Safe and Inviting – Restructure

“Send forth your light and your truth,
let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell…” (Psalm 43:3)

Here are some highlights from a letter to parents from Site Pastors regarding the move of Climb classroom kids this coming Sunday May 5:

For the last eight months, our Climb-aged kids (K-3 at Dublin and K-5 at Worthington) have joined us for worship. The decision to have our kids in worship was largely driven by you the parents.  

After much prayer, consultation and listening, a decision has been made to bring the kids back into the classroom for worship beginning this Sunday, May 5.  

This decision was made for two primary reasons:
1.  For the sake of new families -  the process seemed confusing  for those visiting for the first time.
2.  To create a safer, more meaningful worship space in the Climb.

As we move forward, we’re not only working on finding alternative worship, we’re also close to finalizing new curriculum.

Additionally, we’ll continue our tradition of Family Sunday, which creates space for families to worship and listen to the teaching together, every seven weeks.  

For those parents who would prefer their kids worship with them  —  we appreciate the way you disciple your family and would encourage you to continue doing so.  Feel free to bring your kids into the service for worship and simply lead them to their classroom afterwards.

To summarize, the change takes place this Sun., May 5.  After registering your child(ren), you can either take them directly to the Climb, where they will have a time of worship in the class … or … you can have them worship with you in the auditorium and take them to the Climb afterwards.

Thank you to all the group leaders, volunteers, and teachers that have made this possible for our Climb classes. Special thanks goes to Kids  Community Assistants (Lani Kelly at Dublin and Jess Heath at Worthington) and the Climb Team Coaches (Cathy Harrison at Dublin and Melinda Woody at Worthington) for helping facilitate this change.

Stay tuned for more changes involving restructure events in that Climb classes as well as all of our other Kids Community Classes. Also, please remember that our service times are changing this Sun., May 5 — 9:45 a.m. at Worthington and 10:45 a.m. at Dublin.

The Role of a Kids Community Coach – Restructure

Our training rooms act as small group communities involving children, parents, volunteers, teachers, a coach and a staff person growing together in Christ. There is one coach for every teaching team at each site.

As we move through this year, Kids Community is striving to develop coaches over each age group area: Meadowlands through Rapids.

As we restructure Kids Community, coaches are learning to equip and develop one class or training room. These coaches make up the Kids Community team at each site. They are nurtured by the Site Pastor, trained through the Kids Community Equipping Team, and receive weekly support from the Kids Community Site assist.

During this year, all our Coaches will be trained to use five primary tools to create community

1. A commintment to personal attention and care of children, families and teachers in a classroom community
2. A communications system of phone, email, social media and/or a newsletter
3. A current class roster of parents and children
4. A schedule calendar that includes three slots per week: teacher, paid staff member and volunteer
5. A curriculum to train teachers, volunteers and parents

Coaches are learning to lead teams by asking these questions to parents, teachers, volunteers in their small group community.

• How does our class teaching and structure reflect worshipful, relational and missional values to children and parents?
• How is our team teaching to each child’s needs spiritually, mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually?
• How are  our teachers and volunteers being utilized in their gifting and  honored in their willingness?
• How can our team encourage volunteers to multiply our team through their contacts?
• What tools are we giving parents and families that they can apply in the home?
• What tools are we developing to communicate value and information more effectively as a community?
• How is our team working with other teams to contribute unity and direction to Kids Community?
• How are we following where God is leading our team?

Coaches are learning to be led by God in asking themselves these questions

• How am I personally growing spiritually and following Christ through this opportunity?
• Who am I training on my team to be a coach?

Our coaches are  vital to our church as we restructure Kids Community to better raise up, equip and send leaders to minister to our families and ultimately help parents disciple their children. This is an effort that is only attained through community; our coaches are leaders of leaders, and we are so thankful for their efforts! At Vista, across all ministries, we are continuing to focus on discipleship through leader multiplication — we see the Kingdom move forward as more people step up and step out in worshipful, relational and missional ways for God’s glory.

40 days of Lent – Baptism of Jesus

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my loved Son, who brings me great joy.” Matthew 3:17

As I write this, it is the fourteenth day of Lent 2013. Last night our family read Spirit Lighting - day seven of Ann Voskamp’s Lent devotional Trail to the Tree.  Her seventeen day devotional bolsters our Lenten intentions. It may just be doable for us in forty days.

Did you know that Jesus was baptized?       Why would He do that?

Read Matthew 3: 13-17: His example of humble obedience brought great joy to His Father. The Spirit of God descended on Him.

What do we learn from this?        What do we teach our kids?

• Worship – humbly acknowledging God as Father
• Service – obedience to further His plan of righteousness
• Power – joy-filled gifts descending on those He loves

Have you talked about baptism with your children?     Do they know why Christians do it?      Do you?

Lent is about preparing our hearts to be humble before God because of His great love and mercy to us through the death of His Son. Fasting, giving up comfort, removing distractions and living simpler lives are all ways Christians use to humble themselves. When we change our hearts through humility or weakness – we receive a greater glimpse of the Spirit of God descending upon us and among us.

Lent is about preparing our hearts with new skills of prayer, conversation about Him, reading His words, memorizing His words, making music to Him, creating art about Him or serving others in His name. When we change our hearts through obedience to His ways – we provide others a greater glimpse of the Spirit of God descending upon us and among us.

• How can your family change one thing in order to worship together this week?
• How can your family change one thing in order to serve each other or someone else this week?
• How can your family change one thing in order share personal examples of power only His Spirit brings this week?

Our family is trying to change by removing distractions, reading Trail to the Tree devotions, and discussing Baptism this week. Our humble desire is to bring Him joy.

Vista Training Rooms – Restructure

What is a training room?

Close your eyes and what do you see?

1 Timothy 4:8 says “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

At Vista, we view our classrooms as training rooms. We as a church body seek to train ourselves, our families and our children in all personal growth areas: spiritual, emotional, physical, intellectual and social.

Our training rooms act as small group communities involving children, parents, volunteers, teachers, a coach and a staff person growing together in Christ. Following is a broad overview of the roles of each; more specifics will be shared in future posts.

• Coaches use five primary tools to create community
• Teachers prepare and teach materials to parents and children in all five personal growth areas
• Parents encourage children, meet other parents and practice with parenting tools
• Volunteers model godly practices to children and parents
• Paid staff support teachers and facilitate training strategies

We are so thankful to have several people and families involved in training children and families at both Vista Dublin and Vista Worthington. We wanted to outline who is leading where, for your reference:

DUBLIN

• Meadowlands (Infants, Crawlers, Walkers, 2′s)
  • Coaches: Lani Kelley (lani.kelley@vistachurches.org) & Lindsey Grey (ldhohn@hotmail.com)
  • Staff: Laura Delaney (infants), Korry Lee (crawlers), Tommy Gunn & Erik Alfriend (walkers), Cassidy Herbst & Max O’Connell (2′s)

• Base Camp (3′s & 4/5′s)

• Coach: Sarah Kearney (kearneysj11@gmail.com)
• Teachers (4/5′s): Kim & Haley Sutton, Sydney Hudock, LaRonda Stauffer, Mindy Sherry, & Melissa Thompson
• Staff: Rebecca Frick & Morgan Douglass (3′s) & Amelia Ortman (4/5′s)

• Climb
  • Coach: Cathy Harrison (cathy.harrison@live.com)
  • Teachers: Jeff Persall, Misty Hibbits, Donita Parizek & Caitlin Vandeveer, Stephanie Van Meter, Lisa Schaffner & Brandi Van Bourgondien
  • Staff: Andrew Forrest
• Summit
  • Coach: Rebecca Owens (becowens_77@yahoo.com)
  • Teachers: Shelia Persall, Brent & Krysty Bower, Jay Hoey, & Christie Santa-Emma
  • Staff: Sarah Kinzeler
• Rapids
  • Coach: Lisa Wadsworth (rapids@vistachurches.org)
  • Teachers: Matt & Katie Cooper, TJ Pelot, & Dave Harnack

WORTHINGTON

• Meadowlands (Infants, Toddlers)
  • Coach: Jess Heath (jess.heath@vistachurches.org)
  • Staff: Jaimee O’Connell (infants) & Aggie Gerhardt (toddlers)
• 2/3′s
  • Coaches: Jack & Erika Irvin (erikairvin@gmail.com)
  • Teachers: Judy Albright, Mandy & William Tantarelli, & Emily Fetterman
  • Staff: Michelle Lawson
• 4/5′s
  • Staff: Christina Kottenstette
• Climb
  • Coach: Melinda Woody (amjocwoody@gmail.com)
  • Teachers: Jessica Hurtt & Brittany Woerth
  • Staff: Rachael Boyle & Joey Meinerding

Please pray with us for our leaders and the training and mentoring work they’re doing each week, to build into our families and children here at Vista.

40 Days of Lent – Ram in the Thicket

As a church family, Vista is focusing on Jubilee for the 40 days of Lent before Resurrection Sunday on March 31. The series is based off of Leviticus 25:10. Follow this link to the 40 days of Jubilee page, including resources, tools and a daily devotional. We invite you to look at the Vista Parents Blog 40 Days posts from previous years for encouragement and ideas to share with your family. Do this by clicking on ‘Archives’ to the right, then picking the month and year.

This year, Vista families will be following Ann Voskamp’s devotional Trail to the Tree. To download a copy, click here. (Note: you must scroll all the way down to the blue box, then click ‘subscribe’. After subscribing to Ann’s blog, you can scroll down to the bottom of any blog post and click on the link that says, “Free Easter/Lent devotional: The Trail to the Tree.”)

Each day has three different practices points:

• Linger on the Word: daily readings from the Bible
• Lift up your prayer to the Word: daily prayer guide for families to pray together
• Live the Word: daily questions or activities to focus on Jesus

On day two of the devotional, she recommends reading Genesis 22:1-14. She spotlights the specific name of God used by Abraham when a ram was made available to replace the pending sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham names the place God-Yireh (jehovahjirah or Jehovah Jirah). When translated, this may mean “God sees to it.”

W. Ewing writes that “the best explanation of the text may be, Yahweh sees the needs of those who come to worship before Him on Zion, and there ‘is seen,’ revealing Himself to them by answering their prayers and supplying their wants” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia).

Voskamp then asks the following question: “Today can you live in trust, knowing He will see-to-it. All of it?”

Here are some questions for your family to explore together:

• What does a provider do?
• Does your family know God as their provider?
• How did God provide for you today or how was He the God that sees?
• Does your family know God as one who “sees-to-it”?
• How does this idea of Jehovah Jirah fit into how you talk about debt?

Please share any thoughts or feedback with us in the comments section, or share your family 40 Days photos on Facebook!

Building Upon our Foundation: Curriculum Update

For more than five years, Vista Kids Community (2 years through 8th grade) has been using KidMo and Lil’K curriculum from Orbit Media Group.

It is time for a change.

In the early days of Vista, Laura Nelson and KidMo rescued us from curriculum writing exhaustion. We were a small community with few resources and personnel, running a church out of Dublin Coffman High School. I still firmly believe that God gave us the Nelson family at the exact moment we needed them. I know those of us involved with Kids Community at that time would agree. The video lessons of KidMo and Lil’K allowed us to run classes with volunteers and paid staff. We lacked the people power to provide seasoned teachers in every age group.

It is time for a change.

Vista has grown into a thriving church spanning two sites. We now have the depth and breath of parents and volunteers who are passionate about living out core Gospel values: worshipful, relational, missional.

Once again, God has provided what we need to launch Kids Community into a new worshipful space.

We have a team that knows Jesus, knows teaching, knows parents and knows kids. They know the Gospel and the importance of  its message to families. This team is meeting every-other Saturday, now through March, to examine the next curriculum step for Kids Community. We will be researching many options from several companies. All of the options will be Gospel centered. We welcome your input.

What would be most important to you in choosing a Kids Community curriculum?

Please share your feedback in the comments section below. We also welcome you to join our curriculum team — next meeting is this Saturday morning. E-mail Emily Fetterman if you’d like to be involved on this team.

Restructure

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. – Matthew 7: 24-27

You have probably heard the old children’s Bible song that speaks about what happens when we build our lives on the teachings of Jesus, and when we are foolish and build something without a strong foundation.

A foundation built on the teachings of Jesus guarantees that what we build will not fall apart when hard circumstances come against it.

There has not been blog activity on this site for a while now. This is because Vista has been going through some restructuring.  The purpose of this restructure was to assure we were building Parent Equipping and Kids Community upon Vista’s original foundational values. Values that we believe come from the teachings of Jesus. You can find Pastor Mike Smith’s write up of these values here: KCPlaybook_2012

We asked tough questions and made significant changes to ensure our goals rested on this strong foundation, including these Vista-value elements:

• A training ground for Vista families to disciple their children
• A mission field for Vista members to disciple the future leaders of the church
• A classroom utilizing age appropriate Biblical teaching by believers among us
• A support network for all families seeking community and encouragement

2013 will continue to bring changes including these specific offerings:

• A Gospel-based curriculum with a focus on missional living for each age group
• A clear and consistent classroom management structure across each age group
• A multi-generational volunteer base that includes everyone serving once a quarter
• A structure of support, encouragement and training for parents, staff and volunteers

So many at Vista have answered the call to advise, teach, coordinate and coach during this restructure. So many have taken ownership in areas that need their gifting. We are humbly grateful to God and His work among us as we continue to build Kids Community and Parent Equipping together as a church family. See our end of the year letter here: 2012 End of year volunteer letter. We are assured that hard circumstances that develop will not destroy what we are building with His blessing and for His glory.

What are your questions? Do you have feedback for us on these foundational elements? We welcome conversation and the sharing of ideas. If you’d like to inquire about teaching or coordinating, please e-mail me directly: cindy.eisel@vistacommunitychurch.org. We look forward to this next season of values-rich, biblically-based offerings for parent equipping and children’s discipleship. Join us!

Following Jesus – Foundational family prayer

Pastor Mike ended this series, Following Jesus, with a survey of  the Lord’s Prayer.  He suggested Jesus used this prayer to demonstrate simple heartfelt communication with God. Pastor Mike encouraged us to avoid  hypocrisy by opening our hearts truthfully before God in prayer. In an activity found in the Family Challenge from this series, Nancy Sutton also encouraged families to study simple heartfelt communication with God together using the Lord’s Prayer. Find that Family Challenge tool here: FC – Following Jesus 5:12.

Both Pastor Mike and Nancy Sutton (from Navpress) offer great insight into  the language of the Lord’s Prayer along with  practical tips from that prayer found in Matthew 6 that anyone can use in their personal prayer life.  The Lord’s prayer offers good discussion starters for families regarding the how and why of prayer. I wonder how many of our kids know that Jesus prayed? Just think what great conversations that truth alone could spark in our homes!

Pastor Mike gave these guidelines for how the Lord’s prayer can keep us following Jesus as we have been learning in this series. He tied all of the Following Jesus message themes together using the Lord’s Prayer as found in Matthew 6.

• Matthew 6:9 Our Father… “Perfect Father of ours…we know now that you I’ve us like a daddy loves his little child…you reach for us…you love us…we’re the apple of your eye…and all in spite of our sinfulness let your name remind us of your perfection, your power, your protection… You are everything to us! “
• Matthew 6:10 Thy kingdom come…“Keep transforming us…As we learned from the Beatitudes in chapters 5-7 “let us continue to evidence You by our transformed and transforming hearts.”
• Matthew 6:11 Give us this day…“Give us what we need today or we’re not going to make it. We cannot make it without your merciful provisions to sustain us. Our hearts have been corrupt so long that our lives are a mess and to face the truth is too hard.”
• Matthew 6:12 Forgive us..“Reconciliation all around for and keep us from hypocrisy. At the root of it all, Father, is our reconciliation with you that pours out into the world and brings us back again to our reconciliation with you.”
• Matthew 6: 13-14 Lead us…”Lead us in your ways Jesus. Lead us away from the natural tendencies in our heart. In the Sermon on the Mount context, our tendency is toward self-interest, self-glorifying behavior and approval and away from  humble receiving of grace and faith in Jesus. how quickly we retreat, and regress back to old ways or run to “new” ways. You have taught us your ways…by your Spirit keep us there.”

The Sermon on the Mount ends with these words from Jesus found in Matthew 7: 24-27

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Using the truths learned from Matthew 5-7, covered in the Following Jesus series, we have an example of how to build wise families with solid faith foundations. The example of prayer given by Jesus in Matthew 6 teaches that honest and frequent communication with God is foundational to the Christian faith. It gives our homes a solid foundation in order to weather the situations or storms of life. Families can build solid homes of faith by following Jesus’ example of  prayer. God asks us to not just hear His words but to put them into practice. He instructs us to pray.

How are we building a strong foundation by practicing prayer in our homes? How is Vista encouraging families to do it together. Check out this video from you tube: find it here

Following Jesus – Conflict as accident or choice

Following Jesus – The root of peacemaking

I knew a woman whose  greatest desire was a peaceful and happy home. She really never cared how that peace was established nor what  transpired to achieve it. I never  understood if she just wanted peace and quiet or the true peace of addressing conflict on the heart level.

Pastor Mike talked on May 20th about deep longing stemming from an unfulfilled and discontented heart. He was speaking into lust, but we see from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7  that many selfish desires lead to discontent. The family challenge material this series focuses on our selfish and discontented hearts as the root of conflict in our relationships. You can see that material here:the-slippery-slope-of-conflict

True peacemakers step into conflict in healthy ways. They think about healthy ways to embrace their own longings and see another’s desires; they do not run from conflict or attack others because of it. We looked last week in the blog at the responses we have to conflict as peace-fakers, peace-breakers or peacemakers. This week we will look at the heart of conflict.

James 4:1-3 says “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

From Young Peacemakers by Corlette Sande

“Many of our conflicts happen because we want our own way  and make choices to get it. These choices come  from selfish desires that are rooted in our hearts…Sinful, self-serving desires often take control of our hearts. The heart is like a battlefield where our selfish desires are at war with what we know is right…When we give into them, we often end up in a conflict with someone.” p. 37

• Selfishness = you want your own way
• Self-pity = you feel sorry for yourself and you want others to feel sorry for you, too
• Greed = you want more and you are not content with what you have
• Pride = you think you are better than others
• Fear of others = you are afraid of what others think of you– you want to be liked

Questions to talk about this older children:

see these pdf worksheets on choices good & bad choice wksht and consequences choices cycle

1. What are you longing for in your heart  (your way, peace & quiet, a possession, a sexual encounter, etc…)?
2. Discontent can cause longings to develop out of proportion and out of control and cause us to go after things we should not.
3. What are you discontented with these days?
4. What are you willing to do to get it?
5. Has God failed to provide something you need in your life?  Does He have you a place that causing great discontent?
6. How does wanting something or not getting what you want cause conflict in your home?
7. What does Psalm 37:4-6 say about changing our hearts?

Use the language of  ”Good Choice, Poor Choice, Your Choice” when you have a situation of conflict with children. Use the the word “choice” as it will develop personal responsibility for their behavior. It is their choice made by their heart that affects their behavior. We want them to develop personal responsibility for their choices as they grow older. We can then model positive affirmation or negative consequence based on their choices rooted in their heart. It will stop them from blame-shifting, whining and pouting actions in the future. Talk about good and poor choices of other people when you are reading books, watching others, or watching shows.

Respond with positive affirmation:

• I like the good choice you just made ___________________ . Your choice was a good choice.
• I like your choice to ___________ . Your choice was a good choice.

Respond with negative consequence:

• You chose to __________ . Your choice to ____________ will cause __________________. Your choice was a poor choice
• You chose to _________. Your choice was a poor choice. You will not be allowed to ______________ because of your choice