Girls for Truth

My mom recently reviewed this book for another website. She has been sharing the many truths that she has learned which in turn, have been encouraging to me. I’m looking forward to reading the book soon myself! As young adults, we are just as much a part of the church family as our parents and other adults. We often are looked upon differently. For example, as “the kids” in the church, as the “youth group”, or even as potential trouble makers! The truth is, as young believers, we are brothers and sisters in Christ commanded to love one another! Therefore, I recommend this book to all ages!

Stop Dating the Church! Fall in Love with the Family of God By Joshua Harris

Book Review by Tamara Thompson

After reading Joshua Harris’ book Stop Dating the Church: Fall In Love With The Family Of God, I instantly knew it was a message dear to my heart. After abruptly moving across the country for my husband’s job change, our family learned some very important lessons about ourselves. For one, we realized that we really had taken our great relationship with our church family of the last ten years for granted, and two, finding a new church is not the easiest thing to do!

As a biblical counselor, I’ve heard many excuses for why someone is no longer attending a church. Looking back, and sorry to say, I really had little compassion to offer any of these women, but over the last couple of years, while I’ve been struggling to “fit in” to a new church family, I have developed a whole new understanding of the kinds of things that held them back. I know that in God’s providence, by uprooting us from all that was comfortable, He shook up our lives to strengthen us and mature us. For this, I am thankful. I am also very thankful for all the struggles I’ve had to “fit in” to my new church family. Josh Harris’ book stirred me up and forced me to look at the sin in my own heart, deal with it, and left me in this place of thankfulness!

In light of the glorious truth that His Church is the bride of Christ, just dating the local church is not enough. In fact, it is sinful, and I’m the first to admit, before picking up this book, though I was regularly attending the same church every week, I was quickly becoming a church dater! In the Joshua Harris style that I love, Harris takes us back to his own experiences as a “church dater” and teaches us through his own growing that “God has something better for you and me than dating the church”.
Harris starts out by showing us what we are missing by just dating the church. Believe me, this alone, will whet your appetite to quickly read through the rest of the book! After this challenging introduction, Harris will change your perspective, correct your thinking, move you to love the body of Christ, and give you a vivid picture of what this will look like! Harris doesn’t leave us hanging with just a desire for a true relationship with a church family, he also clearly explains how to turn your relationship around and how to get the best out of your Sundays! Finally, he encourages us by reminding us that Jesus loves His Church, and because we love Jesus, we should love what Jesus loves!

You don’t have to be a church dater to benefit from this book. I already know that I will go back to it often throughout my life. Even if you are actively serving in your local church, this book will be very refreshing for you! I also highly recommend it as a resource for families to study together. Parents can read the book and then teach it to younger children in the home, and older children can read it for themselves! This is definitely a must-have resource if you are struggling with a child not wanting to go to church! Harris has filled his book with Scripture and timeless quotes from great men of God making this book a great tool for biblically teaching your children the importance of the local church and I pray that you and your family will be as blessed as we were after reading it!

Josh Harris has made available a study guide through his blog. Download the FREE study guide here!

Several years ago, my dad began working with the youth group in our church in Michigan. He took on the ministry role because he had a passion for the young people in the church. He had begun to see the trend of the large seeker churches pulling in kids by the hundreds with their social events, giveaways, and other forms of hoopla. Many of these kids were even being lured out of solid, Bible teaching churches like ours. After talking with many different families, he came to the conclusion that the expectation by these parents was that the church and the youth pastor were the ones responsible for their teenagers’ spiritual growth as well as their “Christian” social life. This reality sparked a passion in him that hasn’t died down since-the passion that all ministries to any age group in our church must have God’s Word and God’s Glory as the priority. He immediately turned the focus of his time with the youth to the teaching of Scripture and building relationships with not only the youth, but the families as well. As far as I can remember, he has always believed that being a youth pastor or a youth leader is not just working with teenagers, it is working with families, it is walking beside families, it is developing relationships with families, and it is living out the word of God with others in your church family!

In God’s providence, we now live in Georgia, and my parents are serving as part of the student ministry team alongside Nick Kennicott, Pastor to Students at Ephesus Church, who puts Christ and the teaching Scripture as his priority with the same passion for changing student ministry.
This past weekend, my dad had the privilege of attending the reThink Conference ’08 in Raleigh, NC. It was wonderful seeing my dad come home so encouraged and filled with joy, despite having lost his brakes shortly after leaving his hotel and having to leave his car there!

Here is what my dad had to say about his experience at the conference:

“It was truly a blessing to spend time with like minded individuals and I formed many new, edifying friendships. Also, it was encouraging to hear from so many men of God who came together with the same burden to rethink student ministry in our churches.”

Alex Chediak flew in from California to live blog the event. Check out his thorough conference recap here.

Also, please check out these blogs by Mike Hall, Mike Seaver, Deb Burton, Mike Williams, and Nick Kennicott. Also, be sure to add Lasting Divergence to your must read blog list!

Modern Parables: Living in the Kingdom of God is an original Bible study curriculum designed for people who like movies. It is the first in a planned series of film-driven studies on the parables. The films are uniquely designed to parallel the original parable and thereby drive the viewer back toward the Biblical text.

The 12-lesson study (with 6 additional lessons on cinema and theology) uses short dramatic films that explain Jesus parables using the particular strength of the cinematic medium. In other words, just watching the films helps teach the historical, grammatical, contextual and interpretive elements in the parables. Modern Parables lets people grasp the parables at an immediate, gut level. This emotional immediacy enables them to engage the Bible in a powerful and compelling new way.

Pastor Nick is taking us through this DVD series in student ministries at my church, and I, personally, have spiritually benefited greatly!

The Modern Parables study can be used in family devotion time, as a homeschooling curriculum, or any small group setting. The series is available in DVDs and various digital downloads.

I recently reread a GREAT book by John MacArthur called Found: God’s Will. When we are zealous to serve the Lord, it is very easy to get wrapped up in searching for God’s will in the wrong places. It is almost as if we are looking for a mystical sign or a bull’s eye target. God’s will for your life is not hiding under a rock!

I HIGHLY recommend this awesome book to all of my blog readers! NO excuses! It is an easy read and a priceless resource!

Read the free web version here:
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Transcripts/80-310