Helping to Spread the Word for our Friends

We have dear friends in Florida that are selling their home and moving to Missouri. They have created a very nice and unique blog to advertise their home. Please check it out and feel free to pass it on to anyone you may know who is looking for a little country home in Florida.

http://floridacountryhouse.blogspot.com/

Family Integrated Church Article

This was sent to us from a member of our church in Arizona. I thought it was very interesting and wanted to share.

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Families should worship together. This past Sunday during our sharing time after the sermon, a five-year-old boy asked for the hand held microphone. "I’m getting baptized today!" Simeon began. "I know Jesus died on the cross for me. And he rose for me. I asked him into my heart and I’m ready to get baptized. I love Jesus and I know he washed my sins away."

In some churches in our land, an increasing number, Simeon would not have even been allowed in the service. The movement towards removing children from "adult church" has grown exponentially. I hear testimonies every now and then from people who, while visiting relatives, are told by ushers at the door of the sanctuary, "I’m sorry, you can’t bring your children in here. They have their own worship service in the education wing." One family I know tried to smuggle their kids into the Sunday morning service (and they were members!), but got ugly glares and stares from those sitting around them every week. They finally gave up and went to another church.

What’s the big deal, you ask? I believe it is a huge deal, a deal of biblical proportions, and I am not trying to be funny. We are losing a generation of young people who have grown up in the church. As soon as they have the opportunity to walk away from the faith of their fathers, they are doing so, in record numbers. A USA Today poll in 2007 estimated that 85 percent of students who enter college professing faith in Jesus Christ renounce that faith by the time they leave school four years later. In 2002, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Council on Family Life reported that roughly 88 percent of evangelical children are leaving the church shortly after they graduate from high school.

There are lots of theories as to why the young people are leaving the church. Some believe it is because church is not "fun enough" once you get past the teen years. You have been entertained and catered to as you have moved from children’s church to youth group, and suddenly you are on your own, thrown into the daunting world of "adult church"and it is distasteful to you. That may very well be true, which is perhaps why some believe the "emergent church" is simply children’s church for adults.

I have a theory that is shared by increasing numbers of people across the nation. That theory is that children learn best by worshipping with their parents. Rather than being served juice and cookies and a fast-paced multi-media presentation of Daniel in the lions’ den, they are hearing expository preaching through the book of Ephesians. They are sitting next to Dad and Mom, who are listening to the sermon, taking notes, and then interacting with the congregation afterward with discussion and questions. Our experience over these last 22 years has been that these young people leave home with their faith intact, raise their own children, and disciple them to follow Christ.

The key to this "movement," if you want to call it that, is biblical leadership provided by the father. Men who catch the vision for bringing up their own children "in the training and admonition of the Lord" are seeing amazing results in their marriages, their families, and in their own hearts.

If you want to learn more about the family-integrated church, I invite you to join us at Antioch May 1-2 for a national conference: "Rebuilding Old Foundations." Go to www.antiochfic09.myevent.com to learn more and to register. I hope to see you in a few weeks.

J. Mark Fox is pastor of Antioch Community Church on Power Line Road in Elon, NC. His books, "Planting a Family-Integrated Church," "Family-Integrated Church," and "Real Life Moments: a Dad’s Devotional," are available at Amazon.com. E-mail Mark at markfox@antiochchurch.cc

Playing Around

A sleeping cowboy

A southern gentleman

Draw!

Sadie the baker with her honey wheat bread, not from a box

How we entertained ourselves during the ice storm, power outage - "Little Red Riding Hood"

Little Red & Grandmother

Grandmother & The Big Bad Wolf

taking their bow

Florida feet in Oklahoma ice

pretending to fall ; )

They really do love each other

This stuff is neat!

Sisters, having fun

Flash from the Past

Who are these babies : ) ?

Sadie & Daniel Franklin, Benny Miller, Peter & Markie Discher at Daniel's sixth birthday party. My how they have all grown up to be such fine young ladies and gentlemen.

My Soapbox

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...

Have the people running this country ever read the Constitution?

Our government has NO RIGHT

• to stop a student from thanking Jesus for her academic success or
• to forbid a coach from praying with his team or
• to force anyone to act against their conscience (a woman has a right to choose to have an abortion, but a medical professional does not have the right to choose not to perform an abortion?!)

This brings me to the Hippocratic Oath, which originally stated...

"I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion."

According to Wikipedia, the Hippocratic Oath has been altered or "in an attempt to legitimize abortion, cultural and social forces have induced many American medical schools to abandon the Hippocratic Oath as part of graduation ceremonies."

I realize that this is a family blog that exists for the purpose of posting the day to day activities of our family, but I have just about had it with the constant attacks on Christians in this country and I just needed to get this off my chest. I realize we may actually be coming to the end of the age, but I also realize that "calling evil good and good evil" is almost as old as time.

"But as a woman rebelleth against her husband: so have ye rebelled against me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. ... For my people is foolish, they have not known me: they are foolish children, and have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do well they have no knowledge." (Jeremiah 3:20; 4:22) (1599 Geneva Bible)

We must know for ourselves what is in our Constitution. Did you know that it is "UNCONSTITUTIONAL" for our government to prohibit the free exercise of religion? It is time we stopped letting the minority rule. Why is it alright to censor free Christian speech because it might offend someone, but not alright to censor vulgarity even if it offends someone?

I leave you with this thought...

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their RIGHT, it is their DUTY, to THROW OFF such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

The Declaration of Independence

The seemingly never ending time travels

As I wrote earlier, my parents were here to visit us right after Christmas. My dad is a professional Santa Claus and they both worked the Santa set in Houston, TX this past season. We decided to invite some of our new friends to bring their children and/or grandchildren over for a visit with Santa. It was a nice excuse to have a little party while we were between flocks.

My dad with Dustin, one of our new friends

I finally had a reason to use the three tier serving tray my mom gave me a few years back!

homemade cookies

Not quite a Bell or Discher spread, but nice ; )

Suzie Bell's famous Coffee Frappe

Believe it or not I actually own three punch bowls and this was the first time I ever had need of one ; )

Sadie has become quite the baker. She is now required to keep both cookie jars filled under penalty of having to put up with whining from her biggest fans (Daddy & Mama).

heads or...

tails?

Traveling Back in Time - Part IV

Christmas - Part II

In our fourth trip back in time we find ourselves still enjoying Christmas. Patrick and I were quite consumed with the chicken houses (they went to market two days after Christmas). Since we hadn’t used our own Christmas decorations the past two years, we were quite anxious to use them this year. We had arranged the living room and accessed the decorations, but had not found time to put them up. We came in one day to find that the children had decorated without us. It was a pleasant surprise. They also surprised us by putting on a Christmas program. I have had a bit of a time trying to upload the video of the program. I'll try again later.

This is my old Christmas tree from college. Sandy, can you believe I still have it?

Our tree skirt with the children's hand prints painted on it is always fun to look at each year. My how they have grown ; )

Patrick built this stable when I was pregnant with Sadie. I remember discussing baby names as he worked on it.

being silly