6 Questions When Your Child Needs Discipline

From Bruce Ray's Withhold Not Correction:

1. What did you do?
2. What does God say about this? (teach them the Word)
3. Was what you did right or wrong according to the Scriptures?
4. What happens when you disobey?
5. What must I do as a parent under God's authority?
6. What ought you to do in the future?

See One Book Per Week

One Book Per Week 9: Book 3 - "Withhold Not Correction"

Check out my website/blog - "One Book Per Week"

It has been fun to discipline myself to read in this way.

Most recently I am reading this book on parenting (I give it 5 stars):

Week 9: Book 3 - "Withhold Not Correction" by Bruce A. Ray (One Book Per Week)

21 Questions to Ask About Your Church

21 Questions I’ve Been Asking (Myself) Lately
Several of you will find these questions familiar, but their familiarity does not minimize the piercing factor for this pastor. I wanted to put them out there in case others might find them helpful.

1. If our church would cease to exist in our city, would it be noticed and missed?

2. If all the pastors were tragically killed in a car accident, would the church’s ministry cease or fall apart?

3. If the only possible means of connecting with unbelievers were through the missionary living of our church members, how much would we grow? (I ask this because the early church did not have signs, websites, ads, marketing, etc.)

4. What are the subcultures within the church? Do they attract or detract from the centrality of the gospel and mission of the church?

5. Is our church known more for what we are not/against than what we are/for?

6. What are we allowing to be our measuring stick of church health? (attendance vs. discipleship; seating capacity vs. sending capacity; gospel growth, training on mission, etc.)

7. Are the priorities of our church in line with the priorities of Christ’s kingdom?

8. If our members had 60 seconds to explain to an unbeliever what our church is like, what would you want them to say? How many do you think are saying that?

9. If the invisible kingdom of God became visible in our city, what would that look like?

10. In what ways have we acted or planned in unbelief instead of faith?

11. As a pastor, is my time spent more in fixing people’s problems or helping people progress in faith through training/equipping them for ministry?

12. Are the people we are reaching more religious or pagan?

13. What can we learn about our evangelism practices by the kind of people are being reached with the gospel?

14. What will it take to reach those in our city who are far from God and have no access to the gospel?

15. What percentage of our growth is conversion growth (vs. transfer growth)?

16. How many people know and are discharging their spiritual gifts in active service and building up of the body of Christ?

17. How many people do I know (and more importantly know me) on a first name basis in my community and city who do not attend our church?

18. Am I using people to get ministry done, or am I using ministry to get people “done”?

19. Is the vision we are casting forth honoring both God’s heart for the lost (builder) and God’s passion for a pure church (perfecter)?

20. If money and space were not an issue, what is one thing we ought to dream for God to do in our midst where it is impossible for anyone to get the credit except for the omnipotent hand of God?

21. If being a church planting church is comprised of disciple-making disciples, then how are we doing?

Got any other questions that you could add? Please pass them along!

Join us at 10 AM Sunday Mornings for Prayer

Dear Grace Church and people from the Wyoming-Forest Lake, MN community:

Every Sunday morning at 10 (immediately following the Sunday school time) we spend time in prayer in the sanctuary. We pray for the morning service, for the sermon in particular, the coming week and the special prayer requests of people in the congregation.

Please join us. This is a helpful way of preparing your hearts for the corporate worship of God's people (the service starts at 10:30).

Don't pass over the gracious and amazing invitation that God has given to us in prayer. Last night I was talking this over with my oldest son, Paul, and he said it this way (in answer to the question - why do we pray before the service?) - "because God does the work and He told us to ask." Amen! Do we really ask? Do we really believe that He will do the work? Do we really know Who we are talking about when we doubt?

God does the heavy lifting and He instructs us to ask, seek and knock and it will be answered, found and opened to us.

Imagine what God intends to do in your heart, in the heart of your family, in the hearts of the people of Grace Church, and in the hearts of our community when we give ourselves to corporate (and private) prayer.

Here is a helpful prayer and meditation to ponder that helped my heart and spirit this morning. Please pray this for yourself and others this morning as you come to the Worship of God in the Word.

Psalm 119

25 My soul clings to the dust;
give me life according to your word!
26 When I told of my ways, you answered me;
teach me your statutes!
27 Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
28 My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word!
29 Put false ways far from me
and graciously teach me your law!
30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your rules before me.
31 I cling to your testimonies, O Lord;
let me not be put to shame!
32 I will run in the way of your commandments
when you enlarge my heart!

Alone With God and Helped By You

Dear Grace Church and Friends,

Thank you for praying fore Molly, the kids and me over the past few days. From Tuesday morning until today I spent time alone in Northwestern Wisconsin (near Hayward) at a beautiful cabin (think luxurious log-home/resort) for the purpose of prayer, Bible study, reading and communion with God. On Sunday I asked you to pray for me, confident that He would bless me more if you were praying. I am quite assured that many of you did, indeed, pray for me. I thought it would be encouraging to you if I shared some of the fruit of my time.

Here are some evidences of grace that I wrote in my journal:

1 - Sweet fellowship with God - true communion through prayer, reading and meditation on God's Word, truths and works...

2 - I was given good health and alertness - not sleepy during me time

3 - I benefited from a great setting - beautiful, comfortable, great to reading chairs, quiet

4 - My family at home did very well; they were willing to send me off and pray for me ( and were people serving them by asking if they can make a meal for them)

5 - The knowledge of friends and church praying for me was a great encouragement to me

6 - A diligence from God was given to me to spend my time wisely in reading, praying and journaling

7 - The prayers and pursuit of a vision and "holy ambition" as a pastor was a great help in focusing my time and energy and proved fruitful (if you want to know more what I mean by this - see this Sermon "A Holy Ambition" - I have been praying that God would speak to me and give me a particular burden that would drive me)

8 - The use of my Kindle was a great blessing and help to me in the accessibility of books and comfort to read longer in comfort

9 - The confirmation from God regarding a holy ambition - more to come...

10 - The knowledge that the cabin that I stayed at was being provided to me by dear friends who are part of the congregation and who love and pray for me (thank you Joe and Suzanne Tromberg)

11 - The help of sporadic breaks to provide variety to my time - Fox News, whirlpool (yes, it was luxury), a good cold run in the country (I love running in sub zero conditions)

12 - Freedom and protection from temptations of the flesh and other distractions that would draw me away from my purpose.

13 - Good sleep in a very comfortable bed...

Yes, it sounds like I was really suffering for Christ while I was up there, right!

I profess to God and to you my gratitude for these things with a sure knowledge that I don't deserve this form of grace and mercy but I rejoice that He (and you) have extended it to me.

For those who are interested, here are some things I read while I was away. I am so thankful for the time and ability to read and pray.

The Holy Scriptures:

• 1 Peter
• Romans 8
• Psalm 145 (spent a lot of time on this passage)
• Psalm 23 and 46
• Deuteronomy 4-6
• John 6, 12
• Isaiah 55
• Psalm 115
• Also - my read through the Bible plan.

Books Other than the Bible:

• Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan - Great book that reminded me of the brevity of this life and the pilgrimage that we are on until we die or He returns. This books reminded me of the spiritual warfare that we face as Christians and our need to fight the Enemy with the spiritual weapons that He provides for us.
• Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan - Here the puritan John Bunyan gives the account of his salvation and his internal wrestlings with his own guilt, sin, and freedom that he found only at the foot of the cross through the Gospel. He also gives the account of his calling to be a preacher, his imprisonment for preaching without being licensed by the State Church in England (think 1660s) and his 12 year imprisonment because he insisted on obeying God rather than man in fulfilling his calling as a preacher of the Gospel. In prison he wrote books that have impacted generations of Christians.
• The Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham - After being impacted by his sermon that we listened to at the parenting seminar last fall I wanted to read his book on the same subject - The Centrality of the Home in the evangelism and discipleship of the children. This was a very impactful book for me to read as I consider our calling as a church and families to raise our kids in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
• Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton - I didn’t read this book in its entirety, but it provided a great break in my reading. Chesterton reflects on what is wrong with the thinkers of today. He has a tremendous chapter about the ethics of Elfland in which he talks about the importance of the "fairy tales" in their shaping of his imagination as it relates to the REAL world that God has "magically" made and continues to sustain.
• Helping Children to Understand the Gospel by Sally Michael and others - This book is printed by Children's Desiring God and is a book that every parent should read, be familiar with and use in their home. I was moved to pray for my kids and the kids of Grace church as well as their parents.
• The Seven Laws of Teaching by John Milton Gregory (1886) - I had this book recommended to me by Douglas Wilson and I am more than halfway done. This book is a very helpful read for every parent (no matter what stage they are in), Church teacher, pastor, elder, or anyone else who has a desire to pass on knowledge to someone else in an effective way - I hope that includes you. As a preacher it has been very insightful. I hope it helps .

Ok, if you are actually still reading, I will close with another thank you.

Together with you in the Greatest Cause,

Pastor Daniel Patz