supersweetfinchum's Xanga

NEW PICTURES!!!

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:04:33 GMT

Here are some new pics of J-DOG!!

Happy New Year!!!

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 17:15:36 GMT

This week, we arrived back from visiting family and friends in Bermuda for Christmas ~ a time we will cherish greatly. Here is a picture of Justus on the plane:

He loves watching out the window!

We flew back into Nashville on New Year's Eve, so we decided to stay the night in a hotel instead of drive home a few hours. In the morning, we were getting all of our stuff together and noticed that Justus was trying to climb inside the mini fridge (I wish we had our video camera). He tried so hard to get in, he even took the shelves out to try to fit. It was fun to watch.

Lastly, but probably our most exciting news in a long time, here is a pic of the newest addition to the Finchum family.....Baby #2 ~ 11 weeks old.

We are so excited to be expecting this baby (due around July 22). God has been so good to us. Justus is just about walking. He took his first steps the day after Christmas (8). Yesterday, I saw him walking and counted over 20. He still prefers to just crawl most of the time, though. He's such a blessing. Sorry the post is short ~ I have things to do before Justus wakes up from his nap. Hopefully, there won't be too long between updates this time! Have a great day!!

Does children's ministry matter?

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:14:10 GMT

Here is a article from George Barnas Website- I thought it was full of insight-Check it out

Teens Evaluate the Church-Based Ministry They Received As Children

(Ventura, CA) - A majority of today’s teenagers attended church when they were young children or adolescents – most of them attending on a regular basis. A new survey from the Barna Research Group explores what these teens say they received from their church when they were younger.

Attendance Patterns

A majority of teenagers – 56% – says that they attended church-related activities an average of two or more times per month prior to turning 13. (An additional 6% said they attended an average of once a month.) The young people most likely to attend church events twice a month or more often were those living in the South or Midwest (about two-thirds did so, compared to slightly less than half among kids living in the Northeast and West).

What They Retained

When asked what they learned from their exposure to the church’s ministry while they were young children and adolescents, eight out of ten identified something that they felt was an important insight or category of lessons. One-quarter of teens (26%) said they received general information about God, such as claims regarding His existence, information about His attributes or teachings about the life of Jesus Christ. One-sixth of today’s teens (17%) said their church experience had imparted core religious beliefs from the Bible. One out of every seven young people (15%) said they learned important lifestyle principles, generally in relation to obedience to God’s laws or moral direction for their life. Smaller numbers of teenagers recall developing important relationships or relational skills at church (8%) or general ideas about the role of faith and church (5%). One out of every five teens (21%) said they did not learn anything of value during their time attending Christian churches.

Outcomes From Their Attendance

Each teenaged respondent who had attended church at least once a month during their younger years was asked whether or not each of eight specific outcomes accurately described their pre-teen church experience. Three of the outcomes were claimed by nine out of ten teens: having had exposure to Bible stories (95%), learning about the lives of great people in the Bible (92%), and having fun or positive experiences related to religion (89%).

Nearly as many young people said they felt they had developed meaningful friendships at church (87%), discovered the traditions of their church (86%), developed a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ (85%) and had opportunities to serve needy people alongside of their churched peers (85%).

The single outcome that was much less commonly cited was “understanding enough of the Bible so that every decision you make is based on biblical principles.” Only half of the churched young people – 53% – said this was a result of their church experience.

Reactions to the Findings

Deeper analysis of the survey results led the study’s director, George Barna, to conclude that children get some very helpful and valuable experiences from church involvement, but often do not receive sufficient training in applying biblical content to their decision-making process. “We discovered fairly strong correlations between understanding how to use the Bible for life decision-making with becoming a born again Christian during the younger years, having an active spiritual life as characterized by consistent prayer, Bible reading and church attendance, and possessing a biblical worldview. Unfortunately,” Barna noted, “less than one out of every ten churched teenagers has a biblical worldview. In other words, the result of their involvement at a church is that they can recite some religious facts, they made some friends, and they had fun. That’s wonderful, but we also find that most of them have neither accepted Christ as their savior nor altered the basis on which they make their moral and ethical decisions in life. For most teenagers who have spent years attending church activities their faith is not integrated into who they are and how they live. Most of the young people who claim they developed an understanding of the Bible that enables them to make decisions based on biblical principles show no evidence of using that understanding in relation to the core beliefs and lifestyle choices that we studied.”

MY COMMENTS: WE NEED TO WAKE UP!!! Our Children need real ministry not just Games and crafts. They deserve better. Teaching them to study and engraft God's word into their lives is what our goal should be. NOT BABYSITTING OR ENTERTAINING THEM!!! How awesome would it be to look back at our ministries years down the line and say with confidence that we concerned ourselves with what God is concerned with. In contrast it would be a tragedy to look back at our ministries and say "We had fun" or "I think the kids really liked me" but not be able to say I did all I could to equip them to go out from our church and live dynamically for Christ . We have not been called to be the YMCA but instead God has called us to train children and students in the Holy scriptures. Our youth are our future . What we invest in them today is what our Church will look like tomorrow. Weak teaching and discipleship today equals weak Christians leading our Churches tomorrow. I don't want that on me. We love fun and that is definitely part of working with youth but we must do all in our power to intentionally lead them to the Word and endeavor to have Biblically centered ministries

Friday, October 27, 2006

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:14:08 GMT

Justus with his uncle Matt

Justus has a runny nose from his first ear infection!!

--> My brother, Matt, and me and Justus were watching Brent play softball on Monday night and it was in the 30's!! We were freezing!

I know it's been a long time since we updated, so I thought I'd do a quick update with a few pictures. We have been busy with a lot of people visiting and traveling, but life is good!! Brent flew out this morning to speak at a
Superbowl in Lynchburg, VA~ I know he would covet your prayers. Also, we've had a few more club starts. The ministry is growing and we're so excited to see what God has in store for us. Justus is doing well. He's getting so big ~ most of his clothes are 18 months now. The other day I stood him up and let him go and he stood for about 6 seconds before he sat himself down. He is so busy. He has started to imitate us a lot more. When you ask him what a bee says and what a lion says, he will make the noises (of course, only when he feels like it!). Hopefully it won't be as long until our next post as it was this time. We love reading all of your updates!! Have a great weekend=)

Update on the little man!!!

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 06:39:07 GMT

My In-Laws just came down from Bermuda and they were such a blessing. Visits like this one make us wish we lived closer to both of our families. We know that God has a plan for us and that at this point it doesnt involved either of us living close to our families but that doesnt make it easier to deal with. There is no cost to high to pay for Christ. And where God leads we will follow. God has called us to an awesome ministry and everyday is a gift from God. God is so Good! Here are somre pictures of J-DOG

Justus with a mohawk!

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:39:51 GMT

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:00:27 GMT

Sorry it's sideways. We thought this was a good picture to show Justus' teeth.

Much Needed Update!

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 17:28:17 GMT

Justus crawling through the coffee table-

We thought we'd update since we haven't in a while. Justus is growing and changing every day. He has his two top teeth now and he "army crawls" all over. Last week, he pulled Brent's computer right off of the table (thankfully, it didn't land on him)!! He's very curious. Last week we left him with a babysitter for the first time - very sad!! We had to do the orientations for a church that's just starting clubs this year. We'll try to post again soon.

Working on a Project

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 13:46:17 GMT

Stacy is working on a project for our LDC and it would be helpful if you could answer two questions for us (with your answer, please include your age and city/state).

1) What do you think about prayer?

2) What influences you the most when you make decisions?

Thank you SO much!!

Justus At The Pool!

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:47:40 GMT

If you check out our 'photos', you can see some pictures we took today of Justus at the pool. He loves the water!! We're leaving this evening to go to Lakeland to see Brent's family and visit with some friends. Our weeks at WOL were incredible. Brent's actually out right now with some campers doing some personal evangelism. He was able to teach the evangelism seminars on Wednesday and Thursday to the students. He'll be back at dinnertime, so that's probably when we'll leave. We'll try to post again in a few days.