family ministry
CARING FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
FAMILY COMMUNITY GROUP
If you are a parent of children from crib-stage to college age, we warmly invite you to join our Family Community Group. We currently meet weekly on Zoom to strengthen our Christian marriages, support each other as discipling parents, and grow in faith and love together. Click the pic to find out more about who we are and when we meet.
Stay Connected
Stay discipling
Step 1 On Sunday (or the regular time you set aside), start off by praying with your whole family. Let your children know that you're entering into a time of worship and are seeking the Lord's help in understanding what He will reveal to us.
Step 2 Use the videos and teaching prompts to guide your children through the lesson. It is helpful for children to practice holding the Bible, looking up the Scripture, and reading or hearing you read directly from the Bible.
Step 3 Continue the learning with the age-specific Handout. Throughout your week, the lesson can be reinforced through the page's creative activities, Bible story review and application questions, the Christ Connection main idea, and activities you can share as a family.
Step 4 Continue to regularly share the Gospel with your children. This useful primer HOW TO PRESENT THE GOSPEL TO A CHILD will be helpful.
weekly growth
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
At the time Jesus was on earth, Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along. The strife between the two groups stretched back hundreds of years, to the Babylonian exile.
When the Babylonians attacked Judah, they moved a large group of God’s people away from their homes. But some of the people—the poorest, sickest, least able to work—were left behind in the region that became known as Samaria. The exile lasted 70 years. During that time, those left in Samaria began to mingle with their neighbors to the north. They intermarried and practiced foreign customs. While the Samaritans still believed in God, they adapted foreign beliefs as well.
The Jews who returned home from Babylon to rebuild God’s temple in Jerusalem rejected this new way of life. They were dedicated to obeying and worshiping God, so they didn’t agree with the Samaritans’ practices. The Samaritans opposed the Jews’ efforts to reestablish their nation. In time, the Jews’ hate for the Samaritans grew—so much so that a Jew traveling from Judea to Galilee would take a longer route to travel around Samaria rather than through it.
Jesus broke down barriers when He traveled to Galilee by way of Samaria. Even more surprising, Jesus stopped at a well around noon and asked a Samaritan woman for a drink. Jewish men did not speak to women in public.
But Jesus was kind to her, and He offered her a gift: living water. The woman didn’t understand, but Jesus revealed His knowledge of her past. He even gave her a glimpse of the future. The Samaritan woman expected a Messiah to come and fix everything. Jesus said, “I am He.”
The living water Jesus offers is the Holy Spirit. (See John 7:37-39.) The Holy Spirit is a gift that He is eager to give us when we ask Him. Those who receive His grace will never be thirsty again.
special teaching
family spotlight
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Should Parents Spank Their Children?
Is spanking ever OK? If so, what is good spanking and what is the goal of such discipline? Discover biblical answers to such questions in this helpful article.
