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Senior Week Starts September 12, 2010

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Each year, CEP designates the Sunday after Labor Day as “Seniors’ Sunday.” It’s still not too late to plan an announcement recognizing that occasion at your services. The pastor might mention any of the many passages that command respect for seniors (like Lev. 19:32, I Tim. 5:1, 3ff.); also include a challenge to seniors to continue in active ministry and service (for example, Psalm 92:12-15, 104:33/146:2, 103:2,5).

Senior Sunday - 213.jpgIf time permits, you might plan intergenerational experiences (in Sunday School, at a dinner, visiting in a nursing home). Perhaps your pastor could preach on, or at least mention, one of the seniors in the Bible who served faithfully (like Abraham, Moses, Joshua or Caleb, Eli, or, from the New Testament, Paul, John, Anna, Lois or, possibly, Mary). It would be a good day for an infant baptism, emphasizing the importance of sharing the faith through the generations.

Planning might begin now for next year’s “Seniors’ Week,” beginning on September 10, 2011. Special meetings and events might be planned. Seniors have special interest in many topics related to their experiences. Intergenerational activity could be a focus in the week’s activities. Involve Seniors in the planning.

2020 Vision Recommended Resources

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2020Vision RECOMMENDED RESOURCES for Parents, Leadership and Children in your church:

Gospel-powered parentingGospel Powered Parenting
By William P. Farley

This book is being used in many of our churches as a tool for training parents in a small group setting. It does exactly what the subtitle describes – practically tells us ‘how the Gospel shapes and transforms parenting.’ Farley is deeply concerned that children raised in the church have grown up and left the faith. There have been thousands of books written on parenting but this one surely takes us to the heart of the problem.

Drawing upon his two life experiences of reading the Word and raising his own children in the church, Farley has this observation. The results of parenting has nothing to do with wherethe child was educated or how regular was their church attendance. The common denominator between success and failure seems to be the spiritual depth and sincerity of the parents, especially the spiritual depth and sincerity of the father.

“In my experience”, writes Farley, “the most effective parents have a clear grasp of the cross and its implications for daily life.” So, this writer begins his book with the Gospel and its power in your life. This is the perfect beginning to his fleshing out of Godly fear, holiness, love and grace as it affects every area of parenting.

Church leaders and parents should read and study this book. The one conclusion from this book that can not be overlooked is this: We must teach our children. Delegating that task to others will not work unless we are first doing it at home. This seems to be the clarion call ringing across the evangelical church today. Gospel-Powered Parenting gives clear and practical teaching to the need of the hour.

This is a twelve chapter book and would be perfect for a twelve-week study in your church’s adult education program. There are several excellent Study questions at the end of each chapter. If you are a parent, read it. The Gospel is rich and will bring power to what you are doing in your home every day.

the faithful parentThe Faithful Parent: A Biblical Guide to Raising a Family
By Martha Peace & Stuart W. Scott

After clarifying the goal for parenting and the basic Biblical responsibilities of the parent and child, Peace and Scott dissect the lives of our children and give practical instruction as it applies to the infant, toddler, preschooler, school-age and teenage child in the home. For a parent crying out, “Just tell me what to do!” this book is a wonderful answer to the cry for help.

My favorite chapter, however, is entitled Parents Who Provoke. I’ve heard sermons preached from the Colossians 3:21 passage. “Father, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged.” But these authors bring understanding to all of the ways that we might provoke our children by defining sinful attitudes that teach our children more than we would like to think. Take a look at this list: The Despairing Parent, The Controlling/Angry Parent, The “Guess What the Rules are Today” Parent, The Exaggerating Parent, The “Must be Perfect” Parent, The “Fear of What Others Might Think” Parent. And the list goes on and on. This section of the book truly helps to identify sinful behaviors in parenting that so easily entangle us all.

These authors do an exceptional job at responding to all of the most-asked questions of parents with sound Biblical answers. The book closes with a wonderful instructional prayer and a directive on presenting the gospel with detailed scripture references.

If you are parenting or giving counsel to parents, this is a valuable tool for your ongoing study. Its eleven chapters full of questions to ponder and discuss would also be effective as a small group study on parenting.

Covenant DiscipleshipCovenant Discipleship Parents’ Handbook
By Richard L. Burguet and J. Ed Eubanks, Jr.

This parent/student handbook is an alternative to the traditional age-based Communicant’s Class, offering Reformed and Presbyterian churches of any size a way to bring students into the church as communing members when they are ready. Covenant Discipleship gives the oversight of teaching the essence of church membership back to parents, providing them with the tools and resources to guide their children through the process of learning about the essentials of the faith, importance of church membership, and the core values and theology of a Reformed and Presbyterian church.

Jesus Storybook BibleJesus Storybook Bible
By Sally Lloyd-Jones

If you do not yet own this children’s Bible, you have missed out on the top-seller in children’s books in the last two years. Why is everyone in children’s ministry so energized by this book? There are hundreds of children’s story Bibles. What makes this one special?

“Every story whispers his name.” That is the subtitle and it is what sets this storybook apart from the rest. In the key stories from both the Old and New Testament, Lloyd Jones communicates to us and our children that Jesus is the Word. It is all about him. Most of us would say “of course, he is!” But as you begin to read these stories to your children, you will be convicted of the fact that many times you have taught these great Bible stories and have missed the point.

Here’s just one example of what Lloyd-Jones accomplishes throughout this wonderfully illustrated volume:

Many years later, God was going to send another Messenger with the same wonderful message. Like Jonah, he would spend three days in utter darkness. But this Messenger would be God’s own Son. He would be called “The Word” because he himself would be God’s message. Everything God wanted to say to the whole world – in a Person.

As I read these stories to my grandson, every one of them reminds me that he must see Jesus. He must know that the Word was written that we might come to know and love Jesus, the one true God.

Give this book to your children’s teachers. Give this book to your children’s parents and grandparents. While they are reading to the children, they will also be learning that “every story whispers his name.”

Kingdom Disciples: A Product of Covenant Faithfulness

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By Eric Wallace

The latest research reveals that 75% of the children raised in evangelical churches are leaving the faith. It appears that the church is hemorrhaging its covenant children out into the culture. Did Peter know something that we don’t when he preached, “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off…”?

children-150.jpgA heart for seeing this promise fulfilled is what brought together 20 passionate leaders from around the PCA on May 4th to discuss the 2020 Vision Strategy for Growing the Church Through Ministry to Youth and Children.

Having been a children’s ministry leader in the PCA, and having met many children’s and youth ministry leaders over my 21 years of ministry, I can say that the efforts of the men and women who faithfully and lovingly serve on staff are not in question. In fact, the problems we see cannot be laid at the feet of these programs.

I submit, as I did at this meeting, that we’ve lost sight of some very basic biblical principles. A renewed focus on these principles could make the difference in seeing Peter’s promise move from elusive dream to reality.

On one hand, Children and Youth ministry leaders are saying, “We’re doing all we can, but we can’t disciple children in one hour per week. We need parents to step up to the plate.” On the other hand, parents are maxed out, stressed out, and sometimes checked out of the daily process of making kingdom disciples of their own covenant children.

The Word of God Provides the Solution in a Simple Pattern

What does God’s word tell us about how God expects us, through the power of His Holy Spirit, to establish covenant faithfulness in the home? I begin with a short story.

I remember one Christmas Eve becoming quite frustrated while putting together a toy for my son. I finally, humiliatingly, after two hours of exasperation, found the directions and actually read them. I learned that I had missed an important step. I imagine anyone reading this has had the same experience at some time or another. The pieces are all there, but they were not put together in proper order. Successful completion of the project remains elusive until we read, or re-read, the directions.

What we discussed at the May 4th meeting was a sort of “re-reading” of the directions for making kingdom disciples.

Very simply, it looks like this:

The Simple Pattern for Covenant Faithfulness in the Church and in the Home


  1. There is a presupposed pattern submitted to, pursued, and applied for God’s glory and our good, which when rightly applied has one central motive.
  2. The aim of this pattern is heart-level obedience. (True godly desires verses bare-legalistic duty-oriented behavior).
  3. Heart-level obedience is lived out through heart-level relationships with God and one another (You shall love the Lord your God…and your neighbor…) which are the ultimate end to which we are all accountable.
  4. This heart-level obedience and these relationships are not indiscriminate but maintained along covenantal lines (e.g. marriage, family, church).
  5. The primary methodology of growth in regards to heart-level obedience and heart-level relationships is speaking the truth (the gospel) in love within these relationships, for which we are all accountable to know and to be known.
  6. This growth, otherwise referred to as sanctification or renewal in the likeness of Christ, involves putting off the old man with its lusts and putting on the new man (Christ in you). The love that comes from Christ to God and others, being rooted in the accomplishment of Christ and applied by faith, makes covenant faithfulness not only possible but expected, and not a burden but a joy.
  7. Heads of Households are men (or single women, or women unequally yoked to a non-believer) with the responsibility of overseeing this heart-level transformation for their households.
  8. Overseers (elders) are men assigned to see to it that this transformation is being faithfully maintained in the broader Household of God (the Church). Practically speaking, overseers accomplish their jobs primarily by graciously equipping and holding responsible those whom God holds accountable (heads of households).

How to Re-emphasize This Pattern

The challenge that we began to discuss at the 2020VISION meeting was how to re-emphasize this basic pattern in our churches.

I will begin by stating what this does not mean. It does not mean a jihad against church programs. Truth is, these programs can actually help facilitate the re-establishment of this pattern and even enrich it. But let’s be clear, if the simple pattern is not vigorously and intentionally at work, these programs carry a load they were never intended to carry and as we have seen cannot fabricate covenant faithfulness.

What this does mean – In the midst of supporting our Children’s, Youth, and Sunday School ministries, this pattern should be heartily pursued no matter what else is happening programmatically because it represents what God has already clearly revealed in His word to guide us.

The place to start is with the establishment of this basic pattern of covenant faithfulness in the entire body of Christ. The big picture is beautifying the Church: the Bride of Christ. Do we really believe Ephesians 4:15-16? Are we building each other up by speaking the truth to one another in love? Faithful shepherding-and accountability-by the elders of the heads of households to fulfill their role is a clear biblical element that must be re-established if we are to accomplish covenant faithfulness and produce kingdom disciples.

Heads of households pursuing covenant faithfulness in the home is not a’ nice-to-have’, but a primary, foundational and non-optional element in the church’s ministry.

This represents an exciting challenge for elders, ministry leaders, heads of households, Christian Education and Publications and Great Commission Publications. The need for resources now extends well beyond curriculum for classrooms and includes resources for elders and heads of households to help them grow in their understanding and application of this biblical model.

Our rich covenantal theology has given us a simple pattern that we must livein order to see Peter’s promise realized in our time…and beyond.

2010 Reformation Insert: Liberation of the Church

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Reformtion10v1_Page_1 - 220.jpgThe 2010 Reformation Inserts are here! This year we celebrate Reformation Sunday on October 31st. Reformation Sunday is a time to celebrate our theological roots. It is a great opportunity to educate our congregations on the importance of what the Reformers did and the implications that it has for us today.

This year’s insert focuses on the Liberation of the Church. The insert explains how the church had reached a point that was outside of God’s creation design for it, and had actually even come to have a tyrannical hold on Christianity. To read more about how God sovereignly has worked through history to redeem his people, click here to read the entire text of the insert.


Click here to order the Reformation Insert

Let Me Be a Woman

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By Tara Barthel and Amy Laverman

The phrase “let me be a woman” provocatively incites preconceived ideas of what kind of woman one is to be. The onslaught of feminist culture brazenly takes hold of our daughters and persuasively tells them, “Why shouldn’t you use your gifts and be rewarded? You deserve pleasure, prestige, money, and power!” Third-wave raunch feminism assaults us daily. This tsunami confronting our covenant children is such that without the faithful proclamation of God’s design for male and female role relationships, we will fail in discipling the next generation.

The need to talk about biblical womanhood roused two women in a small PCA church in Billings, Montana, to develop and offer a summer Sunday school class for teen girls. Years ago, older women had taught Tara Barthel and Amy Laverman the joy and freedom of biblical womanhood, and this past summer, they did the same for thirteen young ladies ages 12-22. Together, they delved into the rich theology of “equal but different” and the proactive beauty of “helper,” all while enjoying deep conversations over fancy coffee with creamers to help set the mood.

“I learned far more from these young women than I could ever imagine they learned from me,” Tara says in reflecting on the class. “It’s one thing to believe these theological truths in theory. It’s another thing entirely to actually live them out in a world that rejects and scorns such ideas and ideals.”

Using the core CEP Women in the Church materials as a springboard for their class content and discussions, Tara and Amy challenged the girls to think biblically. “And they met the challenge,” Amy explains. “Even at their young ages, the theology of what God says about biblical womanhood and manhood resonated and made an impact. Their eyes were glued on us as we taught. They pushed back when concepts were hard to grasp or difficult to accept as biblical truth. And week after week, they not only came back wanting more; they brought along new friends, too.”

Tara - 276.JPGWhen Amy was in her late teens, her pastor’s wife started a discipleship study with several young women in the church. She led the group through a rigorous, in-depth study of womanhood and marriage. “It was a pivotal time in my life. I longed for Christian friends so I joined the group, but the challenge of reading difficult books containing biblical truths, like Bible commentaries and Puritan writings, turned my gaze away from the allure of the world only to then see a glorious God with a glorious purpose, authority, and mission for my life,” reflects Amy. That watershed class for Amy propelled her on a trajectory of living out her helper design.

“I started learning about biblical manhood and womanhood pretty much as soon as I was saved by God as a teenager,” Tara explains. “Thankfully, God put me in a church where servant leadership gave me a sweet introduction to the blessing of submitting to ecclesiastical authority. Male headship was a gift to me-for the first time in my life, I had fatherly protection and fatherly care.”

“But I also had to wrestle with some hard questions as I continued to grow in grace and mature in the Lord,” Tara continues. “I didn’t have a family that would take care of me until a suitor would come along a la Jane Austen and move me from one home to the next. If I didn’t work, I wouldn’t eat. So I sought counsel from wise, spiritually-mature men and women as to what biblical womanhood would mean in my specific life situation.”

“Thankfully, I learned that God’s Word is sufficient! And real-life may look a little different for each person-for me it meant learning about things like piety and domesticity at the very same time I was earning my law degree and MBA-but God’s principles remain the same,” Tara continues. “Because of the patient love and generational discipleship I received through relationships in my local church, I learned to delight in getting to be the girl! Even when I was still single, I began to learn how to encourage and support the leaders in my life. I no longer wanted to live up to the feminist ideals that indoctrinated me during my 1970’s childhood. Instead, my heart was turned toward Christ, his Kingdom, his Bride, my home, and my opportunity to serve my community and the world-as a woman.”

Generational Discipling

At Rocky Mountain Community Church, generational discipleship is a priority. “It takes a church to raise a child,” says one pastor, “not to overstep the bounds of parents but to come alongside and assist parents as they bring up their children in a greater love for God and others.” Over the years, RMCC has provided activities and classes for parents and teens, as well as discipleship relationships between adults and young adults. One parent commented, “It’s so important for my girls to have relationships with other women in the church. The more they are connected to our covenant family through authentic relationships, the more likely they are to work through issues of faith, unbelief, temptations and trials right here, in our church family.”

This generational emphasis spurred Tara and Amy to be even more deliberate in discipling young women in their church.

To do so, they first sought counsel from their husbands and pastors as to the possibility of offering a class for young women during the summer weeks. Then, modeling the very principles they taught in the class, Tara and Amy asked the pastors to oversee both an introductory meeting and a conclusion meeting at the close of the class. The parents of class participants were strongly urged to attend, but everyone in the covenant family was invited-single, married, young, and old.

“I was so happy that the pastors wanted everyone in the church be invited to learn more about this important topic,” explains Tara. “We had some new, adult-convert, believers in our women’s study this spring and they were very interested in learning more about what the Bible says about manhood and womanhood, authority and submission. And even my husband, Fred, is trying to be more proactive in using biblical terms as he encourages and leads our two daughters.”

At the first church-wide meeting, only a small group of people showed up. But by the end of the summer, even more people were interested in the topic. The girls themselves asked for more studies and mentoring relationships, and the parents of the girls asked for future training as well. One mother said, “It’s not enough to talk to our girls about the worldly, idolatrous desires in their hearts and how they have to repent. They know a lot of that truth already. What they need to hear is the glorious calling and purpose God has for them. This will give them a vision for the mission God has planned for their lives.”

“This is our goal,” both Tara and Amy agree, “not to argue or become bogged down in the details of daily living, because each of these girls are faced with a unique, complex future that God’s Word will guide them through. Instead, we hope to show them what proactive devotion looks like. We strive to hold forth God’s Word with winsome humility and blessed happiness, with the hope that these young ladies will see in our lives a cheerful, intentional desire to help our leaders-in the church, home, and community.”

By all accounts, this inaugural summer biblical womanhood class was a huge success. Even the young ladies who didn’t agree with the principles taught in the class kept coming back. “We really tried to be safe, humble, friends to them,” Tara explains. “We wanted to teach these principles, of course. But more so, we were just thrilled to be invited into their hearts and lives. We wanted them to know that we loved them and we were committed to them.”

Tara and Amy shared a comfortable method of co-teaching, and the girls were engaged and vulnerable in their participation. They did the hard work of looking at Genesis 1-3, and then reflected on their redemption in Christ and its ramifications. Head-nodding and easy agreement was not accepted. Hard questions were encouraged. Even “embarrassing” and “unmentionable” topics like sexual temptations were discussed with candor. Without hesitation, they talked about the virtues of biblical womanhood and the beauty of words that sound so demeaning in our culture.

Most of all, they reveled the intoxicating beauty and purity of the Lord Jesus who, though we have not seen him, we love him … “and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Peter 1:8). In the final class, Amy and Tara were thrilled when the girls enthusiastically said, “We wish this class would never end!”