Happy New Year!

In our desire to equip parents as they “train their children up in the way they should go,” we have created a blog series to communicate the lessons our kids will be learning each Sunday, family verses to memorize together, and resources to help you as the parent to disciple your children.

Renew Kids

The word “disciple” means to intentionally impact the life of someone in the direction of being more like Jesus.

Disciples follow Jesus and help others follow Him too.

Every week faithful servants enter into this discipleship process with the children in Renew Kids. Their are three classes every Sunday: Nursery (ages birth-3), Primary (ages 3-6), and Challenge (ages 6-9).

This Week’s Family Verse (The Word of the Lord)

All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall but the word of the Lord stands forever.
—1 Peter 1:24-25


Family Verses & Scripture Songs

We are trying something new for our family verses. Music is a great way to help us memorize and to have fun doing it. Our family verses will be from the Seeds Family Worship. This week we will begin Seeds of Faith (Volume 2).

Primary Class 

Our curriculum for the Primary class comes from The Gospel Project for Kids and systematically teaches the stories of the Bible starting in Genesis and finishing in Revelation. We are currently studying the Old Testament going through the life of Joshua all the way to the life of Samuel.

Unit Focus: God Judges His People

Because His people continually fell into a pattern of sin, God raised up judges to help refocus the people’s faith and trust in Him. God used the judges to help deliver His people from their enemies. While a judge was still alive, God saved the people from their enemies, but when the judge died, the nation would lapse back into sin and again need salvation through another judge.

Unit Key Passage

For the Lords is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us. —Isaiah 33:22

Bible Passage: Judges 6-8

Main Point: God used Gideon’s weakness for His glory.

Big Picture Question: How does God accomplish His plan? God uses people for His glory and our good.

Discussion Questions 

1. Who attacked Israel after they turned away from God? (Midian, Judg. 6:1)
2. What did God’s angel call Gideon? (a mighty warrior, Judg. 6:12)
3. Did Gideon’s fear stop God’s plan? (No, God used Gideon’s weakness for His glory.)
4. How many men did God choose to fight the Midianites with Gideon? (300, Judg. 7:7)
5. How does God accomplish His plan? God uses people for His glory and our good.

Christ Connection: The Israelites cried out to God because they knew they could not save themselves. Even Gideon was not enough to save them; God used Gideon to save His people, but God fought the battle for them. The people needed someone who was mighty to save. Jesus Christ came to save us from sin because we cannot save ourselves. Only God, through Christ, can save us.

Challenge Class

The Challenge Class will be doing a 9 week study on the book of Ephesians. Ephesians is a letter that Paul wrote from prison to the people of Ephesus.The great theme of this letter is God’s eternal purpose to establish and complete His body, the church of Christ. In this letter Paul discusses predestination, Christ’s headship over the body, the church as the building, the mystery of Christ, spiritual gifts, and the church as the bride of Christ. In the Challenge Class we focus on learning to study and read the bible and hear what God is trying to tell us through scripture.

Challenge Study

This week we will be introducing the book of Ephesians and studying Ephesians 1:1-14. We’ll also use the Seeds of Worship song for our Scripture memory verse.

Scripture Memory Verse (The Word of the Lord)

All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall but the word of the Lord stands forever.
1 Peter 1:24-25

Discussion:

In the Challenge Class we really encourage the kids to ask questions and think about how the scripture is alive for them today. We would really like encourage the parents to continue to model this at home with open ended questions about the scripture we are studying. The goal of the Challenge Class is for the kids to be able to read and study the bible themselves with the help of their parents and teachers as they grow in Christ.

Ideas:

  • Where do we see the gospel in this Scripture?
  • How does this scripture apply to your life?
  • What does this scripture tell you about God?
  • What did you learn this week?

 Hannah Hoover and the World Race

We heard from our own Hannah Hoover about her joining the World Race, which began in October. (She’s in Vietnam now!) The Challenge Class is excited to follow her during this journey and are committing to praying for her regularly. Here is the link to her blog: Hannah Hoover