Family

Prayers for the First Day of School

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In our community, many families are starting the school year today.  It is an exciting and yet anxious time for many. If your heart is concerned with anxiety or worry today for your family, I want to help give you some focus for your prayers. King Solomon was described as being wiser than any other man (1 Kings. 4:31).  He …

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Thank You, God, That We Get to Spend Time Together

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Eli, it is hard to believe that you are 7 years old!  Happy Birthday! Ever since I laid my eyes on you, I have been constantly amazed by your resolve.  You don’t let anything slow you down!  Whether it is reading or building or playing music, you find a way to get it done and get it done well.  It …

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Stronger Hands

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I can remember the day this picture was taken.  I was holding my newborn daughter, Gloria, in the backyard while our friend Paige did a photoshoot for our family.  We were near the two trees in the backyard that hold up the hammock.  As I extended her forward, I thought of how my hand surrounded her entire head and it …

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Family Night – Go Global

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Saturday’s night Family Night was incredible! Our team converted the Family Life Center into an airport, airplane, and African village!

What’s Family Camp About?

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At Family Camp, we want to help your family make a memory for a lifetime.

We know that it is very easy for a family to drift away from one another.  Special events and summertime trips are often reserved for parents paying for their children to go on trips with other people.  Oftentimes, many children and teens have their most pivotal, spiritual moments away from their parents.

We need to change that.

It’s time to bring the family back together.

At Family Camp, your family will be able to enjoy a week that is unlike any other week in your year.  Imagine a week that is part vacation, part marriage conference, part spiritual renewal, part youth camp, and part adventure and you get a taste of what Family Camp is all about.

FAMILY-CAMP

Family Night – September 27th

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In my new role as Family Pastor, I am putting together some steps to help families grow in Christ.  One of our first shots at this is something we are calling Family Night. We will meet together on Saturday, Sept. 27th from 6-8 in North Side’s Family Life Center. Bring your family to join with other families for North Side’s …

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Family Camp Video Recap

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Family Camp 2014 was incredible!  I will be sharing some stories later, but for right now, enjoy our end-of-the-week recap!

Family Camp This Summer

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I’ve been so encouraged by the messages, texts, and conversations I have received from yesterday’s message.  It seems to have struck a nerve for sure.  It is so encouraging to know that people want to step up and reach their families for Christ. I shared concerning a lot of camps and events that are happening this summer, but I wanted to …

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The Family Between Sundays

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We started the service with a great intro video focusing on Psalm 103.  After that, our worship team led us in some dependence on God songs as we focused on the family – “Everlasting God” and “Lord, I Need You.”  After that, we got to see a pretty sweet video of the upcoming VBS week.  You can register your children …

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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 said they wished something like …

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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 Gathering services in addition to …

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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 by numerous items, Gloria began …

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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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Grain of Wheat

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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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Gloria’s Arrival

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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…”

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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?”

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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

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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 out on North Side.  With …

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Preparing Families for Worship

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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

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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!  Incredible, honest, convicting.

Family Worship Guides

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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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Book of the Week: Raising a Modern-Day Knight

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Knight-boyI finished reading Robert Lewis’ Raising a Modern-Day Knight this week.  Lewis is the author of the Men’s Fraternity curriculum that has really impacted the men in our church.  I highly recommend this book to anyone raising boys!

Lewis teaches that most people have a poor definition of manhood in our society.  As fathers, our responsibility is not only to teach our boys what it means to be men, but to actually affirm that and call out the man in our sons.  He uses a lot of symbolism from medieval knighthood practices.  You may or may not copy his ideas, but what I walked away with most of all is that boys don’t become men by accident.  And they also remember what we celebrate and invest in.

He incorporates family crests, weekend ceremonies, and a whole lot of creativity.  He has some great theological and biblical teaching on manhood.  Coupling these two together makes a quick and idea-spurring read.

Top 5 ideas:

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What’s Your Family’s Motto?

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I’ve finally finished a book this week that I’ve skimmed a bunch.  It’s Raising a Modern-Day Knight by Robert Lewis.  The goal of the book is a father’s role in guiding his son to authentic manhood.

In it Lewis has some great points, but he uses a lot of symbolism tied to medieval knighthood ceremonies.  One of the things he utilizes with his sons is the family crest.  The family crest was put on shields or artwork and was the “logo” for the family.  It was a symbol of what the family stood for.  In his book, he shares how he has used the crest at different rites of passages for his sons (in a frame, in a ring, etc.).

I looked up the Agnew family crest and this is what it looks like:

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Family Resemblance

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1 Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.
(1 John 3:1-3, HCSB)

Family Resemblance

As a young boy, I would often hear from someone how one of my features resembled either my mother or my father. Some people could actually tell I was their child even if they had never met me. Now as a father, I always enjoy hearing from people who they think our boys look like. Sometimes I have left a room to have someone tell my wife, “I won’t tell your husband this cause I don’t want to offend him, but your children look just like you.” I always laugh at that. I’m not upset if my children look like their mother (I did choose to marry her, you know?).

It’s a fact of life: children share family resemblance with their parents. It might be the way they look, the way they talk, or they way they behave, but children often resemble their parents.

As children of God, we are called to do the same!

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I Forget My Son Is Black Until We Are in Public

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I don’t how to say this in a politically correct way, so I’ll just say it how I see it: I forget my son is black until we are in public. I’m not exaggerating.  I’m not trying to be spiritual.  It’s just the way it is.  When I go home at 5:00 today, I will have two boys run to …

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Happy Birthday Amanda!

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Today is Amanda’s birthday.  Everyday I am more and more amazed at how blessed I am to have such an extraordinary wife in my life! Next to Jesus, she is the greatest gift I could ever ask for in this life.  She is a treasure, she is my bride, and she is my closest friend. On her birthday, people celebrate …

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Marrying a Spouse, Inheriting In-Laws

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Scripture: (Gen. 2:23-25) 23 And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called woman, for she was taken from man. 24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and …

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Vacation Time

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It is long overdue. I am very tired.  It is vacation time. We are not going anywhere for the whole week.  We are going to make some special trips and do some special things, but most importantly, I am going to enjoy this: I’ve scheduled some blog posts this week while I am away, so feel free to check back …

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What’s Big in the Works?

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A lot of exciting stuff is going on in my world right now.  Very exciting times with some things coming to a close and other things just beginning.  Thought I’d give you an update on some of them: Light at the End of the Seminary Tunnel – My approved draft of my dissertation is due September 1 to graduate in …

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Inlaws or Outlaws?

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Scripture: (Gen. 2:23-25) 23 And the man said:
 This one, at last, is bone of my bone,
and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called woman, for she was taken from man. 24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his …

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28 Blessings

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Yes, it’s true.  Today is my birthday.  I am a whopping 28 years old today.  So much to be thankful for, I thought I would list 28 reasons why on the 28th of July I am a grateful man: “But God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)! My …

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Chapter 13: The Family (Freshman 15 Snippet)

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Here’s a snippet from Chapter 13: The Family: One of my favorite movies when I was a child was the Christmas classic, Home Alone. If you remember the plot line, Culkin’s character, “Kevin,” had a pretty awful family.  He had a brother Buzz who wanted to feed him to his tarantula.  He had to bunk with his cousin Fuller who …

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Your Kids’ Best Chance

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Today, we started the Legacy series at North Side.  I started it out with a message entitled “Your Kids’ Best Chance.”  You can listen to it here.  May is going to be an incredible month as we focus on the family.  I am so excited for what is in store.  Are you ready to see your home change?  Remember, my …

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Your Own Front Yard

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What a Sunday.  I am still thinking about things that God was teaching me yesterday.  It was truly an incredible day.  Highlights: Peak – Being led in worship by our Peak band is always a privilege.  They love Jesus and it shows. CD Release – I was so thrilled to hear that so many people picked up a CD yesterday …

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Crisis of Belief

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Another great Sunday today.  We have one more week of Experiencing God after today, and this series has been huge in the life of our church.  Each week, I hear more and more of all that God has been doing in the lives of people at North Side.  People are truly living with their eyes wide open and God is …

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Fun with Photo Booth

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Last night, Obadiah and I were celebrating my birthday when we discovered one of our newest, funnest things to do together: play on Photo Booth. Photo Booth is an application on Mac computers that are one of the many reasons Macs are fantastic. You can take pictures or video right from your computer, but you can also do funny things …

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