Christian Values for Primary Schols

Some Christian Values

for a Church of England Primary School

from the Bible

The Greatest Commandments

Jesus said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself.””

(Matthew’s Gospel chapter 22 verses 37-38)

The Golden Rule

Jesus said: “Treat others as you want them to treat you.”

(Matthew’s Gospel chapter 7 verse 12)

The Fruit of the Spirit

The Apostle Paul said: “God’s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled.”

(The letter to the Galatian Church chapter 5 verses 22-23)

Humility

The Apostle Paul said: “I realize how kind God has been to me, and so I tell each of you not to think you are better than you really are. Use good sense and measure yourself by the amount of faith that God has given you.”

(The letter to the Roman Church chapter 12 verse 3)

Forgiveness

The Apostle Paul said: “Put up with each other, and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you.”

(The letter to the Colossian Church chapter 3 verse 13)

Bible quotations are from the Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Parenting Headings & Jottings (1)

What would you include?

Introduction

Please check back in 30 years and we hope to have something useful to say here!

In the meantime, read the Bible and Doug Wilson and pray.

You only get one chance at parenting. They grow up fast and you can't have your time over.
You are going to fail. Work hard, pray and relax, lighten up, trust God.
God's grace is sufficient.
There are no perfect parents or children but there is a better way.
Parents are responsible but we don't try to earn or merit God's favour. We believe his promises and depend on his mercy. God uses our weak efforts. When we know our weakness we depend on him and give him the glory for anything he graciously does through us.
Tastes, cultures, needs, gifts and opportunities etc. will differ - that's good.
The manifold wisdom of God - not clones.
Not my way right or wrong / may way is the only way.
Not a slavish copying of any one approach let alone "rules".

The supreme authority of Scripture.
"in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity"

the helpfulness of others and of examples and the harmfulness of some comparisons.
Praise God if the Joneses are great parents - and know that no doubt they have their struggles too.
Don't be too hard on them or on yourselves.

God's law and house rules - distinguish clearly.
It's good and necessary to have house rules.
Keep your rules few, simple, clear and good - big principles that get you big wins.
Choose your battles - e.g. work on potty training not nuclear physics with the 2 year old.
Your home should not feel like a Concentration Camp!

The gospel (repeat, remember, model, rejoice)!

The Christian Life:
Repentance and faith, forgiveness and a fresh start
The greatest commandment - the weightier matters of the law
The Golden Rule
The fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit - not our work
The Creation Mandate - rule and fill the earth
The Great Commission - disciples the nations
The New Creation
All of life under the rule of Christ - it all matters.

The goal of parenting
Maturity
Able to play their part in a new household
Increasing freedom not clamping down on teenage rebellion!
Aim for "independence"
Start now
Now is better than never

The atmosphere of the Christian home - love, joy, delight, fun, happiness, laughter, togetherness, purpose, mutual care, consideration, sympathy, help
Check this regularly - what is the feel / temperature of your home

Family culture, traditions, memories- these bond the family together - "Do you remember when Uncle Joe..."

Quality Time ? Spend lots of time together - talk!

Read the Bible and good books together

The Trinity - the divine family - a happy loving ordered fellowship

Roles in the Godhead and the home - mutual submission, united purpose
The one and the many - individuality and conformity

Men, women and children
Boys and girls - differences

Expectations - high but not impossible - lower the standard so you get some wins! Progress not perfection
No good making speedy progress in the wrong direction!

Expect the kids to do as they're told quickly and happily. Delayed or sruly obedince are forms of disobedience.
The kids sometimes need a moment for what they are being asked to do to sink in and for them to decide to do it.
Count downs to obedience can be effective but they're not the greatest. We'd like them to do as they're told promptly rather than when we get to "5".
Avoid endless warnings and repetitions of instructions. Sound like you mean it first time.

Kids should be encouraged to see that life is better, happier and easier if they do as they're told happily and quickly.
Being naughty doesn't work - it just makes them more miserable.
Instructions should be obviously for their good whenever possible.
(Of course, if you've got 4 kids you'll need to get your kids to do things to make life possible! An instruction for mummy's conveniece isn't wicked as a happy mummy is essential to a happy home)
An explanation of why you're asking the kids to do something can help them but sometimes "because I said so" is called for. The kids need to understand that God has put mum and dad in charge for their good.
If you've told the kids to do something, you're not looking to have a debate!

Discipline - training not punishment
Be calm!
Discipline is for the child's sake not yours!
Never discipline for the sake of appearance
Don't give in - unless you are wrong!
Do what you can not what you can't

You cannot make windows into your children's souls
Discipline what you can see
Go for the heart
The aim is for the children to love the standard (and the God of the standrd!) not outward conformity for a while

Righteous anger - just because you are angry does not mean you are righteous!

"The Rod" - good that its over quickly!
say sorry, ask God's forgiveness, make friends again, hug / kiss etc, move on happily
Be consistent and persistent
Be clear about when you will smack - e.g. for direct, clear disobedience
Not public humiliation!
Reasonable, proportioante, calm
(count to 10 if need be)
The UK law on smacking and the law of God

Loss of privileges
"Bribery"?
The importance of learning delayed gratification

Do not discipline for weakness or immaturity or honest mistakes - don't smack the child for knocking his water over unless he was messing about
Hunger, tiredness etc are mitigating factors not excuses
Do not lead your children into temptation - they need to eat and sleep regularly
It's not fair to wind 'em up and fill them with sugar and e-numbers late at night then discipline them when they act up

Routine - a help not bondage
Toddler years:
7am get up and breakfast and family devotions - thanks, prayer for the day ahead, a prayer for others / world, Lord's Prayer, song
12pm lunch
5:15pm supper
6:15pm Bible story time
Thank you prayer
Good night prayer
7pm bedtime

Mum and Dad will want to pray together regularly for the children and one another and for other things that are not appropriate to discuss in front of the kids.

Even if some evangelicals have over-done the idea of the personal "Quiet Time" it would be a great habit for everyone to read the Bible and pray on their own regualrly. It is especially important as teenagers move towards leaving home that they should have habits and motivations that will help them to keep going as Christians e.g. if they find themselves living alone or with unbelievers.

Going to bed and getting up

Mealtimes
Manners, courtesy
Saying Grace - probably best if Dad normally says grace but fun if others do sometimes too, sung graces, some people like to hold hands.

TV - ration? good TV

When will the kids have treats? We have a treat from the shop on a Saturday is easier than "can we have some sweets?" every time a shop is spied!

Music and song (fun, aids memorisation) - good shared activity

Liturgy - learn what you use at church at home - keep it simple & fun - enthusiastic joining in
Confession of sin
Acclamation of praise
The Lord's Prayer
Apostles' Creed
10 Commandments
Memorisation of Scripture

Church family and public worship - we include our children as much as possible
We treat the children like little Christians not like little pagans. We all need to repent and believe the gospel everyday but we treat our kids as insiders to be discipled not as outsiders to be converted from a life of Godlessness.
We expect our kids to have infant faith.
We want them to grow up never knowing a day when they haven't loved Jesus.

Baptism - identity, belonging

The Lord's Supper - it is very harmful to exclude kids from the Lord's Table. "Daddy, why was I excommunicated?" - it teaches them they don't belong and need a crisis of faith to bring them in. We welcome them as full members of the body of Christ on the basis of their parent's faith and their baptism. They have rights, privileges and responsibilities as members of the body of Christ.

The Sabbath
Make it the best day of the week! A delight - positive not negative
The Sabbath feast - Saturday evening?

Christian Education

Pocket money, the tithe, saving, the love of money, generosity
Earning extra money

Work ethic but not works righteousness
Jobs - helping Daddy with the bins

Further Reading

Wilson
Alpha
Parsons
Tripp

Parenting Course

You are warmly invited to join our Parenting Course for any parents, step-parents, prospective parents or carers of children aged 0 – 10 years.

Children do not arrive with an instruction manual. No role we undertake is more important than parenting.

Family life is under great pressure today and parents face bewildering choices about how to parent effectively. Discovering we are not alone in the challenges we face and picking up ideas from other parents can make a huge difference. We can all learn how to make even the happiest family better.

5 Mondays from 24^th September 7:15pm for coffee & cake – 9:30pm

The Rectory, Rookery Lane, Rushlake Green, TN21 9QJ

We may be able to help out with babysitting. Please contact us if that would be of interest.

For more details or to book a place, call Marc on (01435) 830421 / marc_lloyd@hotmail.com

Jesus, the new and better Tabernacle

Some jottings for our Marquee Service:

Readings:

Introduce OT reading

Marquee – tent - tabernacle

Ex 40

Sermon series there – year of Bible studies, symbolism – not today’s sermon!

Introduce NT reading

John 1:1-18

Jesus made his dwelling among us – pitched his tent among us, tabernacled among us

Jesus is the new and better tabernacle

(1)   God wants to meet with his people

He didn’t need to

God a happy and holy fellowship

He wasn’t lonely!

God overflows with love for the world

God acts and reveals himself and provides for us to know him

Need to be introduced to the Queen

(2)   God is on the move with his people, leading them to the Promised Land

God is always with us

Pilgrim

Journey of life

The promised land of the New Creation not ancient Israel

(3)   If you want to meet with God, come to Jesus, the new and better tabernacle

Not Tabernacle, Temple, Jerusalem, Holy Land or church but Jesus

Jesus is with us here just as much in a tent on the green as in a 13^th C building on a hill.

In Jesus the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form

Jesus reveals the glory of God; Jesus is the glory of God

God’s glory is the shinning forth of his greatness

Jesus is the outgoing God, God to the rescue

(4)   Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for sin, the new and better altar, sacrifice & priest

Jesus is our only ultimate unique high priest

Jesus is the only and all sufficient sacrifice for sins

The blood of sheep and ghosts…

Jesus God and man

Jesus the spotless lamb of God

Mad, Bad, Son of God / Liar, Lunatic, Lord

This blog is largely intended for me. One of its main purposes is to help me find stuff again later. I am surprised that I appear not to have blogged this from C S Lewis before. Again, I might quote it today:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God."

One Solitary Life

This is all over the internet in different versions. I might quote it today:

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

Preach to the mind? heart? person?

I have heard that it is said, "to preach to the heart, preach to the mind. We reach the heart through the mind."

Now, it all depends what this means.

In the Bible, the heart seems to be something like the whole person's control centre. We might call this the mind. Indeed, every thought and emotion is a chemical reaction in the brain.

So do we go for the emotions (the heart) via the thoughts (the mind)?

And what of the will?

Or you might want to talk of the affections?

And what role the body and actions?

I am not so sure we can slice it up quite so neatly or quite like that.

My problem is not always that I need better information or even to be persuaded (logically or rationally).

I think my best stab would be to say preach to the heart / mind / person. We certainly do not aim simply for the brian or the emotions or even the emotions via the brian.

It seems to me that this anthropology stuff matters for the sake of ministry.

Marriage - what next?

(1) All people have the right to express their legitimate sexuality through marriage
(2) Bisexual sexuality is legitimate sexuality
(3) Bisexuals must be allowed to express this sexuality through marriage
(4) A man must be allowed to marry both a man and a woman if he is bisexual

What is wrong with that argument? Why aren't bisexuals demanding marriages of 3? Or maybe they are? Or maybe they will?

Mark 8:27-end

The centre and summary of Mark's Gospel:

(1) Who is Jesus? - His identity - He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of Man

(2) Why did he come? - His mission / purpose - He came to die in our place to pay the price for our sins so that we might be forgiven

(3) What does it mean to follow him? - Discipleship - He calls us to die to self and live for him and for others

Baptism is like the EMA entry badge

At the Evangelical Ministry Assembly, they give you a badge with your name on which you must wear at all times. You can only get in if you have one on. It has programme and the instructions on the back.

Baptism has been classically described as a badge. It's especially like the EMA name / entry / instructions badge.

It gives us a new name and idenity: it marks us out as a Christian, we carry the Triune name.

Baptism permits us entry to the church and to the Lord's Table.

Baptism implies the whole programme and our instructions.

Of course, it is possible to steal someone elses' name badge. Some people had swapped badges. Wearing Marc's badge does not make you Marc nor does it prove you are Marc - but it gets you into the EMA / church, if not to heaven. You can get into EMA if you are neither an evangelical or a minister but you would be an oddity.

And Baptism is normally invisible to us as such. We see it taking place, we have a certificate and a register but we need to live out our baptism moment by moment in word and deed that our Christian profession may be seen. Love, good deeds and witness to Christ as Lord are the badges of the baptised.

Apprentice kit list

You will need:

A Bible
A driving licence
A car
A laptop
A printer
A memory stick
A mobile phone
A landline phone
A diary
A notebook
A biro
A watch
A stop watch
A pair of heavy duty gardening gloves

Anything else?

You may also need some kind of filing system / cabinet

Forgiveness

It seems to me that even nice, kind, decent people are not always very good at forgiveness.

It seems to me that the Christian has a wonderful opportunity to be distinctive here. We know we have been forgiven much and therefore we are able to forgive. Only if we forgive do we show that we have recieved the grace and mercy of God's forgiveness.

Train travel

The last couple of days I have commuted up to the big smoke and back.

Day 1:

A man returned a whizzy left behind mobile phone to its owner

A nice chap at Stonegate station asked me if I wanted a lift back to Rushlake Green

Day 2:

The woman sitting opposite we had 2 mobile phones, a tablet and a laptop with her

Shall we say The Lord's Prayer?

Miss Lloyd (2) loves to say the Lord's Prayer.

But that's not as easy as it sounds.

The good old C of E has 2 authorised forms of the Lord's Prayer: traditional and more contemporary (leaving aside for a moment the 2 different versions in the Bible and Prayer Book).

So that the kids might better understand it, and in accordance with the practice of the church we belonged to at the time, we have learnt the modern version.

But our new churches and the kids' C of E primary school use the traditional version.

Confusion reigns.

In any case, Daddy is inclined to muddle up the versions!

Legal Arguments with the kids

This morning I was thankful for my 7 years of full-time theological education as I had to mediate between:

Miss Lloyd (2): "It is mine!"

The Biy (4): "I had it first"

Miss Lloyd won, of course, but with the advice that:

(1) it would be nice to share

(2) if she doesn't want it stolen it should be kept hidden somewhere safe.

Parenting is not a simple business.

A Mission Action Plan Prayer

Why not pray this prayer once a week:

Father God, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and the good news about him.

Please help me to follow Jesus and to encourage others to follow him.

Please help me to live in such a way that others are helped to come to Jesus, and please give me opportunities to speak about Jesus and the right words to say.

Please bless my friendships with:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Please show me ways I could help them to follow Jesus and give me the courage to do so.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

A day in the life

The fixed points in my day today are:

8:15am BCP Holy Communion at Dallington Church

9am take Church Primary School Assembly at Dallington Church on "Achievements (Sports Week)"

Take the boy who is attending assembly to church toddler group at Warbleton

1pm conduct a funeral at Warbleton Church

5pm & 6pm, Church Primary School Governors' Meetings at Dallington School (durring which eat a packed supper)

7:30pm Deanery Synod at All Saints, Herstmonseux, durring which I am asked to give a 10min report on the parishes I serve and what we are up to

Tommorrow I'm getting the train to the big smoke for The Evangelical Ministry Assembly.

Baptism

Well, the bible says some dangerous things about baptism if baptism means baptism.

Baptism does not save
The Bible is true
The Bible says baptism saves
Baptism cannot mean baptism

(Let the reader understand!)

Graham Daniels Supper

A Talk by Graham Daniels (Director of Christians in Sport)

You are warmly invited to join us on

Saturday 7th July

7pm for 7.15pm

Warbleton Church Rooms

Supper choices:  Fish & chips, chicken & chips, or veggie option & chips

Bring your own drinks

Cost: £7.50

Graham (known as Danno) is an engaging Welshman with a cheeky sense of humour. He played football for Cardiff City, Cambridge United and Cambridge City before managing Histon and Cambridge City. He currently plays for Cambridge Veterans and manages his village football team, Hardwick, in the Cambridgeshire League.

For more information or for booking (with meal choices) contact:

Andrew Russell 01580 201953

andrewnrussell@o2.co.uk

Local Exploits

More Rushlaske Green & Warbleton Jubilee & Churh Hill Challenge photos: http://www.rushlakegreenvillage.co.uk/

Photos of Warbleton & Rushlake Green celebrating the Jubilee

with some excellent shots of the Rectorial tummy and dog.

General Purpose Tract of Choice?

Do you have a general purpose tract of choice what you always keep in stock and give out to all and sundry?

Whenever I see people re weddings, baptisms, funerals etc. I normally give them a gospel, a parish magazine and a tract.

Normally I dish out 2 Ways To Live.

I'm wondering about giving this a try - Jesus: who, why, so what? from Christianity Explored / The Good Book Company a go.

Village Websites

As well as the Warbleton parish council website, and the Rushlake Green village website, I'm not sure I've ever linked to the Punnett's Town Village website (part of Punnett's Town is in the ecclesiastical parish of Warbleton), or to the Dallington Village website (there are plans afoot to add Dallington to our benifice). There appears to be a gap in the market for a Bodle Street Green village website (though it is part of the civil parish of Warbleton (see above), but not the ecclesiastical parish - only part of the benifice of Bodle Street Green and Warblton - confusing, isn't it?!)

Parish Buying

Not that I am thinking of buying a parish, but supposedly a cheaper more reliable way to buy stuff for your parish.

Pessimism, Optimism, Opportunism

The pessimist says that the glass is half empty.

The optimist says that the glass if half full.

The opportunist drinks up!

Wedding planning tips

Reflecting on our wedding day, I would encourage people who have to choose between inviting all the friends and family they'd like to be there and the lovliness of the food, venue etc. (due to cost, for example) to go for the guests. One of the best things for me was a church full of my favourite people rooting for us and spending some time with them afterwards.

I also wish we'd gone for a really good professional photographer. Some friends took some great photos, but the chap we paid was bellow average, I'd say, and I reckon that's not something to scrimp on.

We did the whole day on roughly half the average cost, I believe, and I'm not sure I wish we'd spent more in other areas.

Mrs Lloyd's 3 top marriage tips

I am about to see a wedding couple this evening. At supper I asked Mrs Lloyd for her 3 top marriage tips. They are:

(1) Talk (& listen!)

(2) Serve - be kind, helpful, considerate and thoughtful to one another

(3) Have a date night, ideally once a week, but less often if you have other things to do which would drive you to distraction on your date night!

P.S. date nights need not be at night! Any suggestions for a better name? "Dates" do sound rather as if they ought to take place in the United States of America

Oh, and Mrs Lloyd adds that it is good to pray together as a couple regularly, even once a day!

Olympic & Pentecostal Fire

Some jottings from a Pentecost sermon on Acts 2:

Fire (v3)

Bible story book

Ridiculous – tiny little pilot lights

No doubt an awesome sight

Olympic Flame

Apparently, commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus

Torch doing the rounds!

Today it goes from Swansea to St David’s in the far West of Wales and then North to Aberystwyth

It would be a 5 hour drive, but you could still make it!

The Olympic torch is carefully avoiding us

I don’t know why they’ve neglected Bodle Street Green / Warbleton

But the flame will be going around us

Anyway, you can see it on:

Tues 17^th July - Bexhill, Hastings, Eastbourne, Lewes, Crowborough & Tunbridge Wells

(This sermon has turned in to a public service information announcement)

In our passage:

A far more important flame

You don’t have to chase it round the country!

This flame is available here and now and everywhere.

Special process for choosing the Olympic torch-bearers.

For all, not for an exclusive few.

Cf. OT times – rather like the Olympic torch – a few special people, temporally

Every believer is a carrier of this fire.

Fire in the Bible the presence of God Himself

Burning bush

Pillar of fire by night

When the Law was given from Mount Sinai we’re told the LORD descended on it in fire (Ex 19:19)

Feast of Pentecost commemorated the giving of the Law

A new giving of the Law – a new Covenant

The Spirit would write the law on our hearts

As the law went out from Sinai and Zion so the Gospel would go out from Jerusalem

Fire à God

“Our God is a consuming fire” (Dt 4:24; Heb 12:29)

God’s greatest gift is God Himself

God the Holy Spirit is God

The Holy Spirit is a person not a thing

A “he” not an “it”

Not a human being but a personal being

Not just a force or an energy – not like divine electricity or supernatural liquid

God Himself comes to be with us, to be alongside us

Comfort – not a comfort blanket but like a fort to make us strong, to put strength in us

Fire à purity, refining, purifying, purity, perfection, holiness

The Holy Spirit

Fire in our bellies

Passion, courage, conviction

Too often the church is a bit sissy!

Apostles – testifying before Kings

Willing to die for Christ

Wind & fire – immensely powerful

(Wind at Camber sands – 20mph brisk to strong Easterly wind too much – Deluxe £17 6 poled windbreak is not much use)

The Holy Spirit puts winds in our sails

Energising

Acts 1:8 - “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

The beginning...

If we take the opening words of Mark's Gospel to mean something like, "[This is] the beginning of [my account of] the good news of Jesus Christ", it strike he that's a very wierd way to begin a book. Relatively few of the books on my shelves begin:

"This is the beginning of a history of England..."

or

"This is the beginning of a novel set in 1950s New York..."

or whatever.

What might Mark be saying?

That here is God doing something new and decisive.

Perhaps (as with John 1:1) there is an echo of Genesis 1:1's "beginning" (LXX, arhce). The Gospel is about New Creation: new life for individuals and for the cosmos.

Also,

There’s an inscription from 29BC about the birth of the Emperor Augustus that says:

“the birthday of the god [i.e. Augustus] marked for the world the beginning of good news [gospel] through his coming.”

Maybe Mark is deliberately echoing those strikingly similar words.

Here’s the beginning of the good news, not about Augustus, but about Jesus.

Mark wants us to know that Jesus, not the Roman Emperor, is the world’s true king!

What's the time, Mr Bible Translator?

I'm all for pretty literal Bible translations. Or at least, I'd want a as-near-as-possible word for word translation in my study. But I do think that, if you're ever editting or translating the Bible, when we get to something like "at the 6th hour" a footnote with an explanation would be helpful.

I'm told that the Jewish day started at 6am, so you can work out the time from then. "The 6th hour" would be noon, and so on.