On May 1^st and 3^rd, FamilyLife is releasing the feature film, Like Arrows, produced by Dennis and Barbara Rainey and Bob Lepine, as well as Alex and Stephen Kendrick, the producers of Courageous, Fireproof, War Room, and Facing the Giants.

Bob Lepine summarizes the film this way:

“Like Arrows is an honest portrayal of an ordinary couple journeying through every phase of parenting, from pregnancy to their golden anniversary. Like any other family, Charlie and Alice Morris face typical parenting struggles. Through these difficulties, they become aware of their need to be more intentional in their parenting and are introduced to God’s blueprints for marriage and family. The parenting journey is both incredibly challenging and incredibly rewarding at the same time. We wanted to take viewers on what we hope will be a very relatable journey. And in the process, we hope they’ll be inspired to make their faith more core to how they function as a family.”

As someone who has invested more than 25 years supporting and equipping parents for this “incredibly challenging and incredibly rewarding” responsibility, I was very pleased, when I previewed the film, with the biblical way in which important parenting issues are addressed. It reminds parents of the influence they have over the course of their children’s lives and inspires them to faithfully pursue their calling to disciple their children in the Christian faith with God’s Word.

The film can stand alone as a resource for equipping parents but also integrates with FamilyLife’s Art of Parenting™ series which unpacks the issues that the movie addresses into practical guidance for parents. Find out more about the movie at familylifeministries.org/likearrows.

One week from today, Children Desiring God will officially become Truth78. On April 10th, we’ll release three new resources for church and family ministry, update our web presence, and officially introduce our ministry at an event in Louisville, Kentucky that will be livestreamed for anyone to join.

Our mission
The changes coming next week represent our new identity as Truth78, but more importantly, they reflect our efforts to fulfill more strategically our mission for equipping the next generations to know, honor, and treasure God. (more…)

After months of planning and preparation, we are excited to announce that on April 10 Children Desiring God will officially become Truth78, an independent 501(c)3 organization structured to more strategically fulfill our mission to equip the next generations to know, honor, and treasure God. We will mark this launch on April 10 with a new website, new resources, and a special launch event.

The name Truth78 connects us to Psalm 78, which has been a signature text defining our ministry over the past 20 years. Psalm 78 charges us to take this testimony we’ve received from our fathers and faithfully pass it on to the next generation so that they would set their hope in God.

Ever since Children Desiring God was established as a ministry of Desiring God in 1998, these two ministries have shared a similar name, typeface, and color palette. Over the past 20 years, however, as Children Desiring God grew more broadly as a developer of curriculum, the Fighter Verses™ Scripture memory tools, family discipleship resources, and vision-casting and training, Desiring God has increasingly focused its emphasis on spreading a passion for the supremacy of God through resources on DesiringGod.org. (more…)

Sooner or later, a child who is regularly sitting through a Sunday morning worship service is bound to ask something like, “Why can’t I have a ‘snack’ like everyone else?” So it is not surprising that the second most-frequent question I am asked in children’s ministry is, “When should my child take the Lord’s Supper?”

A General Response 

When people inquire about children taking the Lord’s Supper, I have two perspectives to share with them. The first is that our communion services are open to all present, including children, who are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins and the fulfillment of all His promises to us (including eternal life); and therefore, children are welcome to participate in the Lord’s Supper: (more…)

The title of this post is my effort to offer a word of encouragement and hope for those who are getting ready to launch another season of ministry with children and youth. The rest of this post is for those who having difficulty finding encouragement and hope in the title.

I am taking my cues from the Lord Jesus, whose final words for his disciples span chapters 14-16 in gospel of John. One clear message of this discourse is that trouble is coming.

^“I am going away,” (14:28)
“I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming.” (14:30)
^“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (15:13)
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (15:18)
“I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (15:19)
“If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (15:20)
^“ They will put you out of the synagogues…” (16:2)
“…the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” (16:2)
“A little while, and you will see me no longer…” (16:16)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament,…You will be sorrowful,…” (16:20)
“….you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.” (16:32)

(more…)

Teachers change the way you see the world, and they often change the way we understand ourselves (The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership that Matters, 2012, page 67).

If this was the only sentence in Albert Mohler’s excellent book, it would have been well worth the price of the book. Even though this may not seem to you like an earth-shaking insight, it gripped me when I read it. Let me explain.

I am reading Mohler’s book during a very significant and heart-wrenching year of “lasts.” I just attended my last staff meeting with John Piper as my 27-year pastoral colleague. I just heard my last sermon from him as my 33-year pastor. He has been a true comrade in ministry. The sound of his absence is deafening. (more…)