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This week’s Sticky Faith post is a Q and A with Mark DeVries. Mark is founder president of Youth Ministry Architects, an organization dedicated to consulting with churches and student ministries. Since 1986, Mark has served as the Associate Pastor for Youth and Their Families at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where he continues to oversee the youth ministry on a part-time basis Mark is the author of several books including, Family Based Youth Ministry (1993, revised and expanded in 2004), one of the very first books articulating a vision and strategy of student ministry involving the entire family. part-time basis. He’s a speaker and mentor to countless student and children ministry leaders. He speaks at conferences and parent seminars all over the world including Little Rock Church three times, most recently in 2010, presenting a seminar called [...]

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(This is the third post in a series based on the book, Sticky Faith. This week’s post is written by Jeannie Cagle. Mike and Jeannie served Little Rock Church 2008-2010. Mike was the Associate Minister. Jeannie led the women’s ministry. They have raised three children and are proud grandparents. They live in Nasvville, TN.) We vividly recall the long car ride as we took each of our three children to college. It’s an overwhelming feeling to realize they are no longer a part of your day in and day out life where you can see what they are doing and know where they are going. And you also realize that delivering another lecture probably won’t make a difference at this point. Even as we were driving along, the thoughts kept creeping in: did we tell [...]

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Here’s a wonderful post by Tracy Williams. She shares her reflections based on the book, Sticky Faith. Tracy is the mother of five girls, three whom have graduated from high school (two of those have complete college). Tracy recently earned a Bachelors in Psychology. She and her husband, Scott, have been involved in our student ministry in some fashion for over 15 years. In the beginning, before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve walked together easily with God.  They could see their value reflected in God’s eyes and hear His words of Love for them.  After sin entered the picture and we all were banished from God’s presence, man forgot who he is:  a beloved creation created to live in relationship with his Father God.  Since then it seems that we have looked to [...]

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This morning we talked about nurturing faith in young people emphasizing the following points: Parents have the most time and opportunity for faith formation in young people. Therefore, what happens in children and student ministries should be in partnership with what happens outside of those times. This is called thinking orange. The story of God is too big to tell in specific, weekly times. It’s best told throughout our daily routines. As parents, we should look for opportunities regularly to tell God’s story and connect our children’s lives with that story. As Angela said, we look for ways to “drop God’s truth” into their lives. It takes an entire faith community sharing the responsibility to nurture faith in our children. Grandparents, coaches, teachers, friends, all working together to share God’s story and mentor our children. [...]

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A Gospel that Sticks from Fuller Youth Institute on Vimeo.   I made a decision for Christ at the age of 10. I couldn’t tell you what the sermon was about that day. I don’t even remember the exact date. I remember feeling nervous as a slipped out of my folding chair and stepped into the aisle. Eyes focused on the floor just in front of my feet I made my way to the front of our small 50-member church. I sat down and waited for the invitation song to end (I Am Resolved or something like that was being sung). The man who did most of the preaching asked me, as if he didn’t know, why I was coming forward. I told him I wanted to be baptized. My dad came down and sat [...]

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