I'm not sure about your family but mine loves the movies. In fact, many of my close friends know that the Academy Awards are as big a deal in my family as most folks treat the Super Bowl. Case in point: my mom and oldest sister get together each year and watch all the 'best picture nominations' the night before the "Oscars"... I told you it was a big deal!! Needless to say I was way pumped when during our first Thanksgiving with Courtney's family I heard about one of their biggest "Little Traditions": Going to the movies Thanksgiving Day!! Since we have a large family we are typically nailed down to a family film and most of the time I've been able to steer us in a positive direction. Thus, I'm assuming tomorrow we are going to Disney's 'Frozen' (which opened today)... And I have a plan to take it up a notch!!So here's what I was thinking and where this ties into the point of this blog. Over the last several weeks I have been spending time with over a dozen families and discussing the different hopes and dreams of the New Beginnings' Faith Map. One of these steps is called the Faith Talk. This is where you as a family set a goal to meet for just a couple handful of minutes each week. In this time you shoot to be intentional in talking about the Bible and asking questions to engage your family. What I've personally seen recently is how easy this can be when you have kids in elementary school (See some examples of "Berg Family Fun Nights" click here) and how much more challenging it becomes when they become teenagers. One of the tools we've been equipping parents with recently is a combination of reviews from Plugged-In and The Source for Parents of new and upcoming movies. One of the coolest things even most recently by Plugged-In has be a specific resource they call "Movie Nights" which is a catalogue of movies with detailed reviews AND not only great discussion questions but biblical teaching points tied to the movie. Just to give you an example I attached a great one from 'The Count of Monte Cristo' (not a new movie but it is dynamite).
So this week (and really this month) I have a Holiday Challenge... Will you take 10-20 minutes and have a faith talk with your family (get the aunts, uncles and cousins in on it!!)? I've given you a really easy way to start this tradition: take something you probably already do, watching movies, and just prep for a couple minutes to discuss what faith principles you saw in the film.
Please comment below if you are committing to The Holiday Challenge:
Two Faith Talks over the Holidays (Thanksgiving & Christmas)!!
*Also, we as the NBFamily Pastors' have been working on a 15-week Faith Talk series to walk you through the major events of the Bible from cover to cover. Each 'Week' has a: theme, bible reading (or Action Bible reading), key verse, teaching points, discussion questions, a prayer and an activity to tie it all together!! So what's your excuse :) Click here for those
May God give us the discipline to do the hard thing this holiday season... May the Spirit direct our conversations and lead us to the cross... May You continue to work in each of our hearts to be your hands and feet in our families and communities... May You forgive us for being passive in this part of our lives but give us the courage to go for it this week... May we learn to love you more this season!!
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