Emmanuel Alliance Church of Ottawa 4 Thorncliff Place, Nepean, ON 613-820-6774 THEPARENTLINK Website: www.eaco.ca July 2012 FOR PARENTS OF TEENS Contact: Sue Ho ([email protected]) ALLOW TIME FOR FAITH GROWTH THE VIEW Amid all the activities your teenagers have planned for this summer, where In a survey about summer, does faith development rank? When the sunshine beckons, church attendance and personal time with God often suffer. 40% of preteens and younger teens said they’d likely be But summer can be a great time for families to talk about God and deepen bored, and only 10% expected relationships with him. Use travel time for in-depth conversations about kids’ to be overscheduled. A beliefs. Attend Christian concerts and outdoor worship services. Visit different majority of older teens, churches to spark teenagers’ thoughts about what they believe and why. meanwhile, said they relish the Together, help with vacation Bible school or a local outreach project to put freedom and independence that “feet” to your faith. summer brings. —kidshealth.org Practicing “spiritual disciplines” is another way to grow as followers of Christ. Devote a portion of your summer to modeling and practicing the following Because of the recession, many God-connecting disciplines with your kids: teenagers have extra time on their hands during summer. Solitude—Go on an iPod-free hike, allowing time for silent prayer. Last year, only 25% of U.S. Simplicity—Keep your schedules simple and get rid of extra “stuff.” Abandon—Serve without expecting acknowledgment or praise. teens had summer jobs, and Submission—Trust God as almighty, and treat people as treasures. competition is tough again this Worship—Expand your worship to everyday experiences. year. Instead, more kids are Fellowship—Establish faith traditions and make Jesus your top priority. now taking summer classes. TIPS >>> PONDER THIS This summer, help kids solve the terrain of a teenager’s life. Inspire What were your most memorable truth of their unique identity. kids to learn about themselves by summers, and why? trying new opportunities and Youth ministry pioneer Dan adventures. Then discuss their If you could do anything with Webster uses a Four-Window reactions and identify their your teenagers this summer, what Model to help teenagers get a interests and strengths. would it be? lasting taste of who they are, what they should do with their life, and 3. Affirmation. This unleashes the What steps can you take this how their talents can find their power of telling kids what’s right summer to help your kids explore sweet-spot out in the real world: with them, rather than criticizing. their true identity in Christ? See beyond what might need to 1. Observation. Realize that a change and communicate the story is unfolding right before upside truth of the person God has your eyes and slow down created them to be. enough to see it. Pay closer- than-normal attention to your 4. Revelation. God knows our teenagers and to what they teenagers better and loves them notice. This conveys interest deeper than we ever could. We and value. need his help to show kids they’re fearfully and wonderfully made 2. Exploration. Adults with an (Psalm 139:14). God can help us explorer’s heart push into identify and call out what he’s put new territory, understanding into each of them. on ever-deeper levels the Define Summer ‘Success’ Expert Insights for Parents of Teenagers By Walt Mueller School’s out, and kids are enjoying to believe that their parents’ love have said no to the summer busyness in summer vacation—or are they? for them depends on their our family more often. A well-placed Teenagers struggle to balance jobs, performance. Stress builds, “no” can be a great big “yes” to family athletics and other activities, relationships weaken, rebellion time, a truly restful summer vacation, camps, volunteer work, mission flares, and depression may result. and a wonderful opportunity to spend a trips, and lessons. These are all few months teaching kids about the true good things…as long as there’s Developmental expert Cliff meaning of success. still time to relax and do things Schimmels says: “The one prayer I together as a family. But summer pray most frequently as a True success in life is faithfulness and busyness can lead to madness. parent…is that the Lord will give obedience to God. Our desire for our me the wisdom to know how much kids should be the same as God’s desire The primary goal of these chaotic to expect of my children. If I for them: that they become like Christ in schedules is all too often parent- expect too little of them, they may all things. What must we do to make that driven, as we try to better our kids waste their gifts. If I expect too happen? We must know the truth from and improve their ability to be much, I may destroy them with an God’s word, talk about it, live it with our “successful” in their futures. unrealistic burden.” teenagers, model it, experience it Unfortunately, the end result of together, and prayerfully trust God to parental pressure and pushiness Now that three of my own kids are change our teens’ hearts and minds. isn’t always what was intended. grown, I’ve had a chance to reflect Some kids stress out. Others start on how we raised them. I should —SimplyYouthMinistry.com RESOURCE BIBLE FOCUS In KidUnique (Simply Youth Ministry), Dan Webster shows The apostles returned to Jesus from their parents how to make a life- ministry tour and told him all they had done and changing impact on teenagers’ taught. Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by lives. Parents can put the ideas ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He into practice with a 31-day said this because there were so many people experience with their kids. coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. —Mark 6:30-31 MEDIA SPOTLIGHT MAINSTREAM MUSIC CHRISTIAN MUSIC MOVIES Movie: The Dark Knight Rises Genre: Action, Thriller Rating: PG-13 Synopsis: A mysterious masked man comes to Gotham to take on Batman. Other than the inclusion of Catwoman, plot details of the trilogy’s final MATISYAHU BELLARIVE installment are under wraps. Our Take: Director-writer Background: Matisyahu blends reggae Background: Bellarive just released Christopher Nolan has made some of and alt-rock with traditional Jewish their first full-length album, the most compelling movies of the last themes. His hits include “King Without a following last year’s critically 10 years. His reboot of this franchise Crown” and “One Day.” He recently acclaimed EP, The Being Human has been incredible, and this wrap-up shaved his beard and has appeared without Project. Gungor fans will love should be no different. a yarmulke but says he hasn’t abandoned Bellarive—not because they sound his faith. If kids lack a foundation of truth particularly alike but because they about Christianity (as most studies show), both meld art with music to create an Movie: The Amazing Spider-Man this sort of music can turn their faith into a intriguing whole. From the use of Genre: Action, Adventure hodge-podge. They’ll mix KJ-52’s harmonies to multiple instruments, Christianity with Matisyahu’s Judaism this definitely feels like a collective Rating: PG-13 with the Beastie Boys’ Buddhism and band. Synopsis: In the reboot of this film come out with a shallow mess. franchise, a spider bite gives Peter Albums: The Heartbeat (2012), The Parker incredible powers. This time he Albums: Spark Seeker (2012), Light Being Human Project (2010) searches for his parents’ secrets, (2009), Youth (2006) which lead him straight to a faceoff What Bellarive Says: “The Creator with The Lizard. What Matisyahu Says: “Vocal rest is is continuously stirring the souls of awesome. It is like any kind of fast. Firstly, all his children toward himself. We Our Take: Spider-Man has always it is a purification of speech. It made me believe that God creates his children been one of the “safer” superhero realize how not careful I am with the with specific design to reveal and franchises—with little cursing, no sex, things I say. It also makes you find new bring glory to himself in unique and nonbloody violence. I’m not sure ways of communication and new methods ways. For the six of us, that gift is yet if this one will be different, but to connect with people.” creating music.” Marvel’s track record is pretty good. Explore: The video for “King Without a Explore: Videos of Bellarive’s live Crown”—with helpful lyrics—is here: experiences are at www.bellarive.com. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChV5BZ8Sm For more media discussions and ideas, You can also see videos on YouTube. S0. go to www.MinistryandMedia.com. VIDEO GAMES Lollipop Chainsaw—This game is getting a lot of buzz, mostly because the main character is a scantily clad, zombie-hunting cheerleader. So it’s a mixture of objectification and extreme violence—exactly what teenagers should not be exposed to. (Rated M.) The Walking Dead: The Game—This title, based on AMC’s hit TV show, is being released in episodes throughout the next year. Just like the show, though, the game is incredibly violent and bloody. (Rated M.) JULY 2012 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thurs Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Canada Day! Video Game Night (SH only) 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 JW- Family Picnic- Thanksgiving Soccer Lunch Tournament- Community Sunday Ride Day Sundae Day 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 BBQ (TBD) (SH only) 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 VBS Training 29 30 31 Looking Ahead: Aug 13-17 – VBS Week .