Archive for 'parents'
KidsLife Blog Intro
Posted on July 10, 2008, by steven kelly, under children, parents.
Good Morning and a happy Friday to those of you in LifeChurch land! I was excited at this blogging idea until getting a chance to read the blogs I have to follow. Nice work so far, everyone.
My blog will be mainly for those of you trying to raise kids in one of the most difficult environments imaginable. Southern California. I will keep you in the loop as to new developments and current happenings of KidsLife. I would also love to field any questions that you may have in regards to raising your children to serve the Lord and reach their full potential in Him. Please send your inquiries to stevenk@getlife.tv. All questions will be anonymous.
I should probably start by answering a few of your questions about myself. For those of you who do not know, I am not married. I do not have children. However, fourteen years of Children’s Ministry has taught me a lot about children. And from a far more unbiased perspective than one who has his own children. (Fourteen years of working with children may also have something to do with it.)
I truly believe that children are the key to mass evangelism. I also have the facts to back this up. The statistic that is my rallying cry is 43%. That is the number of percentage of people in the United States who accept Christ during their elementary years. Once an individual is of college age, the likelihood of them accepting Christ as their personal Savior drops to only twenty percent and remains for the rest of their lifetime. That means that in this country nearly eighty percent of the battle for eternal life is fought outside of the sanctuary.
I am honored to be fighting the Good Fight here at LifeChurch. One of the first things I noticed when I first passed through the doors of LifeChurch in January was that this place believed in children and backed it up with resources.
I cannot express enough thanks to Pastor John and the staff of LifeChurch, both pastoral and volunteer, who have made this department possible. So many of you have put in a lot of extra time and energy during this transition and have done so without complaint. We are still in the midst of a lot of changes and restructuring and we appreciate your patience
I have had the opportunity to meet with a lot of you during our weekend services. Two things. First of all, thank you so much for your feedback. There is no other blessing quite like hearing from parents excited about the spiritual growth of their children. When they mention something they have learned at home or are taking the things that we have studied and putting them into practice, it always makes our day to hear about it. As KidsLife staff, we sometimes wonder if what we are doing is really making a difference. It always helps us do our job better when we know of some of the fruit it is producing. We never get tired of feedback!
The second thing is this. I am sure some of you have questions, concerns, or maybe you just would like some more information on an upcoming event or program. Maybe there is a serious situation you are dealing with in regards to your child or children. Maybe you just need to ask, “is this normal?”
I do my best to field as much during the weekend as possible, although sometimes I may be a bit distracted while handling the many things that pop up during the course of a service.
If for any reason, you need more that a scant moment of my time, please feel free to contact me either via email at stevenk@getlife.tv or by phone at (951) 704-9590. I am currently bi-vocational, so my office hours are not currently regular. I will, however, do my best to meet with you or just answer any questions you may have. Most of all, I want you to know that I am here for you and your children and it is my mission to see develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and grow in the ways of the Word so that they can take bring His Life to the valley!
Thanks for reading. Next week’s will be shorter.
-Pastor Steven Kelly
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sleep
Posted on July 8, 2008, by steve ingold, under parents, teens.
hey everyone it’s steve ingold and alex has been asking me to blog for about 10 years now, well maybe not that long, but i am finally doin it. as summer hits it’s midway point i am now starting to realize how crazy my life is and how many different things i have going right now. last night i didn’t go to sleep til about 3:30am, not by choice, but because of a combination of things. one being that my wife and my air conditioning isn’t quite working the way it should be, two my wife spent the night down in san diego at her folks house so she wouldn’t have to drive up to temecula, then back down to san diego for work today. It was her mom’s b-day yesterday so we were kinda haning out for dinner and stuff down there. (sorry to get so sentimental there, i missed my wifey) finally, the third reason why i couldn’t fall asleep last night is because my mind was going about a million miles a minute. with hume lake approaching this week and the road trip for the high schoolers following the week after, i can’t stop thinking about all that needs to happen and all of the questions that need to be answered. then i start thinking about the rest of my summer schedule, our mid weeks, our saturday night hang out night, teaching on sunday morning, and i think i actually start to get a little stressed out. BUT HONESTLY, how rad is my job? i get to hang out with the coolest students and see their lives be impacted in such a positive way, however i have realized that i need to remember something…
my relationship with God. as we sat in our staff meeting today we went over a few dangers facing the church, and one of them was that our character can suffer because we begin to love the work we do for God and stop or cut back on investing time with our relationship the God that we love. This was a definite wake up call for me because I have begun to let my schedule dictate my life and i try to squeeze God in. For all the times that i have taught on hurry, and busyness, i can’t get it straight in my own life. Sometimes I wonder why God let’s me do this job when i choose to ignore him at times. What if God just squeezed me in? What if I wasn’t His primary focus? Problem is I am, and that needs to be reciprocated. Pastor’s that fit God into their schedule instead of fitting their lives into God’s schedule, are a train wreck waiting to happen. So I think I’m realizing that I don’t want that, less is more when it comes to my schedule, not when it comes to my relationship with God.
So i blogged and it wasn’t half bad, i think i’ll be back to this thing in three weeks when I’m back from my road trips and sumer camps. please pray for me, the ministry, and our junior high and high schoolers. thanks love you.
