Kings and Propets of Judah / Israel Chart

Does anyone have a good online or image of a chart showing the kings and prophets of Israel?

For myself, and the students I'm teaching, I've found that having a chart to refer to really helps me to see how the history of Israel and Judah line up.

My Logos Bible Software has some charts that may be useful.

Post a comment below in response.  I'm eager to learn better tools to better equip our people!

Logos Timelines of Prophets and Kings

Elevator / Room Move Delayed

So close!

As of yesterday the elevator inspection has been delayed because of the unavailability for some electrical relays, required in order to pass. The relays are on order, but have not yet arrived and it is not going to be possible to complete the work and have the inspector come before Sunday. As far as the completion of the elevator depends on New Life we are now shooting for Sunday, December 12th. The work doesn't sound extensive so our part should be done.

Thus the usage of the new rooms will need to delayed.

We're getting there!  Thanks for your patience and understanding! 

On the positive side this gives us another week to paint our rooms!  The newly painted rooms look great.  Kudos to John Sutton's LG, Bob Hagman's LG, and Christian Brown's LG for jumping at the opportunity already!

Winter Schedule

Dear Life Group Teachers & Coordinators,

In an effort to give you as much notice as possible we'd like to make an announcement concerning our Sunday schedule for this winter. As we all know, winters in Oregon can be all but impossible to predict and are almost always more severe at night making the early morning hours perilous for travelers.

With that in mind, we will be altering our Sunday schedule during the winter months and will re-evaluate things again in the spring. The new schedule will be as follows:

• 9am        - Life Groups
• 10am      - Fellowship
• 10:30am  - Worship

• 5pm         -  Deeper Life Service

This new schedule will begin December12th. This will allow a couple of weeks to let everyone know and get ahead of the slick roads that we are already experiencing.

Obviously, the biggest difference will be not having an early service. Conducting a worship service requires more than just arriving at starting time. For many people like the greeters, audio/visual techs, nursery workers and staff, an 8:30 service means being on the roads as early as 7am. That's even more true for anyone serving in the worship band as they have a run-through every Sunday before service. Considering the low average attendance of the early service and the fact that we have ample space for everyone to combine into one service, it just proves prudent to make the change.

This also provides opportunities for us as a church to come together and strengthen our unity. We will be able to experience more fellowship than was possible before by offering a 30 minute fellowship time between Life Groups and worship. All age groups will have opportunity to mingle and get to know one another as we share coffee and refreshments together in the fellowship hall. Another advantage to the new schedule will be a pre-noon release time providing more time in the afternoon for families.

We will also be starting a new Deeper Life Service on Sunday evenings. These discipleship focused services will provide an opportunity for people to really dive deep into God's Word in a way not possible in the morning service. It will also be an alternative for those that cannot participate in the morning service due to schedules or ministry obligations. The Deeper Life Service will mirror the Awana schedule.

All in all, we believe this will serve as a way to not only keep members of our family safer during these upcoming months, but also meet some other needs and help bring us together as one body connecting, growing and serving together.

Sincerely,
New Life Staff

Date Change for New Room Locations - November 14th

Please make note of a change in the date regarding room location.  The elevator is progressing nicely, but an additional week is needed to complete the work.

The exciting times continue with the installation of the elevator allowing us to take full advantage of the upstairs classrooms on November 14th!

Take a look at your room this week and see what improvements you would like to make.  A new coat of paint, new baseboards, a good cleaning of the carpet and wipeboard can go a long way to sprucing up the rooms and making our guests feel really welcome.

New Classroom Locations - November 7th

The exciting times continue with the installation of the elevator allowing us to take full advantage of the upstairs classrooms on November 7th!

Take a look at your room this week and see what improvements you would like to make.  A new coat of paint, new baseboards, a good cleaning of the carpet and wipeboard can go a long way to sprucing up the rooms and making our guests feel really welcome.

Additional Explore the Bible Resources

I had the joy of being able to attend an Adult Ministry Leaders Retreat this past Wednesday and Thursday.  It sure was rough taking off a couple of days from work to spend quality discussion time with other Adult Ministry Leaders around the Northwest.  :)

As part of the meeting we were given a book written by Josh Hunt regarding group ministry.  I plan to give it a good read and pass along information that is pertinent to New Life Baptist Church and our implementation of Life Groups.  I am very excited to see what God will do as we follow Him in the direction He has revealed, especially as it pertains to the Life Groups.

Oh yes, back to the purpose of this post.  As a result of reading through the first 45+ pages of the book in one sitting (a great accomplishment for me!), I checked out Josh Hunt's website. 

I stumbled across example lesson plans that Josh Hunt puts together to complement our Explore the Bible study.  Give it a look see and determine if it might work well with your group.

A couple of items of note as I looked through the suggestions for upcoming lessons:

   1. YouTube clip

   2. Several lessons have articles that can be emailed to students prior to class

Life Group Logo - Need Your Feedback!

With the birth of New Life Baptist Church comes the opportunity to have our own Life Group Logo!

Send me an e-mail or post a comment to the blog with the number of your favorite logo or suggestions for creative improvement!

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2

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Image Driven Teaching

Ephesians 2:11-22

Leonard Sweet described today's ideal teaching method as E.P.I.C.

E - Experiential
P - Participatory
I - Image Driven
C - Connected

Last week I had the opportunity to teach in Ted Cook's Young Adult class.  It was a blast teaching God's word and being able to use some images really set the tone for the context of Paul's writing.  Take a look at slides 4-7 to see the images used in class.

Setting the context of the Scripture with the images along with the description of the "dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14) and the Soreg added an Experiential element of the class as well.  Through words and images we were transported back to the time of Paul's writing.

I also found a great handout describing the Soreg Inscription for those learners that prefer being able to read in addition to hearing.  It also served as something to take home with them.

Be encouraged to use images in your teaching!  Your students will really benefit!

Ephesians 2:1-3 - Trespassing Against God

Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV) - And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.


Oh, what a joy it is to know that from which we came and the awesome mercy that our Lord has.  It is truly through His grace that we are saved!

Ponder this picture and reflect on the many times that we have trespassed against Him, even though He has warned us of the Hazardous Conditions.  The thought of His forgiveness in spite of ourselves should bring to us an adoration and love for our Lord and motivate us to serve Him.

Class Coordinator Training (Teachers Highly Encouraged to Attend)

What:     Class Coordinator Training

Who:      Teachers and Class Coordinators

Where:   Northwest Baptist Convention Center, Vancouver

               Meet at Brookwood at 7am for Carpool

When:    Saturday, August 14th

Why:      To help organize our groups for care, ministry and outreach.
How:       Contact Torrey Lewis for more information!


Pastor Carter Shotwell is coming back to the Northwest to help train our Life Group Teachers and Class Coordinators.  The session will show how to develop a team approach in order to organize the group for care, ministry, and outreach. Teachers are encouraged to come and bring potential class coordinators. As a reminder, coordinators are those who oversee the fellowship, care, and ministry in a class so the teacher is not overwhelmed in trying to do it all.

July 2010 Quarterly Team Huddle

Here are the slides that we will go through at this Saturday's Quarterly Team Huddle. Do let me know of anything additional you would like to add!

See you Saturday at 4pm!

July 2010 Teacher-Coordinator Meeting

Mandatory Teacher Meeting - 4pm, Sunday, May 23rd

With the transition from the Ministry Point curriculum back to Lifeway's Explore the Bible there is an open date on Sunday, May 30th.

Everyone teaching an Adult Life Group on Sunday, May 30th, is required to attend an informative meeting on the 23rd to preview the special lesson prepared by the Stewardship Team.  This is an important meeting so that we will be equipped with correct information and how the Scriptures apply to our finances.

See you there!

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Torrey.

7 Laws of the Learner - Summer Lunch Study

Back by popular demand!  A group of us are getting together on Wednesdays at Noon in Brookwood's Office building to go through "The Seven Laws of the Learner" by Bruce Wilkinson.

This study was taught at Brookwood twice during the 2007-2008 school year.  It received rave reviews from everyone who attended the class.  One student was heard to say, "I wish all our Sunday School teachers took this class!"

If you're free during the lunch hour on Wednesdays, bring your lunch and feel free to join us!  Our first get together will be tomorrow (May 5th, 2010).

Curriculum Order Due

If you haven't already done so, please turn in your curriculum order this Sunday.  If you can't find me on Sunday, place your sheet in your folder, or better yet send me an email with your requests.

Paul's Passion for God's People - Philippians 3:18

Paul's passion for Christ and for His people are apparent in many of his writings.

In Philippians 3:18, Paul wrote with tears as he warned the people of those who walked as "enemies of the cross of Christ." Many times Paul and other human authors of the Scriptures expressed their passion for God and for people.


This led me to ask myself this question (perhaps a good discussion question for your class to consider):

 

Can we be a good minister of the gospel, or for that matter a good Christian, if we don't have some level of anguish over lost people or those we serve?

What other Scriptures speak of "tears" or "weeping"?

• Psalmist's distress that people were not keeping God's law - Ps 119:136
• Jeremiah weeps over his people - Je 9:1, Je 13:17
• Jesus' weeps over Jerusalem - Luke 19:41
• Paul speaks to the Ephesian elders - Acts 20:19, Acts 20:31
• Paul's great desire for his people to come to know Christ - Rom 9:2
• Paul expresses his desire to not cause pain, but to show his love - 2 Cor 2:4

Three Questions for Every Lesson

I was thinking the other day of what marks a good Life Group lesson. Student participation and laughter are always marks of a "good" class session.  Many times a lack of participation, laughter or general "fun" points to a need for outside fellowship so that class members can become more comfortable with each other.

Additionally, here are three questions to ask ourselves, on behalf of our learners, early on in our lesson preparation.


1.  Why should I be here?  (Give them a reason!)
2.  What am I going to learn?
3.  What have I learned that will help me be more like Christ tomorrow?

Remember Paul's goal as stated in Colossians 1:28-29:

"28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." (ESV)

Yes, lesson preparation is at times a toil and we struggle as we wrestle with the Scriptures seeking God's words, but the goal is to be able present our learners as mature in Christ as God works within us!  How can we (with the Holy Spirit's help) present life transforming lessons so that our students may become more and more like Christ?

As we seek to encourage each other to become better teachers feel free to share the questions you ask yourself as you prepare your lessons.

April Quarterly Team Huddle Slides with Notes

Here are the updated slides with notes.  Please let me know if I missed something.

Great attendance guys and ladies!  Keep up the good work!

April 2010 Teacher-Coordinator Meeting with Notes

April Quarterly Team Huddle Slides

Here are the slides that we will go through at this Saturday's Quarterly Team Huddle. Do let me know of anything additional you would like to add!

See you Saturday at 4pm!

April 2010 Teacher-Coordinator Meeting

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge - Php 2:12 "work out your salvation"

I was reminded once again this week of a valuable resource freely available on the web for Bible study.  The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge provides a huge number of cross references for the majority (if not all?) the verses in the Bible.

With Sunday night free, the kids, Mindy and I had a chance to read through the Scripture for this coming Sunday's lesson (Philippians 2:12-18).  I wanted us to dig in a bit deeper into what Paul (inspired by the Holy Spirit) meant when he wrote that we are to "work out our own salvation" (Php 2:12).  Through using a resource very similar to this one we were able to find some cross references to study.

TSK is in the public domain, so I've copied it here so you can easily hover over the verses and have the Scripture pop up if you are viewing this from the Blog site.

work
Philippians 3:13 Philippians 3:14 Proverbs 10:16 ; 13:4 Matthew 11:12 Matthew 11:29 ; Luke 13:23 Luke 13:24 ; John 6:27-29
Romans 2:7 ; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 ; 15:58 Galatians 6:7-9 ; 1 Thessalonians 1:3 ; Hebrews 4:11 ; Hebrews 6:10 Hebrews 6:11
Hebrews 12:1 ; 2 Peter 1:5-10 ; 3:18

It made for some great evening family Bible study and will prove helpful in my preparation for this Sunday!

Part of our job as teachers is to inspire our students to learn to love and study the Scriptures for themselves.  This free resource can be a great way to equip our students to do just this.

Helpful Sermon in Understanding the Context of Galatians 2:17-21

I really like Piper's "Ladder of Legalism" analogy in explaining the Judaizers point of view.  Check it out here.

I'm trying to decide if I have enough time on Sunday to bring in a ladder and "railroad track"...  Maybe not this week, but good to store away for future classes...

Keep it in Context

One of the nice things about studying and teaching through the Scriptures verse by verse is that it can be easier to keep the passage in its context.

This week we are in Galatians 2:17-21 (instead of Philippians), so we will need to spend a bit of extra time this week understanding the passage's context.

Here are some of my background notes.  We would all greatly benefit if you could share yours as well  (just hit the comment link below, if you are reading this on email you will need to go to http://lifegroups-teacher.blogspot.com/ first):

• Paul's earliest letter (around 49AD)
• Written to address the false doctrine of the Judaizers
• "Like Romans, it explores the relationship of the Mosaic Law to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and, like Romans, concludes that Law was temporary." (The Teacher's Commentary)

Philippians 2:1-11 - The Seven Steps of Humiliation and The Seven Steps of Exaltation

It was Spring Break this week and Bella, Beckett and I had a chance to tromp around Forest Park near Portland. It reminded me once again of the days I attended Portland State and the time spent outdoors even in a big city. We came across a staircase that seemingly led up to the sun...


In his exposition of Philippians 2:1-11, J. Vernon McGee describes the seven steps of humiliation of Christ and the seven steps of exaltation of Christ.

First, the seven steps downward:

1. Christ left heaven's glory.
2. Christ emptied himself. (Php 2:7a)
3. Jesus came to earth as a servant. (Php 2:7b)
4. Jesus was made in the likeness of men. (Php 2:7c)
5. Christ humbled Himself. (Php 2:8a)
6. Christ became obedient to death. (Php 2:8b)
7. Even death on a cross. (Php 2:8c)



Next, the seven steps upward:

1. God highly exalted Christ. (Php 2:9a)
2. God gave Christ the name above every name. (Php 2:9b)
3. "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow" - Jesus meaning "Savior" (Php 2:10)
4. Things in heaven shall bow. (Php 2:10b)
5. Things on earth shall bow. (Php 2:10c)
6. Things under the earth the earth. (Php 2:10d)
7. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Php 2:11)

Quarter Point Curriculum Update Meeting Notes

Present: Torrey Lewis, Nell Noah, Jean Gard, Patti Ramos, John Sutton, Dee Sutton, Howard Saxton, Fran Saxton

1. MacArthur Commentary
    a. Howard and Nell have purchased and have enjoyed it.
    b. Nell brought into class and has been able to read sections of the commentary during class time to bring out a point.

2. Video / Visual aspect
    a. Jean has attempted to use it, but has had technical difficulties
        i. Worked the first week, but didn’t work today. AR Torrey – investigate issues
    b. Nell and John offered their TVs for use for the Easter Tree Children’s Worship.
    c. Howard no need to start announcement DVD on Sunday mornings

3. Learner “Guide”
    a. Students have lacked the opportunity to utilize their own study guides. This is a concern as the ability for a student to easily study the week’s section of Scripture has lessened.
    b. The Quarterlies were in consistent use in several of the classes in previous quarters.
    c. Concern expressed about people not getting the “BBC Word for The Week” in the bulletin. Patti said that they are being inserted into the bulletin. Torrey checked with Carroll asking Greeters to double check as they hand out the bulletins.
    d. Fran requested a list of websites that students in their class could utilize for personal study. AR Torrey - Torrey to get list from Jean Gard and printout for Fran.
        i. http://www.blueletterbible.org/
        ii. http://www.biblestudytools.com/

4. Lack of audio resource for vision impaired students
    a. Two students were making active use of these resources prior and do not have access with the current curriculum.

April 17th is the Quarterly Team Huddle – 4-7pm
    4-5:15pm – Position Meeting with Primary Teams
         Teacher / Class Coordinators
         Fellowship Coordinator
         Care Coordinator
         Discipleship Coordinator
         Mission Coordinator
    5:15pm-5:45pm – Potluck Meal in Fellowship Hall with Life Group class meeting to follow (could eat and meet at the same time)
    5:45pm-7pm – Life Group Class Meeting time

April 24th – Life Group teacher training. Torrey to request funds from Stewardship Team to help cover cost. Note, this is a time conflict with the Beth Moore simulcast.

Teamwork videos for this week's lesson

I found a couple of videos that related to teamwork.  Thought I would share.

The goal for this week's lesson is:  To help the learner discover the joy available in ministering with other believers.






As a side note, wasn't that song that the worship team did this past Sunday really good. I'm a visual type of person and I remember the photos and the orange words coming in with the lyrics. Good stuff! As I was reading through the Scripture for this week's lesson, the video and song came to mind as I read Philippians 1:27b: "... that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel."

Quarter Point Curriculum Review Meeting

Believe it or not, next Sunday (March 28th) we will be one-fourth of the way through our study in Philippians!  (Get it?  We're at the "quarter" point!  Hehe...)  Time flies when you're studying great Scripture!

Logistically, we will need to have a real good idea about the curriculum coming out of our Quarterly Life Group Team Huddle on April 17th (about the halfway point).  As such, I'd like to suggest that we get together as a group of Life Group Teachers (Class Coordinators optional) to discuss the curriculum:  what we like, what we don't like, things to tweak, etc.  Talking about it now will give us a chance to adjust and implement prior to the Quarterly Team Huddle.

So here's the proposed meeting time:

Date: Sunday, March 21st
Time: 4pm (before the 5pm Business Meeting)
Place: John Sutton's class room (i.e. Welcome Room)
Required Attendance: Life Group Teachers
Optional Attendance: Life Group Class Coordinators

Let me know yay or nay if you will be there.  Your input is needed, this will be an opportune time to brainstorm together and decide how to move forward.

(image)

John Bunyan - Ministry Through Trials

I thought this illustration paralleled Paul’s experience and showed amazing perseverance. Perhaps a good illustration for Sunday.


“John Bunyan’s preaching was so popular and powerful, and so unacceptable to leaders in the seventeenth-century Church of England, that he was jailed in order to silence him. Refusing to be silent, he began to preach in the jail courtyard. He not only had a large audience of prisoners, but also hundreds of the citizens of Bedford and the surrounding area would come to the prison daily and stand outside to hear him expound Scripture. He was silenced verbally by being placed deep inside the jail and forbidden to preach at all. Yet in that silence, he spoke loudest of all and to more people than he could have imagined. It was during that time that he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, the great Christian classic that has ministered the gospel to tens of millions throughout the world. For several centuries, it was the most widely read and translated book in the world after the Bible. Bunyan’s opponents were able to stop his preaching for a few years, but they were not able to stop his ministry. Instead, they provided opportunity for it to be extended from deep within a jail in the small town of Bedford to the ends of the earth.”

--John MacArthur, Philippians (Chicago: Moody Press, 2001), 59–60.  Image.

Possible Outline for this week

In reading through the commentary for this quarter, I noticed a potential outline for class:

InJoying Ministry Through Trials
In Spite of Trouble -As Long as Christ's Cause is Progressed - Php 1:12-14
In Spite of Detractors - As Long as Christ's Name is Proclaimed - Php 1:15-18
In Spite of Death - As Long as the Lord is Glorified - Php 1:19-21

From last week ... Koinonia - Philippians 1:5

I had intended this to go out last week, but alas it didn't.  I forgot to hit the "Publish Post" button.  Oops! :)
Anyway, here it is.

Up to this point, whenever, I think of the Greek word "koinonia" I have thought of fellowship, such as a gathering of believers typically for a "fun" social event.  Christmas party, Thanksgiving Banquet, going to see a hockey game (bummer about USA :( ).

One of the things I've been kicking around in the back of my head is how this same Greek word is used in Philippians 1:5 - "in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now" (ESV).

Take a gander at p. 22 of our recommended commentary for the quarter.  There's a lot more to koinonia than I first anticipated.

How should our service play a part in our fellowship?  Thoughts?

For grins, I was curious where else in the Bible this Greek word is used.  See below for a chart...

Philippians Update

We are rapidly approaching our new study in Philippians!

I just sent each of you an email from docs.google.com that contains a link to the curriculum.  If you don't see it you might check your SPAM folder.  If something doesn't work, don't hesitate to give me a call or send me an email.

There will be student printouts in your classroom this Sunday, as well as a full printed Teacher's Guide.

Suggested Commentary for Philippians

The suggested commentary for our upcoming study is The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Philippians written by John MacArthur.  This commentary has a deeper scope than the commentaries purchased by Brookwood for teachers in the past.  With the deeper scope comes an additional cost.  At this point in time the commentary cost will not be covered by Brookwood.

Over the past week or so I have been checking out the commentary and it is very good.  At 300+ pages in length it provides us with a depth of information.

As an example of the deeper treatment of verses, chapter 3 is titled "Essentials for Growth in Godliness (Philippians 1:9-11)" and is 18 pages in length.

I highly recommend this commentary to all of our teachers as well as anyone interested in digging in deeper to the book of Philippians as we study it together in our Life Groups.

The commentary can be purchased in electronic or printed form at many bookstores.  Locally, the print version can be purchased through Lighthouse Book and Bible in Hillsboro for $22.94.  Call Lighthouse at 503-693-1990 to place your order.

February Life Group Training in the Northwest Postponed to April

The NWBC has postponed the Life Group Training in the Northwest in order to allow for more churches to participate.  The schedule as we know it is listed above.

Philipians for next quarter

I had the chance earlier this week to head down to California for a few days to present a paper.  While I always miss Mindy and the kiddos, this trip provided some good time to read God's Word.  I was able to read through both Hebrews and Philippians and I think a study on Philippians would give us a good test run of the Ministry Point curriculum.

One drawback of the Philippians study is that it was originally written in 2001, so we may want to do some of our own legwork to update the video clips and illustrations.  In talking with Debbie at LakePointe, she suggested the following sites:

• Preaching Today
• Preaching Unleashed
• Ministry and Media
• BluefishTV

An additional resource to our church is through the company that we get our video license through:

• ScreenVue

We'll need to work together to come up with appropriate clips.  Let me know you're interested by replying with a comment below.  Click on the "comments" link below.

February LG Teacher and Coordinator Breakout Session Notes

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

1:00pm - ~2:15pm

 

Persons in Attendance: Bob Hagman, Russ Dusky, Donna Dusky, Jean Gard, Patti Ramos, Toby Zimmerman, Danine Brewer, Ted Cook

 

• Life Group Training in the NW
  
  • Had everybody mark down the dates that should interest them.
    
  • As soon as we know more information we will need to send it out.
    
  • Carpool from the church.
    
  • AR Torrey - check with Stewardship Team about helping with funding. NWBC says $10 per person. Is this for each session?
    
• We will be trying the Ministry Point Curriculum for March, April, May quarter
  
  • For this trial period:
    
    • Preference is verse-by-verse to start out with, similar to what we are doing now with Explore The Bible (ETB).
      
    • Choose a study that is about 12 weeks in length, so we can jump back to ETB if we choose to.
      
    • Preference would be for a New Testament study for the trial period.
      
    • Torrey made it clear to all that we will not be a church that only studies the New Testament, but we need to keep accountable to studying both the Old Testament and New Testament.
      
    • Based on this criteria the two leading options are:
      
      • Hebrews - 13 week study (completed November 2006, recommended commentary is Hebrews by Donald Guthrie)
        
      • Phillipians - 11 week study (completed August 2002, recommended commentary is The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Philippians)
        
  • AR Torrey - check with Stewardship Team and Dede as to when we could place the order for curriculum
    
  • AR Torrey / Office - When we receive the curriculum, print out all the material stapled together for the teachers. Right now this would be around 10 copies (teachers and substitutes).
    
  • AR Torrey / Office - For the students print out a stapled together packet of just the "Thee Word for The Week". This would be very similar to our learner guides we use now.
    
  • Visual element (i.e. video clips)
    
    • Video clips were well received.
      
    • As a side note: Talked with several people about helping with DVD creating. Torrey would like to get a team of 2 or 3 people to be able to share the duties of creating the DVDs. Provide Torrey with any possible interested people.
      
    • Once we have a single DVD, the duplicator in the sound booth can be used to make copies. In a trial run it seemed to take about 5 minutes to make 3 additional copies.
      
• Teacher and Coordinator Job Descriptions
  
  • AR Torrey - Somehow make it more clear that the Coordinator's main job is communication and enlisting the coordinators. The job description can seem overwhelming.
    
  • Pointed out that Class Coordinator has a 15 minute period of the class time to make announcements, etc. This won't be legalistically enforced, but is expected to vary a bit from class to class and a week to week basis.
    
  • AR Torrey - On the Job Description sheet need to add a list of all of the Primary Team leaders and their contact information (phone number, email).
    
  • There needs to be two way communication between the Primary Team Leaders and the class coordinators.
    
  • AR Office - Primary Team Leaders and contact information should be added to the first page of the church directory.
    
• Quarterly Team Huddle scheduling
  
  • Preference would be for Saturday afternoon/evening.
    
  • Times could vary based on the season. Seniors may have trouble driving as late as 7pm in the winter.
    
  • Saturday afternoon would most likely miss most of the kids' sports as many happen on Saturday morning.
    
  • Bit of preference for ending the meeting earlier than 7pm. Perhaps having it 2pm-5pm, or 3pm-6pm.
    
  • There seemed to be flexibility with the understanding that it was only once a quarter.
    

The time can vary from quarter to quarter based on the season and the needs of the meeting and calendaring issues.

Allister Begg sermon for Mark 10:32

http://www.truthforlife.org/resources/message/an-ill-timed-request/

John Piper sermon on Mark 10:32-45

Another John Piper sermon to help go your creative juices flowing.  Here is a sermon from John Piper on Mark 10:32-45.  Search for "Greatness, Humility, Servanthood".  There's even a video if you are so inclined.

Excerpts from Life Group Training - Part 1

Over the next few days I plan to post excerpts from the Life Group training held at Brookwood on October 18, 2009. Here's the first dose! Enjoy!

Reply with comments on the blog-site.

Natural Disaster Lesson

I was perusing around the Extra website from Lifeway and came across this optional lesson:

Ministry In A Natural Disaster Lesson

There are many ways to respond to the Disaster in Haiti.  One of the ways is to give through the International Mission Board or North American Mission Board.

International Mission Board

North American Mission Board

John Piper sermon on Mark 9:33-37

Here is a sermon by John Piper covering Mark 9:33-37 titled "Receiving Children in Jesus' Name".  Search down for chapter 9.

Adult Curriculum

Here are some things to keep in mind as each of us explore the Adult Curriculum options: 

1. The Bible is our primary textbook, the curriculum is an aide to the Bible.
2. All adults will be on the same curriculum. (non-negotiable item) This doesn't preclude special studies such as the new Membership class or any Stewardship emphasis.
3. Advantages / Disadvantages
4. Cost impact or savings... Current vs. Future with growth
5. Curriculum for Sunday morning must be Open. By Open, I mean that anyone could attend on any given Sunday and participate. In contrast to a Closed study, such as Experiencing God or Beth Moore studies, where if you miss the first couple of weeks you won't be able to join.
6. Does it address needs and is it applicable to our community?
7. Is the curriculum be suitable for all adults? The youngest Young Adult class up through the Senior Adults.
8. Any technology issues? (i.e. email delivery, how do the Senior Adults participate in this?)
9. Curriculum must adhere to the Baptist Faith & Message.  

For now I'd like us to focus on our current Lifeway curriculum and Lake Pointe's curriculum.  This will give us a good start.  Feel free to explore others as well if you would like.

1. Current Lifeway curriculum (Explore The Bible)
2. Investigate LakePointe's curriculum (MinistryPoint) 

Click on "Free Tour" on the left. Each of you will have to register to take the tour. I haven't received any spam as a result, so it seems safe.

Allister Begg sermon for Mark 8:29 and 31

I ran across these two Allister Begg sermons for this week's lesson.  They may be worth a listen.

http://www.truthforlife.org/resources/message/who-do-you-say-i-am/

http://www.truthforlife.org/resources/message/an-ill-conceived-rebuke/

January Sunday School Team Meeting

Some results from our last meeting:

     1. Life Group Job Descriptions
            The LG Job Descriptions and the LG slides can be found to the right.  Do let me know where updates should be made.

     2. Presenting the Life Group Model during the SS hour.
             1/17 2009 - Jean and Nell's class
             Other dates are open so let me know what times work for you.

     3. Re-enlisting Teachers and Enlisting Coordinators
             Let me know what time works for you and we can coordinate.  I'd like to meet individually with each of the teachers first.  If you could plan for about an hour that would give us plenty of time to discuss.

    4. Blog as a communication mechanism
            The automatic emails of posts are very helpful in keeping up to date.  This way you won't have to be constantly checking the blog for updates.

            Let me know if a different email address should be used.

    5. Passing around 10 day Teaching Plan
            I need to find it... :)

Sunday School Potluck - Sunday, January 3rd

For the SS Potluck this weekend, I don't have much for the whole group.  I was planning on talking with the adult leaders about:

1. The draft of the LG job descriptions as we have them now.
2. Set up times to present the LG concept (concisely) during the SS hour with each group.
3. Setup times to re-enlist the teachers and to enlist coordinators.
4. Talk about using the blog as a communication mechanism.
5. Pass around the preparing a lesson throughout the week DVD from Randy Tompkins.

Anything else you would like us to chat about?