June 28 - Cherrydale Baptist Church

Parent
Dedication
and baptisms
Issue
23
Cherrydale Baptist Church Parents Newsletter
Check our new
website just
for kids!
We recently
announced that our
ministry to kids in
grades 1-6 will now be
known as Straight
Street (see Acts
chapter 9 to find out
why!) Along with that
change, we present
the Straight Street
Network, a website
where your kids can
find pictures,
information, and
share their lives with
their church family.
We’re adding more
content all the time.
One feature allows
your child to take
pictures of his or her
“place” to share with
friends. A child’s
bedroom is usually
filled with toys,
awards and other
interesting things that reflect a child’s
interest and experiences.
Another feature allows your child to read
and search the New Century Version
Bible, the translation we recommend for
your children.
You’ll find the Straight Street Network
online at straightstreet.net. Please
encourage your child to log on frequently.
And send us your suggestions that will
make the website more helpful and more
user-friendly.
Principles for Parents
The next Principles for Parents Seminar is
on Sunday afternoon, July 12, from 2pm
until 5:30. All registrants will receive the
full Seminar Handbook.
Registration forms are available on our
website and at the Welcome Center kiosk.
This seminar is for all parents of children
and teens, and for all those in authority
over kids. We encourage all parents to
register for a seminar.
Issue 23: Sunday, June 7, 2009
If you are ready to
stand before our
church family and
dedicate yourself (and
your child) to the
process of training
your child for God,
please call Pastor Herb
Owen to make an appointment to come in
and meet with him.
You should also call
Herb if your son or
daughter (through
grade 6) is ready to get
baptized. He will sit
down and talk with
your child to talk
through the process
and help make sure he
or she is ready.
You can reach Herb
anytime on his cell
phone at 703-2548305.
Which Bible
is best for
my child?
One of the goals of
the Reformation was
to give the people a
copy of God’s Word in
a language they can
understand. Yet, we
often give our children
a Bible with words
they cannot understand.
The International
Children’s Bible
(grader 3 reading
level) and the New
Century Version
(same translation at a
slightly higher reading
level) are the best we
have found.
The New Testament
of the International
Children’s Bible is
available (as a translation, not a story book)
in comic book form
(available from Herb’s
office) as well as recorded by young Christian actors as the
Word of Promise
Next Generation
available on iTunes,
and from amazon.com
and at christianbook.
com. We highly recommend these.
How much TV
is too much TV?
altogether, of course. Also, shows that “make evil look
good” should be skipped. If you are not sure, either
watch it with your child or ask your child to watch
something else. One problem is that we can get so used
to seeing bad people do bad things that it doesn’t bother
Pastor Herb Owen looks at this familiar question us anymore. And it really should bother us. Even cartoons
can show rebellion against parental authority. Once our
Many parents wrestle with the question of how much TV family walked out of “The Goofy Movie.” I wouldn’t
is too much TV. Here are a few questions (I thought up)
watch a movie where kids talked to their parents “that
with the best answers I can offer, after years of working
way,” and the fact that these kids were cartoon
with parents (and my own kids) in a world of television.
characters was, to my wife and me, irrelevant.
Q: Is TV evil?
Q: How can we leverage TV for good?
A: If television is inherently evil, so is reading and writing. A: Watch news shows with your children. Then, together,
TV is a medium, just like the printed word. And like all
evaluate what you have seen. News reporters may try to
media, it can bring good “stuff” and bad “stuff.”
be neutral in reporting the news (and some do a good
Obviously, television shows (and movies and websites
job), but sometimes their own feelings can easily creep
and books and magazines) that teach our children wrong in. Even news reporters who share our basic values can
values are bad news. The problem is that it takes time to reinterpret news in ways that cause them to report the
know what a particular TV show is about. But it’s worth
day’s events inaccurately.
the effort.
Also, there are lots of great plays, concerts, and other
Q: Isn’t watching TV a waste of time?
events on TV. And even some of the regular network
shows are great, especially the old ones. (I speak as an
A: Well, it could be. But if going to a good play isn’t a
Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watcher,
waste of time, it doesn’t make sense that watching the
although
there’s even one Andy
same play on TV would be. Watching TV mindlessly
Griffith
I won’t watch.)
because we are too lazy to get up and do anything else is
a waste of time. That’s where we need to be
We must teach our children
careful.
that we live in a world that is
seldom led by biblical values.
Q: What shows can we trust?
We
can still learn from this
A: Other than the Weather Channel
world,
but we will also reject
and Jeopardy, most shows may
things
that
aren’t true. That’s
have things that violate our
called
being
discerning. If your
values. But then, so does the
child’s soccer coach isn’t a
Bible. God’s Word is full of
Christian, he can still teach your
stories of people who did
child to play the game. But if he
really bad things. So we
uses vulgarity or makes his team
must teach our children
feel foolish when they lose, you’d
to recognize the evil as
best find another team. The
evil. Some things, such
same principle applies to
as nudity and vulgarity,
television.
should be avoided
Did you know that 15 years
ago there were only 50
known Azerbaijani
Christian believers in the
world?! Now we think
there are about 7,000.
That means only 0.02% of
the nearly forty million
Azerbaijanis are known
believers. Wow – that’s not very many! Most Azerbaijanis
consider themselves Muslim. Pray today that the Lord will
provide opportunities for the Azerbaijanis to hear the
Gospel.