a great - and short! - video with simple ideas of how to show kids you care. It's produced by the Search Institute, a great organization devoted to "Discovering what kids need to succeed."

Enjoy!

All Saints, Funerals, and the History of a Really Big Family

This past Sunday we celebrated All Saints Sunday. Apart from the really BIG festivals of the Church (Easter, Christmas, Pentecost, Epiphany), it's one of my favorite Sundays:
  -- I love that it looks backward in time to those saints of blessed memory, our forebears in faith.
  -- I love that it makes us look in the mirror and look around the room, reminding us that in baptism, God names US saints, too. That we are called and claimed and sent out in the world with holy purposes and power.
  -- I love that it looks forward in time, to the fullness of God's kingdom when pain and tears and death are no more and we will join one amazing party before the throne of the King.
  -- And of course I love all the candles. Ecclesiastical pyromania is one of my strong suits.

Photo from:
 http://www.crizmac.com/artandsoul/index.php/2010/10/04/ofrenda/

I've long wondered about the Mexican celebration of Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. I've never really been one to decorate with skeletons, somehow it's seemed more morbid than necessary to me. That said, something about the construction of the family offrenda each year, a small altar with candles and pictures of family and friends resting in the promise of the resurrection, appeals to me more and more. I think it comes from the desire to pass on the family stories to my daughters with more intention than the random, "You look just like my Grandma right now!" offerings. Adding icons or pictures of other saints can be a great way to remember that Christ's Church is a whole lot bigger than the congregation I am a part of, and knows no national or ethnic boundaries. And maybe the skeletons aren't such a bad reminder that unless the kingdom comes in all its fullness first, each and every one of us is going to die. Holding that thought in our heads can be a good perspective-keeper.

One of my best friends from seminary posted a link on facebook to an old article/story on NPR's page - "Always Go to the Funeral." I encourage you to read it. And I encourage you to have conversations about death and dying, and the promise of the resurrection, with your children during "ordinary" time - regular run of the mill days when you are not grieving or anticipating the death of someone you know and love. There are lots of resources for those kinds of conversations. Look for a future post with some of them highlighted.

With Ears to Hear

There are LOTS of websites to help pastors write sermons. Lots. Some of them are good, some not so much. A couple that I turn to on a regular basis are Working Preacher (from Luther Seminary) and The Text This Week, which serves as a landing place for all kinds of stuff related to preaching and worship planning.

Preaching professors know all about these sites, too. One professor, Dr. SD. Giere, Associate Professor of Homiletics & Biblical Interpretation, (Wartburg Seminary) looked for websites for those who listen to sermons week after week, but found none. As a response to this void, he launched WithEarsToHear.org - a website for those who listen to sermons. It provides accessible, biblically grounded information about preaching and tools to help orient the ear toward the gospel.  The website, which is free to all, also includes listening strategies for Bible study, call committees, internship committees, and confirmation classes. You're invited to "like" WithEarsToHear.org on Facebook and to be in touch with Dr. Giere with any questions or suggestions you have.

I hope this will be another good resource for families to use together, in doing devotions during the week, as a way to prepare for worship on Sunday, and to process what they've heard in the sermon.

Please let me know what you think, in the comments below.

Children in Worship

I haven't done scientific study, or even run the numbers, but just looking out at the congregation on any given Sunday morning, I think it's fair to say that the average age of folks in worship has been trending downward. I don't have any solid reasons as to why that is, though I suspect having had a pregnant pastor in recent memory doesn't hurt in that department.
I love that we have so many young (and young at heart) people in worship. I know there are plenty of congregations in which the expectation would be that the littlest ones all go to the nursery and the elementary-school aged children would head either to Sunday School or "Children's Church." I am thankful that the habit/culture of CtK is for as many children as possible to stay in worship as much as possible. (Yes, the screaming tantrums might necessitate a brief departure, but I am grateful the default position is "Everyone in worship.")
Here's a great blog post from another mom, on keeping kids in worship: Dear Parents With Young Children.
Enjoy!

Why "Keep These Words"?

Welcome!

This blog is intended for the parents, godparents/baptismal sponsors, friends and youth of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Bozeman, Montana. It's also for anyone else who wants to pass on Christian faith, primarily in families. Of course the Holy Spirit can do whatever the Holy Spirit wants to do when it comes to forming faith in us, but studies show that there are some things we parents and other caring-adult-types can do to "set the stage," if you will.
Things like pray. With our children.
Worship. With our children.
Read our Bibles. With our children.
Serve in God's world. With our children.
Not exactly rocket science. But not as easy to put into practice as it might seem, either.

"Keep These Words" will serve as a landing place for all kinds of resources, links, and ideas, for me and for my household, sure, but mostly for the families I am blessed to serve as pastor. We are undertaking a fairly radical shift in our method of instruction for Affirmation of Baptism, aka Confirmation. I'm hoping this blog will be a useful tool for those families undertaking this journey as a class of guinea pigs of sorts.

I know I spend more time on Christian Education and Faith Formation websites and blogs than your average American. However, there's no way I'm ever going to find everything worth sharing. So, if you find something in your internet perusing which I have missed, please feel free to comment on a post and share, or send me an email and let me know: ctkprlindean (at) qwestoffice.net.

Why the title? It's from one of my favorite passages in Deuteronomy (yes, you can have a favorite verse from Deuteronomy!).

Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deut 6:4-9

I love that, and have for a long time. For many years, though, I focused mostly on verse 5 - loving God with heart, soul and might - with everything. When I hit seminary, though, a professor focused my attention on verse 7: recite them to children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
Right. When you're at home - talk about them. And when you're not at home - talk about them. Hmmm. That would pretty much mean wherever you are.
When you lie down, presumably at night - talk about them. And when you rise, good morning! - talk about them. Hmmm. That would pretty much mean all the time.

Keep these words.