Family

Early Bird Rates for Family Camp 2014

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For the last few summers, my dear friend Jody Jennings had asked me to go to Family Camp with him up North.  The concept of a summer camp for family was great, but the distance was just not feasible for us. I began to talk with friends about the idea, and over and over, people …

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“Did You Pay for the Beach?”

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The Agnews piled in the minivan in the middle of September for a 4-day trip to the beach.  We had just finished a month where we had started homeschooling and I returned to teaching at Lander.  We had started back up our college group at the house.  We had also just finished a week of …

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Just Like My Daddy

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Back in July, I took my boys to help out at Shake-n-Shine camp.  This week-long camp is an unforgettable week as our church takes children on camp that may not have a chance otherwise.  We have a 1-to-1 camper/counselor ratio to maximize impact. Since I normally lead the Mega Relay on Thursday night, I took …

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Bring the Family Back Together

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I’ve been haunted by a question lately: do most people’s most pivotal spiritual experiences happen with their family or without their family?

The more and more I talk with people, the same answer I continue to get.  Most people’s most pivotal spiritual experiences happen when they are not with their family.  It happens at youth camp or youth group.  It happens off at college with a group of peers.  It happens in a one-on-one conversation with someone outside the family.

While I praise God for all of those programs and people, I also find that a disconnect from the family serves to have long-term negative effects.  When youth group becomes your place for spiritual growth, those people have a hard time growing when they aren’t in the youth group anymore.  That student moves to college, that student pastor has new students to watch over, and unfortunately, that person no longer has a spiritual mentor in his or her life.

But, they should.  Dad and Mom should be the primary evangelist and disciple-maker in that child’s life.

Most people’s most pivotal spiritual experiences happen without their family.

And we need to change that.

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My White Daughter’s Black Baby Doll

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My white daughter’s favorite toy is a black baby doll. Here’s the story: Amanda was taking our three children through the international hoarders’ Mecca that you might know as Walmart.  With just a couple of items to purchase, the boys had convinced Amanda to take a quick trip through the toy department.  As they passed

1 Whole Handful

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paige stumbo photography (12)I am the father of a 5-year-old.

Obadiah has kinda been excited about it to say the least.  He has been telling everyone concerning his upcoming birthday.  Yesterday, someone told him that he would now be one whole handful at five years old.  That saying stuck and he has proceeded to tell everyone in Greenwood that.

This morning, I did what he asked me to.  I woke everyone else up to get close to his bed and sing “Happy Birthday” to him the first thing.  I asked him if he felt five, and he said, “No, I just feel 4 still.”

We have some exciting things planned for today and this month as we celebrate both of the boys’ birthdays.

What I love about Obadiah is how excited he gets about the small things.

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Take Your Kids With You

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I’m not the best father.  I’ve got plenty of issues I am working out.  God is still shaping me to father like he fathers.

But I have been learning a pretty solid secret of fathering as of late.

Ready for it?

When you go somewhere, take your kids with you.

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“Gloria” – Storytellers

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Over Christmas, we led the song “Gloria” at North Side a few times.  This song is included on the “Knowing Jesus” project and covers the incarnation part of Jesus’ life.  It’s the Christmas song.  Jesus came to us.

Back at our songwriting day at our house last year, Strutton, Evan, Linda, and Nancy had a small session to work on this song.  They had gotten stumped on parts of the song, but they came before the larger group with a 4-part choral arrangement of simply singing the word “Gloria.”  While it wasn’t long in length, I absolutely loved the beauty of it and knew that would be the foundation of the song.  The main melody became the instrumental hook at the beginning and throughout the song, and it also was the bridge of the song.  The final sounded very much like what was sung in my living room.

The chorus was written on the plane while I was traveling to Africa.  I was reading Luke 2 and just heard this escalating line in my head: “Glory to God in the highest.”  I recorded it on my phone while my traveling companions were sleeping so I wouldn’t forget it.  When I returned to the States, I opened up Luke 2 again and simply began to sing.  The majority of the song could be sung straight out of the ESV Bible with little variation to that text.  Love it when the Word takes over.  The remainder of the song was written in about 15 minutes as the Word and the music just kinda collided together.

Since the song would be a turnaround from the dramatic opener, we needed something to grab attention at the beginning.

I never thought I would find the beginning of the song sitting with my wife in the doctor’s office.

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Christmas Vacation

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So, what did you do on your Christmas vacation?  The North Side staff enjoyed some days with the offices closed between Christmas and New Years (all except for those things called “Sunday’s” stuck in the middle ;)), but today we are back to the grind.

My Christmas vacation was spent with the most 4 precious people in the world – Amanda, Obadiah, Eli, and Gloria.  Eli asked me every morning, “Dad, is this the day you have to go back to work?”  I eventually pulled out the calendar to show him when I went back, he then went running around the room saying he couldn’t wait to wrestle, build bonfires, play hide-n-seek, play Wii, and many other things.  He had my agenda planned.

So, what did I do?

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I’m Now the Father of Two 4-Year-Olds

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What a precious thought to wake up to this morning: my beloved son Eli is 4-years-old.

It’s hard to imagine that I have two 4-year-olds in the house now, but I couldn’t be any prouder than I am of these boys.  On Eli’s birthday, my heart is full of joy and my head is full of memories of all that God has done in and through him in his short life.

Eli, you are loved more than you could possibly know.  Not only by us, but you have been embraced by such a large extended family.  You were “uplifted” and yet you have done more uplifting of your own than most people have in their entire lives.

As you become the big boy age of 4 today, I wanted to give 4 perspectives of why 4 close people love you:

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