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Celebrating the Church Year in September
By Marie McNary Welcome to September! Another month, another opportunity to start fresh introducing the Church Year’s rich history into your home. There are many great opportunities this month to revisit stories your children may be familiar with through their Sunday School Bible stories. Joshua, Hannah, Moses, Jonah. These are great places to start. Look around your home. You may already have story books on these individuals. Or a children’s Bible that covers them all! Incorporating those books into your daily story time (or right before bed) is a great way to bring the Church Year into your already established routine. Looking for a little more adult study of…
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Heresy- What Does This Mean Part 1
By Sarah Arnold I was looking for a picture to use with this post and stumbled across this one—and it seems to be a perfect description of heresy. The Church isn’t made for “progress,” so it seems only logical to define the opposite of sound doctrine—heresy—as progressive. The church is made for sound doctrine, and sound doctrine alone, teachings that are unchanging in a world of fluidity and cultural sensitivity. We wouldn’t want to offend anyone, and let’s face it–sound doctrine offends our sin nature. We don’t seem to hear the word heresy much anymore because it’s considered a “divisive” word. Often those of us in Confessional Lutheran circles who do…
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Celebrate the Church Year in August
By Marie McNary Can you believe it is August? As we begin looking at our calendars and to prepare for a new month, don’t forget to look at the Church Year Calendar as well. Use the Church Year in your home. In your personal Bible Study (the Treasury of Daily Prayer is an amazing resource). Use it in family devotions and activities. Here is what is coming up this month. I’ve chosen to link to many of the places you can read about this month’s Church Year in Scripture. It is easy to get bogged down thinking we need to do something “Pinterest worthy” to celebrate. But the most…
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Teaching Children Church History
By Amanda Markel Teaching church history to children is an important, although often overlooked, part of their growth in the Christian faith. We tend to be intentional about teaching the Bible, at home, in Sunday School, and Vacation Bible School, which is great. We also make an effort to teach Luther’s Small Catechism, if not at home (the place for which the Small Catechism was written!), at least in the church as we prepare children for Confirmation, which is also good. We might even teach some Lutheran history as we do that, but in general, early church history is often forgotten. But church history is also important! Just as we…
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Celebrating the Church Year In May
By Marie McNary Are you ready to start May celebrating our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? I sure am! This month as we study and learn more about the Church Year, I want to take us to the Treasury of Daily Prayer. This book is a daily devotional resource written around the Christian Church Year. (In case you missed it, this site just had a post walking you through the book. Dust off your copy (or head over to CPH and buy one or borrow a copy from your Church library) and get a great overview of each day we celebrate this month. May 1: St. Philip and St. James,…
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Celebrating the Church Year- April
By Marie McNary Life is busy. Sometimes in all the hustle and bustle the urgent takes priority, and the important is put off until another day. Keeping Christ at the center of our households is both urgent and important. It should be at the top of our “to-do” lists. Celebrating the church year within our homes is a fun way to bring Lutheran history to life that we are exposed to only in Church. We are always looking for ways to make Christ the central focus of our life and our days. When it comes to celebrating the church year sometimes it can be tough to know where to begin, but…