Our Blog

Spare Change - May 2019

One of my most favorite parts of being a children’s minister is getting to see little children become followers of Christ.  This is such a special opportunity! It’s truly a wonderful, God-glorifying decision. I love getting to help parents counsel their children in this process; however, many parents struggle to know when their child is ready.  This can be difficult but don’t worry, below I have listed some important steps to help you know if your child is ready.

1. Start with Prayer - Never, never, never underestimate the power of prayer.  Pray that God would speak to your child and call them to be saved.  Pray for wisdom to know if they are ready. Just pray for your child in general.  We can never pray for them enough.

2. Be Patient - The last thing you want to do is rush this process.  If your child is not asking questions or doesn’t seem interested or even if they say they are not ready, don’t worry.  It is better for them to come to that decision on their own rather than pressure from you. However, if they are asking questions and seem to want to know more then don’t wait!

3. Salvation vs. Baptism - Often kids equate salvation with baptism.  Baptism can spark an interest in the child, but they need to understand that being baptized is not the same as being saved.  We make the decision to follow Christ promoted by the Holy Spirit apart from baptism. Baptism is that symbol of spiritual cleansing that unites us with the church.  It is the first step in living out our new faith publically. We want children to be baptized, but only after they have made a profession of faith.

4. Use a Good Resource - Find a good resource that will help you share the gospel.  I love “God’s Plan for Me” from LifeWay. It is designed for children to know and understand the timeless truth of the gospel.  It is also very easy to use and helpful for parents that may not be entirely comfortable with sharing.

5. Use Scripture - It is very important to take the time to look up the scriptures from “God’s Plan for Me” in the Bible and read them outloud.  Kids need to connect their faith back to the Word of God.

6. Avoid “Churchy” Words - Be careful saying things like “lost”, “confess”, or “ask Jesus into your heart”.  Kids are concrete thinkers and can be confused with these words. Try to brainstorm ways to say these things in plain language that they can understand.

7. Ask Open-ended Questions - Make sure to avoid yes-no questions.  We can false lead children to make a decision they are not ready for.  Ask them things like “Can you tell me why you want to do this?” or “Tell me what you understand about how to become a Christian?”

8. If They are Ready - Lead them to pray a prayer of commitment, then rejoice with them!  Share that decision with your pastors and schedule an appointment to talk about baptism.

Student Ministry - May 2019

Dear Church Family,

The Student Ministry is gearing up for missions this summer and fall, and I wanted you to have the opportunity to know about what we will be doing and a new way that you can partner with us!

The High School Mission Trip is June 2-8. We will be partnering with New Life Church in Huntington, IN to help them with their outreach ministry to the homeless and to other areas of their community. We will serve daily at their Meal Ministry center, and we will plan on doing a Bible Club during that week to help reach families. This will give our students many opportunities to share the gospel directly with individuals who need it.

Our Middle School Mission Week will be July 29 - August 2. We plan to host two Bible Clubs in the mornings and then do service projects in the afternoons right here in Evansville. We will have Student Leaders help guide the Middle Schoolers as they lead games, teach crafts, serve hard, and share the gospel with others. This is one great way that the students get to serve both in our community and in the church.

Finally, we are sending some students on our first International Mission Trip to Jamaica! This trip is an adult and student trip that will connect with churches in Jamaica to help minister to their communities as well as taking care of any renovation needs they have that we can meet. This will be an eye-opening experience for our students as they will witness first-hand the need for the life-changing power of the gospel in Jamaica’s culture.

In the past we have hosted a BBQ Fundraiser to help the cost of our missions endeavors, but we will unfortunately not be able to do that this year. So the Lord has led us to do an exciting new fundraiser that will raise nearly twice the amount as that of the BBQ Fundraiser. We simply need you, our church family, to partner with us to make this happen.

For the month of May there will be a table set up in the lobby that will have 100 envelopes on it. Each envelope will have a number on it from 1 to 100. The goal is for us as a church to fill every envelope with the money value of its corresponding number. People can take an envelope, put the amount of money that is indicated by the envelope’s number inside it, and place it in the locked dropbox we will have in the lobby. So if you wanted to partner with us financially and wanted to donate $10, then you would simply take the envelope with the number 10 on it, place $10 in it, and place it in the dropbox. If you wanted to donate $50 then you would take the envelope with the 50 on it, etc. While this fundraiser will not fully fund all our mission trips, it will put a big dent in the money students will have to raise in order to serve.

I first want to ask you to please partner with our students by praying for them. Would you pray that they would finish the school year well and be prepared for all that the Lord has in store for them this summer. And secondly, I want to ask you to consider participating in this fundraiser. All it will take is for you to pray about and pick a number between 1 and 100, and then give that amount of money for the express goal of serving and proclaiming the gospel.

Sincerely,

Brian Van Doren