June 4, 2016June 2, 2016 Peter Witkowski Vacation Bible School

VBS 2016: What You Need To Know

Quick Overview:

submerged-blog This year, FBCE’s VBS is diving down deep into the truths of scripture. All five days, we will be looking at what the gospel has to say about our hearts. All kids, Pre-K – 8th grade, are invited to be a part of this amazing event. To register your kid(s), visit fbceastman.com. VBS will kick off on June 6th and end on June 10. Each night will start with the worship rally at 6:30PM and end with class room discussions at 9PM. If you would like to help with VBS 2016, please contact Peter Witkowski at 478-220-1084. (To help with VBS, you must be a member of FBCE in good standing.) Lastly, all VBS shirts, Cd’s, devotionals, and teacher materials can be purchased in the VBS headquarters located in CMC Room C103. It’s time to get excited!

What’s New:

Preregistration will close on Sunday, June 5, at 1PM. If you don’t preregister, you can still attend VBS. You just need to register the first day you come.
All VBS T-shirts, gear, and resources are located in Children’s Ministry Center in room C103.
The Busses will be running, but only kids age 4-12 will be allowed to ride the bus. All kids are welcome to attend. But kids under 4 or over 12 must find alternative transportation to FBCE.
Instead of having a meal, kids will be served a hearty and fun snack Monday-Thursday.
All preregistered kids (4’s-8^th grade) will be dropped off in the sanctuary.
All kids 3 and an under will not go to the worship rally. They will be dropped off in their rooms.
On Friday night, we will just have the VBS celebration. All kids will sit with their
parents in the sanctuary as we review our amazing week together. Bus kids must be accompanied by an adult to ride the bus on Friday night. The service will be immediately followed by a hotdog dinner complete with ice cream! On Friday, our closing service will start at 6:30. Nursery will be available for those 2 and under.
To serve on the VBS team you must be 14 or older and a FBCE church member in good standing.

Pray:

Please join us in praying for all those helping and for all the kids that are coming.

Pray for safety.
Ask God to give all of our teachers wisdom, patience, and perseverance.
Ask God to bless all who will be teaching with clarity and faithfulness.
Pray that no one will hinder the proclamation of the gospel.
Pray for God to save the lost.

June 2, 2016June 2, 2016 Peter Witkowski Children's Ministry

3 Lessons Church Leaders Can Learn From the Emoji Bible

The King James only crowd is finally cool again. Well at the very least, they have emojis. Earlier this week, the very first emoji Bible was released on ITunes. And it’s based on the KJV. How cool? As the anonymous translator told one newspaper,

“I think if we were to fast-forward 100 years, an ‘emoji’ Bible of some kind would exist, so I thought, ‘Why not try and make it?

In short, the latest attempt to produce a contextualized translation of the scriptures that today’s adults can relate to has popped out an emoji Bible. If you want to try it out for yourself: click here to turn your favorite verses into the emoji translation.

While I do not think anyone has to switch over to the Emoji Bible, we do need to realize what it signifies. It signifies that our world is changing. If we hope to reach the next generation with the scriptures, we Christians must be willing to embrace social media, emojis, and whatever else comes next. Believe it or not, the Emoji Bible is targeting people between the ages of 17-35. If Millennials are speaking emoji, what will their kids be speaking?

Now, I do not think we need to embrace emojis as a major form of biblical communication. The written word carries power that pictures cannot. The medieval church found this out the hard way. All those beautiful stained glass windows were placed in Cathedrals to help the poor understand the Bible. But those pictures lacked the gospel inspired insight of the Holy Spirit. Even today, millions of people interact with those pictures and have no clue what they really mean. God’s word is the power to salvation. No picture or group of pictures can take the place of the words found in Genesis, Psalms, Isaiah, Matthew, or Romans. In many ways, appealing to emojis is not so much a leap into the future as a step back into the past. (Nothing new under the sun). We already tried the picture book approach and should stay with the written word. But at the end of the day, I am not too concerned about the Emoji Bible’s effect on biblical translation. As Christ said, in Matthew 5:18,

4 truly, i say 2 u, until ✨✨✨ & 🌎 pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

3 Lesson

The Emoji Bible represents that our culture is reachable if we are willing to be fluid and creative. Again, I am not talking about doctrine or about the scriptures. God’s word is God’s word in every age.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever – Heb. 13:8.

I am discussing our methods of communication. Here our three things the Emoji Bible teaches us:

1. We can connect with our culture

Did you notice that Emoji Bible was not published by Lifeway, Zondervan, or Crossway? It was self-published. The days of taking years and months to respond to change are over. Anyone can communicate at any time. As the church, we need to embrace our technological world. We need to blog, host video conferences, and tweet. We need to be willing to quickly and thoughtfully engage our culture. If we wait till Sunday and Wednesday to influence people, we will reach fewer and fewer men and women. We need to be ready to spontaneously connect with the world around us as needs arise.

2.We need to be embrace to change

As I said earlier, I do not think the Emoji bible is a huge step in the development of Bible translations. But it is a great attempt at going with the culture. And we need to learn from its author. We need to seek to reach people where they are and with their language. If everyone is on Instagram or Snapchat, then we should go to Instagram and Snapchat. If people start communicating primarily through Facebook live streaming, then we should start live streaming. The Emoji Bible is showing us that we need to be willing to let the tools of yesteryear fade. Instead pridefully clinging to what has worked, we need to embrace the spontaneity of this generation and our kids’ generation. We need to be willing to change.

3.We need to be creative

I know the Emoji Bible is not a great work of art. I know it’s not going to be placed in the Louvre anytime soon. But it is super creative. People are talking about it because it represents out of the box thinking. It represents creativity. It represents something new. We and the people in our churches need to be creative. We need to be finding new ways to communicate the amazing story of the gospel. It’s not boring. Our God’s not boring. We need to reflect God’s character when we communicate the word.

Final Thoughts

I do not know what language our kids will speak. But I am sure of this: to reach kids, to reach this current generation of millennials with the gospel, we must embrace the methodology behind the Emoji Bible. We must seek to reach our culture by being willing to change and by embracing creativity!

March 29, 2016March 29, 2016 Peter Witkowski Children's Ministry

What Every Sunday School Teacher Needs

sunday school teacher blog The other night while rounding kids up for an event, I heard a little gal remark, “Ooo…he’s getting angry; you’all better listen.” That little comment shocked me back into reality. I was getting frustrated with the kids, my heart was moving towards sin. And the kids knew. My heart needed to be humbled by that little voice .

To lead well, to teach well, and to do kids’ ministry well, we must live well.

Kids can spot our hypocrisy faster than a toddler can spot candy. They know when we fail. They listen when we talk about humility, patience, and forgiveness. And then they watch to see if we ever display humility, patience, and forgiveness in our lives. Are the words we saying just words or are they our life? Do we really live by every word of God?

The answer to these questions will determine whether or not we are a good Sunday school teacher, Wednesday night leader, or nursery worker. To teach kids the gospel, we must live the gospel. Remember that James commands us to, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). Faith without works is dead. Kids know this.

Paul tells Titus, “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity” (Titus 2:7). As kids hear us teach their Sunday school lesson, they don’t hear a bunch of principles from Lifeway, Group Publishing, or NavPress. They hear us. They look to see if the gospel has truly changed us. Our authenticity matter more than anything else.

Yes, God saves people with his word, regardless of who the teacher is. John Wesley led people to the Lord before getting saved. And Paul was content to see people preach Christ out of envy (Phil. 1:15). But the most effective teachers are the most obedient teachers. Pastor Bryan Chapell said it this way:

The character and compassion of a minister more than the characteristics of the message preached determine the quality of the message heard.”

The same can and should be said of Sunday school teachers and small group leaders.

Admittedly, no pastor or teacher is perfect. But the question that we need to consider is this: “How do we react when we sin?” Do we repent and ask for forgiveness or do we rationalize it, ignore it, and defend it? To be effective teachers, there is only one option. We have to deal with our sin. On more than one occasion, I have had to publicly apologize to the kids in my ministry. And I will do it again if I keep on living. Are we ready to take our sin seriously?

While we should always try to find methods, analogies, and crafts that help us to convey the gospel message better, we need to remember that our lives are the best teaching tool. The best Sunday school teachers aren’t necessarily the craftiest, most well-spoken, or the most technologically with it gal at church. The best teachers are the ones who daily commune with God.

What things have helped you become an authentic teacher?