August 2024

Second Family,

This August as you are enjoying the last weeks of Summer and thinking ahead to all things Fall, I want to encourage you to consider your involvement and investment in your church family as well. We are gearing up to have an amazing time of ministry as a church, but it takes all of us being involved for relationships and discipleship to happen. So I am going to list some of the ways that you can be involved and invested in the life of our church, and I am simply asking you to pray about how the Lord wants you to be connected. Let Him lead you, and then make His leading a priority in your life. 

So with all of that said, here are some things for you to pray about:

Sunday Nights: 

Discipleship classes are on Sunday nights from 6-7pm. This Fall they will run from September 8th through November 17th. We will have two adult classes, one Student class, and childcare with bible study included! The adult classes are “How to Interpret the Bible” led by myself, and “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist” led by Cody Vasut. Either one of these classes will be a great opportunity for you to grow in your knowledge and understanding of your faith. When you sign up for either of these classes, you will be asked if you need childcare. There will be nursery for children birth through Kindergarten, and there will be a bible study for children 1st through 6th grade. Please be sure to sign up soon so we can get you a book. 

For the students, we will be doing a video series called “The Apostles’ Creed” by Matt Chandler, and Justin Faul will be leading the discussion times. This is an amazing study about the earliest creed in Christian history, and it will go through scripture to teach the fundamental truths that all Christians have believed throughout history. Students will get deep rich teaching in a relatable way, and will be encouraged by our leaders and other friends in their faith. Parents, please make this a priority for your Students!  

You can sign up for these classes here: https://yoursecondfamily.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2397190

Wednesday Nights:

There are a number of opportunities for adults on Wednesday nights. As a church who is focused on relational discipleship and investing the gospel in the younger generations, we want to encourage adults to be ministering to our children, doing discipleship, and praying for the ministries of our church. 

In order for more adults to minister to our children and to intentionally invest in them, we are starting back our Awana program on September 4th! This will be every Wednesday from 6-7:30pm and is for children ages 3yo - 6th grade. Awana is an amazing program that focuses on scripture memorization, discipleship, and fun. Some people say that Awana takes too many volunteers to operate… that’s actually one of the reasons we are doing it! I want our adults to take seriously our responsibility to disciple our children. Awana happens to be a great tool to help us do this. Please plan to sign your child up for this. But also pray about serving, and then talk to Jennifer Briscoe about possible opportunities. You can go ahead register your child for Awana here: https://yoursecondfamily.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2377259

Not everyone is called to serve in Awana, but we are all called to be involved in discipleship. So if you do not feel led in that direction, then I would encourage you to be a part of a D-Group. You could use Wednesday nights as a time to meet with your D-Group off-campus, or you could choose another time during the week. If you want to know more about D-Groups, you can check that out here: https://yoursecondfamily.churchcenter.com/pages/discipleship

On top of all that, we have a prayer group that meets on Wednesdays at 6pm called the “Boiler Room Small Group.” This group focuses on praying for the ministries and services of our church. If you feel led to be a part of that, just come to the Fellowship Hall on Wednesday nights.

Student D-Groups:

I have already mentioned D-Groups for adults, but something else we are going to begin are D-Groups for Students! Students are busy, but they still need adults to invest the gospel in their lives. So to help achieve this, we are going to be working on getting parents to lead D-Groups with students throughout the week as it works for their schedules. These D-Groups will follow the same basic structure and tenants of adult D-Groups, but will simply require D-Group leaders to communicate with students’ parents about scheduling. If you are interested in leading a Student D-Group or getting your child connected to a D-Group, please let me know at brian@yoursecondfamily.org

I am praying for you and your family as you pray about where you need to be connected and serving in our church. The Lord has established His church to carry out the gospel mission. And I believe that if you will commit to be invested and involved in the life of the church, you will be blessed to be a part of what God is doing in your life and the lives of others. 

Sincerely,

Pastor Brian Van Doren