Teach Your Children. Pew Principles.

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN.
Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church  (St. Louis, MO)


In this brief article, I hope to convey some parenting advice to teach your children while in the pew at Church.  We as a family have prayerfully and thoughtfully tried to implement these truths — and we are still working at it — and I hope and pray this will benefit other parents who strive to teach the children to sit and listen while in the House of God. Obviously, this requires must patience, compassion, consistency and prayer. May God equip and encourage and enable you to do this for His glory.


Stay awake.  
When we gather to worship God we must give full attention and devotion to the God of the universe because He deserves it. His character is so flawless and His person is so impeccable and when the gathered church assembles, we draw near to His immediate presence through Christ. Because this is true, parents must diligently teach the children to be alert, awake and focused during the worship service. Of course children squirm and their attention span may differ from child to child and depending on their age. However, parents must diligently strive as those who know their children best to call them to pay attention, to sit up, to stay awake, to look ahead and give God their full attention.

Have the Bible open.
Smaller children may not have their Bibles open simply because they do not read yet. However, as children grow and have the ability to read and follow along, it is my encouragement for parents to have their children take a Bible with them to church and do their best to open it, turn to the passage, follow along and benefit from the living Word. Of course, the Bible itself can be a distraction, especially if the children have a kids’ Bible with images and pictures. But parents must carefully and thoughtfully think about when to give their children a Bible and encourage the kids to have their own Bibles with them in church. It is my encouragement for this to be done as early as possible. The power is in the Word, the written and living and soul-converting Word.
 
Sit up and look ahead.
Part of the honor we give to God is giving attention and focus to the man who preaches the Word. When the congregation has gathered, it behooves parents to teach the children to sit up and look straight ahead during the worship service. This helps the children focus. And this also helps minimize distractions from those around them. Encourage your children to look straight ahead and focus on the song lyrics, the preaching of the Word of God, the word that is read publicly, and the corporate praying. This doesn't happen perfectly every time. But little by little, strive to teach the children by setting an example for them, sharing your expectations with them, holding them to this at home during family worship, and then reminding them before the service begins.


Be still.
Children love to fidget. And that is not always bad. But in the house of God, we must instill in our children the importance of being still in the presence of God and drawing near to listen to His Word. Work diligently in the home during family worship times to implement this with your children. Encourage them to sit still, to not fidget with toys or stuffed animals in their hands, and not to distract themselves with other things, but rather keep teaching and reinforcing and reminding them of the joyous duty and highest privilege to gather in God’s presence and hear from Him through the reading and preaching of His Word.  Keep at it. Stay faithful. Persevere!

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Sermon Application Questions (Some Examples for Self & for Others)

HELPS FOR AFTER THE SERMON:
QUESTIONS TO ASK OTHERS AND TO ASK YOURSELF

Here are some helps for *after* the sermon.  How can you hear the Word and exit with profitableness?  Here are some pastoral helps and ideas to exit with intentionality, focus, deliberateness, sermon-application for your own heart and for others. 

1. QUESTIONS to ask others (how do we talk with others?)
#1) how did that sermon challenge you?
#2) what do you need to change in your life because of that sermon?
#3) what did you learn from that text?
#4) how did God instruct your heart about His own character?
#5) what did God show you about yourself in this sermon/text?
#6) what did God show you about Christ & the gospel tonight?


Thomas Gouge admonished, “Had you ever tasted of the sweetness of this duty of Divine Meditation, you would finde little time for vain talk, and idle discourses, especially upon the Lords day.”

And:

2. QUESTIONS to ask myself after I hear a sermon
Questions to ask yourself after you hear the Word:
1. Is there change I need to implement in my life?
2. Is there sin I need to confess and repent?
3. Is there instruction I need to embrace and obey?
4. Is there doctrine I need to further study and apply? 

Luke 8:15 -- “But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance!

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Preaching Displays Pastoral Love.

PREACHING DISPLAYS PASTORAL LOVE.
Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church (St Louis, MO)    CFBCSTL.org

 

WHY AND HOW?

 

1.  it is the best way to feed God’s people.
The minister of the gospel who faithfully expounds the Word of the living God week by week provides the best diet, the greatest nourishment, the healthiest intake of divine blessing for the people of God. No greater pastoral way of shepherding God’s precious people exists! Feeding the flock of God necessitates a healthy diet of hearing from God through His Word. The best way to nourish God’s people, to strengthen them for Christian living, to motivate them for holiness, and to gladden them in the Triune God is to relentlessly preach the Word of God!

2.  it allows people to hear from God their Father.
Every believer has been brought into the family of God. Amazingly and divinely, it consists fully in the work of God. He has brought dead sinners to life and has transferred them into His very own Kingdom. Furthermore, he has adopted them into His family and views them as sons and treats them as such. Preaching is the voice of God the Father ministering tenderly and specifically to the hearts of His people. To refuse to preach the Word is to hinder the people from hearing from God for their good, growth, and joy. Preaching the Word is the way for the Spirit to minister His divine love to Christ’s people as the God-breathed Word goes forth weekly.

3.  it enhances the Spirit’s work thru the Word in lives.
The Bible that God has given to His people has been preserved, breathed out and powerful by the Spirit divine grace. As the man of God shepherds the congregation by preaching the Word, the Spirit of God marvelously and graciously works in the individual hearts of His own people to convict of sin, to expose error and faults, to glorify and spotlight Christ, to remind of Christ’s perfect redemption, to motivate godly obedience and true repentance. The preaching of the Word is the channel through which the Spirit matures, grows, and strengthens the people of God into the image of Christ.

4.  it provides stability and hope in shaky times.
Circumstances around the world change and world events totter constantly. However, the preaching of the Word of God is the unchanging, rock-solid bedrock for Christians to stand on while living in such shaky times. Wars and rumors of wars abound. Threats and violence and collapse of world systems seem to totter reel daily. But the shepherd of love who preaches God’s Word weekly, relentlessly, consistently, consecutively and powerfully demonstrates His Christlike care for God’s sheep as he helps them refocus on eternal things, that is, the things that really, ultimately matter.

5.  it cares for the greatest need of the people - soul-care.
The great need of all of God’s sheep is Christlikeness, the daily grace to walk with Jesus in holiness and in love.  Men of God know the great need of Christians is not to meet a ‘felt need,’ or to give people ‘what they want,’ or to ‘tickle the ears’.  Rather, men of God who are called by the Spirit and who minister the gospel understand the great need of the church is to preaching of the Word of God. It is the Word of God that reaches the very innermost part of man and shows Christ to the weary and needy soul.  


In conclusion, pastors who really love their people will consistently, weekly, prayerfully, and powerfully preach the Word of God! This is one of the greatest and most Christlike demonstrations of compassion and care for the people of God!  Shepherd: feed the flock of God with the Word of God. And in doing so, you tangibly demonstrate just how much you love them.

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8 Reasons To Pursue ACBC Certification.

PURSUING ACBC CERTIFICATION

Be a trained, certified biblical counselor with ACBC, The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.

 

 
8 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD PURSUE IT.


1. PERSONAL GROWTH AND KNOWLEDGE
As you work through the required steps toward ACBC certification you will understand more of God’s Word and increase your knowledge of God, of Christ, of the gospel, and how it specifically applies to everyday situations of life. The studies for the exams and the preparation for the counseling sessions will all drive you to a humble dependence on God and a desperate longing for His grace as you seek to minister the Word to hurting saints.

2. DISCIPLINE AND ACCOUNTABILITY
A wonderful result of pursuing the ACBC certification process is personal discipline. The phases of certification are intense and quite involved. They require time, planning, diligence, study, prayer, and thought. It will teach you and hone personal discipline as you prioritize the time for study and writing. It also will develop accountability and foster close relationships as you walk through it with others in your local church who wish to serve the Lord in biblical counseling.

3. BLESSING TO THE CHURCH
Being certified as an ACBC biblical counselor will greatly bless your local church. It will allow the church to send individuals your way who are current members of the church and need guidance, direction, counsel and help. It will greatly bless the church as those in the community reach out and need help with the many struggles of life. As you pursue counseling, you will find it to be a rich occasion for evangelism of the lost and a glorious encouragement as you meet with the saints and minister the Word to them in the context of your church.

4. GREAT DEARTH OF BIBLICAL COUNSELORS
Tragically, many churches view counseling as belonging to the “professionals” and the clinically trained. Many pastors and church leaders refer hurting people to Christian counseling centers or, worse, secular counseling. There exists a great need for biblical counselors who stand on the all-sufficient Word of God, in the context of the local church, depending on prayer and the power of the Spirit, who believe that Christ’s gospel has the power to transform hearts and lives for His own glory!

5. SEE LIVES CHANGED
The Spirit of God has the power to save sinners and also to sanctify God’s people. He exposes sin, brings conviction, and enables biblical change that honors Christ because of His indwelling and glorious ministry of sanctification. As you meet with individuals for biblical counseling, you will have the immense joy of seeing God at work in changing men and women for His glory. You will see marriages restored, sins defeated, struggles endured, and joy abounding as God’s people see how the Bible provides the rich and sufficient guidance they need to help them through the issues of life. What a joy to minister God’s Word to the hearts of God’s people and witness the Spirit of God at work in conforming them more into the image of Jesus Christ.  

6. A TOOL IN GOD’S HAND TO MINISTER TO HURTING SAINTS
One of the joys of biblical counseling (among many!) is when you are an instrument in the hand of God to help hurting souls. Your training and biblical knowledge, coupled together with your compassion and patient humility, powerfully serves men and women of all walks of life as they persevere through various trials of life in a way that honors Christ and obeys His Word. To walk alongside of people through this journey and see the hurting saints full of joy will enflame your heart with gladness in God and gratitude for what He’s done. Ponder how God may use you in a sharp instrument - honed, trained, chiseled, skilled, faithful - in ministering the Word to others for their greater sanctification.

7. THE PROCESS OF CERTIFICATION — ESPECIALLY PHASE 3
The entire process of certification is carefully designed to aid you in the equipping to be a skilled biblical counselor. But, in particular, phase 3 is one of the most profitable. This phase, the last of the preparatory steps, consists in you counseling individuals while being supervised by an ACBC “fellow” (a supervisor, a seasoned biblical counselor) who will meet with you and help you along as you counsel folks. This input is extremely valuable and practical. I found it to be the best part of my certification process. It helped me take many of the principles I had learned and been taught in the classroom and my ACBC fellow carefully, patiently, and specifically helped me implement these points in the counseling room so that I could minister the Word of God in the most effective way to my counselees.

8. THE HOPE OF HAVING A CFBC COUNSELING CENTER
One prayer that we have offered to God many times is that God would be pleased to raise up a solid biblical counseling center in St Louis. Think of having a biblical counseling center where there are trained, certified, skilled, and mature counselors who believe in the all-sufficiency of the Word of God, and who counsel under the authority of a local church, and who are available to minister to hurting people in the church, in the community, online, and through referrals.  Everyone is either hurting themselves or knows people who are hurting. Biblical counseling can be great evangelism opportunities (for unbelievers) and wonderful occasions to counsel the all-sufficient Word to believers who need help and guidance in life’s journey. ACBC will aid you and prepare you to be part of this team that we pray that God may raise up in the St Louis area in the future.

Podcasts on Biblical Counseling  |  HERE

Biblical Counseling at Christ Fellowship Bible Church  |  INFO

Class Notes on "Biblical Counseling"  |  HERE

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Older Saints Serving In The Church!

WHAT CAN THE ELDERLY/OLD FOLKS DO AT THE CHURCH?   How can the aging, the older, the senior saints do in the congregation?   

Here are some real practical "ministry-ideas of service" for you to consider:

• You could open your home periodically for a young couple/college students/other members for a home-cooked meal & a time of fellowship.
• You could write personal letters/encouragement/thank you cards to folks/families in the church.
• You could personally write and keep contact with your missionaries.You could open your home and have a weekly/bi-weekly prayer meeting for the church members.
• You could go online & take free courses on biblical counseling so as to be trained and equipped in God's Word to address any issue of life with the Bible.
• You could make a weekly phone call to each of the women & mothers at the church to encourage them, strengthen them, pray with them, share a verse with them, and ask how you can pray for them this week.
• As you are exercising and walking you could take a handful of tracts and hand them out to folks, put them on car-doors and 'evangelize'.
• You could get a stack of books on various topics about God, Christ, the Spirit, salvation, holy living, end-times, pastoral ministry, and read them all and then pass them on to others.
• You could arrive early at your church each Sunday and be a greeter and warmly welcome every person that comes into this building with a smile!
• You could be a prayer warrior - 1 hour in the morning for the preacher’s sermon preparation; 1 hour in the afternoon for the members of the church; 1 hour each evening for the gospel growth, revival, conversions, maturing of saints.

Isaiah 46:4 -- Even to your old age I will be the same, And even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.
 

Dear older precious saints, Spurgeon preaches:

    “Do not let the young people catch you indulging in melancholy [depression], sitting in your chimney corner, grumbling and growling, but go about cheerful and happy, and they will think ‘how blessed it is to be a Christian’ [when they observe you!]...
    If you are surly [grouchy, crabby] and fretful, they will think the Lord has forsaken you; but keep a smiling countenance, and they will think God’s promise is fulfilled.
    You can lead us to heaven if you have got heaven's sunlight on your face; but you will not lead us at all if you are snappy and ill-tempered, for then we shall not care about your company.
    Make yourselves cheerful with the people of God, and try to live happily before men; for so will you prove to us—to a demonstration, that even to old age God is with you, and that when your strength faileth, he is still your preservation.”

   

 So then, Precious Aged saints: what a model to follow! We need you!

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Some Parenting Encouragements

 Here is a compilation of parenting quotes for a project I've worked on. 

May these encourage all parents to remain vigilant and faithful in praying to God for the souls of our children and doing all we can to point them to Christ each day with gospel-proclamation supported by a holy and humble lifestyle. 

 

SOME PARENTING ENCOURAGEMENTS --

We have failed to understand that children and young people are not God-lovers until the Spirit changes them. They are dead to God. Our attempts at getting these young people to “pray the prayer” when they were small have not necessarily made them children of God. Their behavior belies the true state of their hearts. God has said that the only hope for them, therefore, is the regenerating work of the Spirit in the context of the preaching of the Word (James 1:18). However, our inadequate view of depravity and the inability of man has led us to resort instead to a greater confidence in entertainment to reach them and a minimizing of the use of the Word. If God has ordained that the Word and the Spirit are the only hope for these kids, then we should not avoid the means God has promised to bless.
    (Jim Elliff)

Children need to be saved and may be saved.  The conversion of a child involves the same work of divine grace and results in the same blessed consequences as the conversion of the adult.  But there is this additional matter for joy, that a great preventive work is done when the young are converted.  Conversion saves a child from a multitude of sins.  If God’s mercy shall bless your teaching to a little prattler, how happy that boy’s life will be compared with what it might have been if it had grown up in folly, sin, and shame, and only been converted after many days!  It is the highest wisdom to pray for our children that while they are young their hearts may be given to the Savior.
    (Charles Spurgeon)

Let’s rethink this matter of getting your children saved.  Perhaps one of the problems with this perspective is that it looks for a major spiritual event of salvation and misses the spiritual process of nurturing your children.  It is your task to faithfully teach them the ways of God.  It is the Holy Spirit’s task to work through the Word of God to change their hearts.  Even when the Spirit illuminates and quickens them to life, it is a life of progressive growth.
    (Tedd Tripp)

Godly parents cannot convert their children.  God alone can do this.  But they can lead them to Jesus, and bring them up in the fear of the Lord.  And when they have done this, they have done all they can do; for the Holy Spirit alone can change the heart.  They must be born again.  Christ has said it.  It is not a change of sentiment, nor an outward reformation of life; it is a new heart implanted by the Holy Spirit.
    (Mary Winslow)

“in every moment when you are parenting, you are being parented. In every moment when you are called to give grace, you are being given grace. In every moment when you are rescuing and protecting your children, you are being rescued and protected. In every moment when you feel alone, you are anything but alone because he goes wherever you go.”
    (Paul Tripp)

“So your hope as a parent is not found in your power, your wisdom, your character, your experience, or your success, but in this one thing alone: the presence of your Lord. The Creator, Savior, Almighty, Sovereign King is with you. Let your heart rest. You are not in this parenting drama alone. Your potential is greater than the size of your weaknesses, because the One who is without weakness is with you, and he does his best work through those who admit that they are weak but in weakness still heed his call.”
    (Paul Tripp)

More Parenting Resources can be found at the PODCAST page.

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The Office of Overseer in the Church

The Office of Overseer in the Church

Geoffrey R. Kirkland 

  

First Timothy 3:1 gives a simple statement regarding key ingredients of the office of overseer in the local church.  Here are a few of the key takeaways from the verse. 

 

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