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Parents

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Shepherding Your Family Through COVID-19

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Dear Midtown Parents, 

As you know, our vision for Kidtown is to partner with and equip parents as the primary disciplers of their kids. Now, as we find ourselves unable to gather on Sundays and with our LifeGroups, the importance of you discipling your children is more apparent than ever. 

For families who already have built-in rhythms of discipling your kids, great! Keep doing what you’re doing and tweak your rhythms as you need to. We hope the resources included are helpful as you navigate this time.

For those who don’t have healthy discipleship rhythms built yet, the present situation is actually a great opportunity to begin. All of your normal rhythms are being restructured. While this chaos can lead us to feel frozen and not want to do anything extra, the truth is it’s a perfect time to add in new rhythms while everything feels new to your kids anyway. 

What we aren’t asking you to do:

  • … magically transform into a seminary professor

  • … have answers to all the questions your kids might ask

  • … suddenly have kids who want to focus and pay attention for a 3-hour inductive Bible study

What we are asking you to do:

  1.  Maintain your own spiritual health - Spend time abiding in God’s Word and in prayer. Use the Lent Guide. Fight to stay connected with your LifeGroup in every way you can. Your spiritual health is vital as you shepherd your family.

  2. Spend time together with your kids in God’s Word and in prayer - This should have some formal weekly and/or daily rhythms as well as some informal, “as you go about your day” rhythms.

  • You can listen to Pastor Jon Ludovina teaching on all of this during the main session of Milestones Weekend 2019. (That link will take you to 21:22 when he teaches on Deuteronomy 6 and family discipleship rhythms specifically.)

RESOURCING YOU TO SHEPHERD YOUR FAMILY:

Weekly Family Worship:

We will be putting out weekly Family Worship Guides for you to be able to host a version of Kidtown at home for your family. These will follow what your children would be learning in Kidtown normally on Sundays and can be found on the weekly teaching page for adults. There will be versions available for Toddlers/Preschoolers and for Elementary-aged children. 

Daily Family Devotions:

If you don’t have something you’re doing already, try these simple daily family devotions based on the Lent Guide. (get the e-version of the Lent Guide here)

Morning:

In the morning, read a kid-friendly version of the Scripture reading (try the International Children’s Bible). Ask your children if anything stood out to them, share something that stood out to you, and then pray together, thanking God for what He showed you and asking Him to help you apply it today.

Evening:

In the evening, walk through the Evening Prayer prompts together. This is a great opportunity for you to share first and then allow each child to share.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Parenting Resources for Covid-19

Midtown’s Parenting Resources page

Music for Family Worship

Books for Family Worship

Milestones Resources | Marriage Books & Resources

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In the midst of the chaos of parenting, many married couples forget to fight to stay connected and growing in all types of intimacy. The following marriage books and resources are helpful tools to recapture God’s vision for your marriage and stay connected while you disciple your kids. 

With all book and resource recommendations, remember to keep your discernment meter up. Eat the meat and spit out the bones. Take the helpful truth about marriage and prayerfully apply it to your marriage in a way that is most fruitful for you.

Recommended Reading:

Meaning of Marriage 
By: Tim and Kathy Keller

When Sinners Say I Do 
By: Dave Harvey

A Marriage You’d Actually Want (Sermon series)
By: Midtown Fellowship

Christ-Centered Relationships (Sermon series)
By: Francis and Lisa Chan

This Momentary Marriage 
By: John Piper

What Did You Expect? 
By: Paul Tripp

$10 Great Dates 
By: Larson and Arp

Milestones Resources | Music for Family Worship

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Music may be the single greatest tool in all of creation that helps kids memorize words, concepts, and ideas. One-and-a-half-year-olds can memorize every single lyric of “Let it Go” from Frozen. While memorization without discussion and application can backfire, using music to help God’s Word soak deep into your child’s heart can lead to very fruitful conversations and discussions later on. 

With all resource recommendations, remember to keep your discernment meter up. Eat the meat and spit out the bones. Most of these songs and albums are chock-full of Scripture, but as always sing the ones that are most beneficial and enjoyed by your family.

Recommended Resources:

Milestones Resources | Books for Family Devotions

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Along with developmentally helpful Bible translations and story-books, many families find devotionals to be a helpful resource to help them study God’s Word and discuss together. These are especially helpful as your child begins to read and grasp more complex ideas about God. As well, many of these devotionals can be helpful as your child learns personal habits and rhythms of spending time with God on their own. 

With all book and resource recommendations, remember to keep your discernment meter up. Eat the meat and spit out the bones. Take the helpful observations and truth and prayerfully apply them to your family in a way that is most beneficial for your family.

Recommended Reading:

Milestones Resources | Bibles for Different Stages

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Nothing is more important for stacking gospel kindling around a child’s heart than helping your child learn God’s Word. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul rejoices in the fact that Timothy has been familiar with the Bible from his infancy. And he says the reason why is that these “... sacred writings are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Each of these translations and/or books based on narratives from the Bible help put the sacred writings in bite-sized chunks that kids at different stages can learn.

Baby and Preschool Stage

Preschool and Elementary Stage

Milestones Resources | Resources for Cultural Issues

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Teaching your child how to walk in the midst of our cultural moment is one of the most difficult tasks that parents face. The American narrative for reaching the good life is very different than Jesus’ narrative for abundant life. The type of person our culture is shaping us to be is very different than the type of person Jesus wants to shape us to be. The following books and resources are helpful in studying, thinking about and discussing cultural issues with your kids. 

With all book and resource recommendations, remember to keep your discernment meter up. Eat the meat and spit out the bones. Take the helpful observations and truth and prayerfully apply them to your family in a way that is most beneficial for your family.

Broad Cultural Issues:

Technology:

Diversity:

Sexuality:

Manhood/Womanhood:

Milestones Resources | Parenting Books

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Parenting is a marathon, not a sprint. As we run the race marked out for us, there are all kinds of distractions and obstacles to staying focused on discipleship as the heart of parenting. For some of us, we’ve never seen healthy gospel-centered parenting modeled. For others of us we know the picture we’re aiming for but we find ourselves drifting over time. We’ve found all of these books to be helpful tools whether you’re building a solid foundation for the first time, or just need an encouraging refresher as you continue to run faithfully.

With all book recommendations, remember to keep your discernment meter up. Eat the meat and spit out the bones. Take the helpful Biblical principles and prayerfully apply them to your family in a way that works best for you.

Recommended Reading:

Kids & Parents Weekend Recap & Resources

Our goal with Kids & Parents Weekend is to equip parents to lead Jesus-centered families. We started the weekend with a Parent's Night Out on Friday to allow parents a night of rest. On Saturday we threw a Parenting Seminar, followed by breakout sessions. Lastly, we wrapped up the weekend with a family-friendly Gathering. You can watch the seminar below and grab all of the worksheets and materials from the weekend.

Breakout Sessions & Materials:

Session #1: 

Below is a video of the main session followed by a breakout session led by Jon Ludovina and Chris Cook. You can find the referenced handout below. 

SESSION #2: 

In this breakout session Director of Kids and Families, Laura Jones teaches how to create a family culture where God is known and enjoyed through spiritual disciplines. You can find the audio and the referenced handout below. 

SESSION #3: 

In this breakout session, Steve Von Fange explains a helpful parenting tool called The Road to Independence Chart. You can listen to the session and download the worksheets below. 

Questions?

If you have any questions about Kids and Parents Weekend, and of the sessions, or our Kidtown ministry feel free to email Laura Jones here.