How the Agnew 5 Are Really Doing

So, we are now a family of 5.  The new normalcy is settling in.  I’ve posted some precious photos and shared some cute sayings from the boys, but I’ve been asked a lot lately: ‘So, how are you guys really doing?”

Let’s see: we have a newborn over a month old, an almost-4-year-old, and a recently turned 4-year-old.  My wife has the enormous responsibility of managing 3 wild monkeys everyday.  I have a pretty involved job and the responsibility to have energy and drive once I get home to help out.

So, how are we really doing?

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Grain of Wheat

Special day at North Side!  We had some info on promotion Sunday (June 3rd), family dedication with 9 families, great time of worship, great interview video on “who was Jesus,” and a wonderful message!  Jeff’s teaching on John 12 was so good.  So much to take in considering how we are to lay our lives down just as Christ was anticipating his sacrifice for us.

Today, we worshiped to:

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I’m Now the Father of a 4-Year-Old

It’s with great disbelief that I tell you that today, I am the father of a 4-year-old.  Happy birthday Obadiah!  It is so hard to believe that you are already 4. The first time I held you in my arms, I remember my arms holding you awkwardly because I had never held that many babies. …

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Gloria’s Arrival

The Agnews were thrilled to become a family of 5 officially on Good Friday, April 6th when Gloria Beth came into the world.  I’ve been on a blog hiatus as my attention was needed with the growing clan, but I wanted to share with you some of her story that had some funny twists and some close calls which reminded me all the more to be grateful that God was so very gracious to us.

So, here is her arrival story and some pictures to share with you:

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“Glo – o – o – ria…”

We are now less than six weeks away from Gloria’s due date.  We are rounding the corner and realizing that the time is coming quickly now.  As we finalize preparations in the home, we are constantly talking about her arrival with the boys.

They love to sing and talk about their baby sister, but I almost fell on the floor laughing the other day when I heard what came out of Obadiah’s mouth.

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“Are You Calling Gloria?”

I had a wonderful time with a lot of extra time with the family over Christmas.  We played together, worked together, and even cooked together.  Obadiah (pictured above) and Eli gave me more funny comments than I could possibly handle.

One of those happened on a drive home on New Year’s Eve.  Two of our dear friends were nearing the due date for their baby girl.  I was calling them to encourage their baby to come out already and stop making her mom so uncomfortable.  Once I got the voicemail, I began to say things like: “Get out of your mom’s belly!  She’s tired.  We want to see you.  Stop messing around in there and come out already!”

What was said next almost made me pull over.

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Sowing Seeds

Today, I was blessed to be able and preach at my college roommate’s church.  I spoke on adoption (our adoption into God’s family and the need for children to be adopted into our families).  Praying that many families will either adopt or sign up for foster care. While I loved being there, I hated missing …

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Preparing Families for Worship

As mentioned earlier, the role of ministers are to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Eph 4:12). We do expect our parents to lead their families in worship, but we partner with them by providing family worship guides to equip the parents for this endeavor. Many approaches exist for how to equip families for time spent at the family altar. Like many other churches, we provide parents with information concerning what their children have learned in church programming they have attended. In addition, we provide weekly family worship guides that correspond with what we are focusing on together as a church body.

On Thursdays, I post a family worship guide that any family, regardless of size or context, can utilize before Sunday morning’s services in order to worship together. Some families do it on Saturday nights. Some families gather around the breakfast table on Sunday morning. Others go out to the park on an afternoon. It is a simple guide that is adaptable to different family situations.

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Bloodlines

Pastor John Piper’s newest book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, is now available. Earlier this year Crossway traveled with Pastor John to his hometown of Greenville, SC to revisit the world in which he grew up. This 18-minute documentary takes us through his experience of racism in the 1960’s American South. Watch the video above! …

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Family Worship Guides

I mentioned last week that I was making a big announcement during my message on Sunday, Sept. 25th.  I told the church that God had blessed me by leading worship and preaching at North Side, but I felt God was leading me to do something else.

I felt like God was leading me to lead worship in the homes of our church.  As we focused on family discipleship the last few weeks, my big application was for the leader of the home to begin leading the family in worship before they came to the church house each Sunday.  My commitment in the deal is that I will provide a worship guide each week by Thursday on the City so that they can lead their family in worship sometime before Sunday morning.

Last week was the first week I provided a worship guide.  The picture above is us taking our boys through the guide in our own home.  Since we were studying John 1 the next day in church, we spent some time focusing on that Jesus is the light of the world.  As we took our boys through some dark rooms in our house guided by a flashlight, we talked about how Jesus shone his light into this dark world.

I made the worship guide, but I also had to adapt some things to make it work in my home.

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