The Future of Our Church

Last night my Tuesday Small Group had our first Summer barbecue. Tons of fun. Burgers, quinoa, homemade guacamole – a really great time. Our group knows how to do food. Amy brought six boxes of sparklers for the herd of kids to run around with. I say herd because there were 10 kids at the party besides the adults.

I was probably asked twice for every kid present during the time it took me to eat my burger when we’d light the sparklers. The kids were super excited. We went out on the back deck, I gave the kids instructions not to light each other on fire with them etc and started lighting them and handing them out. With six boxes we had plenty for each kid to have several sparklers each. They ran around having a blast.

After a while I got down to the last sparkler. I had 6 kids clustered around me all waiting for their next sparkler. I said “We only have one left, who wants it?” They all hopped up and down saying “I do, I do, I do!” They all really wanted that sparkler. I said “We only have one left so all of you can’t have it. Who’s willing to give it up so someone else can have it?” Instantly all six kids said “You can give it to someone else.” They elected to give the sparker to a 4 year old who was tottering around on the far side of the yard since he had only had one.

I was very proud. I think the future looks good.

Parent Project: Teaching Your Kid to Ride a Bike

Warning: this post contains no theology, just something fun you can teach your kids.

I’m the father of two young kids (currently 5 and 6 years old). One of the things my wife and I are trying to do is build into our family life, right from the beginning, activities we can share with our kids for their whole lives. (I actually rode over 30 miles with my mom and dad a few weeks ago over Memorial Day weekend) I’m a bigger believer in quantity time over quality time. When my kids hit their teenage years I want there to be spaces in their lives they share with my wife and I that are just plain fun. So my kids are learning lots of outdoor activities – rock climbing, skiing and biking that they can share with my wife and I even when they’re older.

Most kids learn to ride a bike but in my days as a youth pastor I was increasingly surprised at how many kids today never actually learned. I’m going to give you instructions for teaching your kid to learn to ride a bike that border on the magical. If you learned to ride with your mom or dad running behind you holding the seat or if you’ve taught your kids that way the method I’m going to explain will make you want to go back in time and do it over again. It works incredibly well. My daughter learned when she was 4 years old and rode the 4 mile loop at Ridley Creek when she was 5.

Step One: Muscles
Get your kid a bike and have them ride it WITH training wheels for a month or two. This is just to develop some muscles for pedaling and some comfort with knowing how to steer the bike. Training wheels don’t actually teach you to ride. In fact they teach you poor technique because you don’t learn to balance. You actually learn to lean on the training wheels – the very thing you can’t do when they’re removed. If your kid is older or already has the hang of pedaling from a tricycle or big wheel you can skip step one.

Step Two: Balance
Now is time to learn balance. Take off the training wheels and lower the seat so that when your kid is sitting on it they can easily push themselves with their feet. The idea is that they can kind of scoot around while sitting and easily catch their balance by putting their feet down. Now comes the trick – take off the pedals. An adjustable wrench will take them off in about 30 seconds. This let’s them swing their feet to scoot without having to straddle around the pedals. Let them do this for a month until they can glide along with their feet up off the ground balancing on their own. What they’ll learn is to actually balance the bike using forward motion just like if they were riding except they can catch their balance very easily since they’re feet are hovering over the ground instead of on pedals. It helps to have a big open area to ride that’s safe from cars. The church parking lot is open all week to anyone who wants to use it.

Step Three: Riding
Now put the pedals back on and magically they’ll be able to ride. No running behind them holding on. No training wheels. Both my kids just instantly pedaled off and rode from that moment forward without any falling from lack of balance. They learned to pedal in step one and learned to balance in step two. Now they just put those two together. It’ll stun you if you’ve tried teaching a kid the old school way most of us learned.

Caution
Your kid should wear a helmet during every part of this training. Helmets are essential.

Don’t try any hills for a long time. I took my kids to Chester Park after a month or two of riding and foolishly let my son ride down a steep hill. I though he was ready because he could ride perfectly on flat land. He sped up down the hill, couldn’t stop, and had an epic parent heart attack inducing crash. Fortunately he was barely bruised but it could have been much worse.

Be super cautious of cars. This plan will teach your kid to balance but it won’t teach them to be aware of cars or to ride without weaving a bit. Again, having a large place to ride like a parking lot or bike trail will really help in the first month or two to teach them to ride in a straight line and to stop when they want.

I hope every kid in our church 5 years old and older is riding around like a maniac by the end of the Summer. Let’s do Saturday church family ride around the loop at Ridley this September. Have fun and be safe.

Prayer Walk Tomorrow

I discovered a prayer walk this morning reading the Chester City Blog.

The Christian Coalition Against Violence of Chester and Vicinity will be leading the hot spot prayer walk on Friday, June 3, 2011 at 7:00 PM, starting at Freedom Baptist Church, Morton Avenue, Chester.

All who “are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” are invited to take part in this evangelistic outreach.

If you don’t already know, 18 people have been shot within 3 miles of our church since Christmas. Certainly one of the things Jesus would have us do about that tragedy is pray, especially with other Christians in our area. Click here to read the original article on Chester City Blog.