WHAT IS SHAPING YOUR FAMILY TODAY?
For many young people, the primary shaping influences are culture, media, education, and peers and often the unbiblical messages imbedded in these influences go undetected for long seasons allowing doubt, confusion, and disbelief to grow. Learn how to shape your family through a Christ-centered marriage, biblical parenting and grandparenting, and a Scripture-saturated home.
The Gospel Shaped Family conference is designed to equip families to raise children and grandchildren with a deep, lasting, culture-transforming faith. God designed families to shape the next generation with the gospel, give them a biblical view of life, and be the primary means to help children and grandchildren mature in Christ.
Learn to apply the gospel to your marriage, parenting, and grandparenting.
Build confidence to have key conversations with your family about critical topics from a biblical perspective.
Receive resources to help you teach the core truths of the Christian faith.
Learn practical ways you can replace culture’s influence with biblical truth.
Glean ideas to help your children or grandchildren mature in faith.
Interact with a talented lineup of pastors, speakers, and family ministry experts.
Learn how to lead family devotions.
Connect with other parents and grandparents for encouragement and support.
Gain vision to be an intentional parent or grandparent and impact the faith of your family for eternity.
How Does the Gospel Help Solve our Marriage Struggles?
The gospel is full of life-giving hope and life-changing help as we face struggles in our marriages. Rather than feeling hopeless and helpless in seeing our spouse’s failures – and our own, our eyes are drawn to the limitless, unfailing love that God has for us through Jesus Christ. We already are loved by God, and therefore we are able to love our spouses on our best days and on our worst days. We’ll explore practical applications in marriage to this memorable verse: “We love because He first loved us.”
Compassionate Gospel Parenting
Nothing encourages our children in the midst of their failures more than a forgiving, compassionate, loving response from mom or dad. But finding grace for such a response in the midst of a conflict is easier said than done. Most of us parents thought we were patient, until God dropped a few kids into our lives to show us how impatient we can be. It is in remembering God’s compassionate and forgiving response to us that the grace we need is found. God isn’t up in heaven shaking his fist at our parenting failures, he is actively cheering us on. Instead of holding his example over our heads, he compares his love and compassion to the way dads here on earth love their kids. Find fresh grace for your parenting as we explore the message of Psalm 103 – a treasure trove of encouragement for parents and message of grace for the soul.
Grandparents: Building a Gospel Legacy Worth Outliving You
One of the most overlooked source of spiritual influence in children’s lives is a grandparent. How do we recapture the Biblical mandate for grandparents in our day and move beyond being “good” grandparents to intentional Gospel-shaped grandparents who leave a legacy worth outliving them for generations to come?
When and Where:
Saturday, Nov 7 | 9am-12:30pm
South Portland First Baptist Church
Gospel Shaped Family Schedule
8:30 Doors open – Registration
9:00 Welcome & Worship
9:15 Main Session 1: A Gospel Shaped Family
9:45 Main Session 2: Marriage & Parenting
10:30 Break Resource Time
10:40 Breakout 1
11:30 Message 2: Grandparenting
12:15 Wrap-up, Blessing
12:30 Conference ends
Sample Main Sessions:
How Does the Gospel Help Solve our Marriage Struggles? |
The gospel is full of life-giving hope and life-changing help as we face struggles in our marriages. Rather than feeling hopeless and helpless in seeing our spouse’s failures – and our own, our eyes are drawn to the limitless, unfailing love that God has for us through Jesus Christ. We already are loved by God, and therefore we are able to love our spouses on our best days and on our worst days. We’ll explore practical applications in marriage to this memorable verse: “We love because He first loved us.”
Compassionate Gospel Parenting |
Nothing encourages our children in the midst of their failures more than a forgiving, compassionate, loving response from mom or dad. But finding grace for such a response in the midst of a conflict is easier said than done. Most of us parents thought we were patient, until God dropped a few kids into our lives to show us how impatient we can be. It is in remembering God’s compassionate and forgiving response to us that the grace we need is found. God isn’t up in heaven shaking his fist at our parenting failures, he is actively cheering us on. Instead of holding his example over our heads, he compares his love and compassion to the way dads here on earth love their kids. Find fresh grace for your parenting as we explore the message of Psalm 103 – a treasure trove of encouragement for parents and message of grace for the soul.
Grandparents: Building a Gospel Legacy Worth Outliving You |
One of the most overlooked source of spiritual influence in children’s lives is a grandparent. How do we recapture the Biblical mandate for grandparents in our day and move beyond being “good” grandparents to intentional Gospel-shaped grandparents who leave a legacy worth outliving them for generations to come?
Sample Workshops:
Parenting By Way of Suffering and Prayer |
One significant means of drawing and sanctifying grace in children’s lives is suffering and their parent’s leadership in prayer through it. This session is designed in the context of large measures of suffering and pain in children’s lives, such as the death of a grandparent, a miscarriage of a sibling or diagnosis of cancer for a parent. These adversities and others like them are heart-shaping life-changing seasons. They are also sovereign opportunities granted by God for parents to point their children through tears and prayer to the One who has suffered in our place. Jesus knows…
Teaching Your Children God’s Design for Sex |
In this breakout session, Abby provides attendees with five strategies for building a Biblical worldview on sexuality into the hearts of their children. Attendees will leave empowered and equipped to have courageous conversations at home!
Grace Shaped Parenting |
Parents and children need to understand the impact and necessity of God’s grace in making us holy people. The “big story” of the Bible shows us how people constantly fail to obey God and follow His laws. But because of His incredible love for us, God did for us what we could never do for ourselves. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God not only forgives sin, but He breaks its power. Through His Holy Spirit, God makes real holiness possible for His children. This is grace. This seminar will focus on teaching children about grace through the “big story” of the Bible; helping parents lead their children to rely on grace for overcoming sin; and introducing spiritual disciplines to kids as a means of receiving God’s grace.
Core Truths of the Christian Faith: 6 Critical Conversations to Build Lifelong Faith |
The Bible. Jesus. Marriage. Gender identity. Sexuality. Creation. Children will have questions about these topics. Have you prepared them for the good fight of faith in these areas of life? Do you know how to answer the questions they will have? Each of these topics has the potential to be faith-busters or faith-builders. This generation of young people must have a deeply rooted understanding of God’s truth and the ability to defend their Christian faith from attacks. If you are a parent, grandparent, pastor or educator, you are on the frontlines preparing children to have strong convictions and embrace the gospel. These topics will help you engage in conversations you might be hesitant to talk about, replace a child’s doubts with confidence in God, and address the most important subjects to develop a deep and lasting faith.
Family Missions: How to Serve Together |
All throughout scripture we find much encouragement in seeing how God designed the family unit. When families serve together in mission opportunities, it profoundly impacts their walk with Christ Jesus. Be resourced and encouraged as you learn about how you and your family can be a part of reaching the world for Christ together. This will enable your family to connect with each other on a deeper level, through living out the Gospel together.
How Does the Gospel Shape Sexual Intimacy in Marriage? |
In this seminar we will see what God says in His Word about His beautiful purposes for sexual intimacy in marriage. We will talk openly about the difficulties that arise because of sin – the sins that we’ve committed and the sins that have been committed against us. And, we’ll explore how the gospel help make sexual intimacy wonderful again!
Gospel-Shaped Family Worship |
In this seminar you will learn how to read the Bible with your family and pray together so that you are able to fully convey the majesty and glory of God to future generations. It is critical for families to belong to a Bible-teaching, discipleship-oriented local church where young people learn to worship God, but it is also critically important to worship God as a family. This session will focus on the truth that God deserves to be worshiped daily in our homes. Practical tools will be suggested, using material from Dr. Don Whitney, Charles Spurgeon, and others.
Allies or Adversaries: A Practical Guide to Strengthen the Parent and Adult Children Relationship |
One of the most frequent concerns expressed by grandparents, centers around their relationships with their adult children. We all want a strong ally relationship with our adult children, but it can often feel more like an adversary than ally relationship. What do we do when there is an adversarial situation, and how do we maintain a strong ally relationship when we’ve been blessed with that situation? This workshop unpacks some practical, biblical principles to address both questions.
Grow Down: How to Root Students Deeply in Their Faith |
Don’t grow up!! To “adulterate” something means to corrupt it with “an inferior substance.” Isn’t there another way to encourage young people to grow in our culture today? Drawing from the Bible’s picture of discipleship, Ken will be leading a very interactive workshop that visualizes what it looks like to root into Jesus, to stand tall in him, and to overflow with his abundant life.
Treasuring Jesus in Parental Weakness: Less of You Means More of Him |
As parents we feel weak and insufficient. If we don’t, we don’t understand the high call of parenting. But our weaknesses set us up for experiencing Jesus’ strength, and in fact, more of Jesus himself. Come lay down your burdens and learn to treasure him more.
Training Young People to be an Overcomer in High School, College, and Beyond |
David Wheaton explains why as many as 50% of professing Christian students say they have lost their faith after four years in college, gives a scouting report on the three Pillars of Peril on campus, and offers parents and grandparents a practical and biblical game plan for training sons and daughters to be overcomers.
Don’t Leave Your Worldview in the Driveway: How God Uses Families to Overcome His Opponents |
Developing a strong Christian worldview is essential but it is not enough if we leave it parked in the driveway. We need to put our Christian worldview into gear and joyfully drive it everywhere as a family. Families that believe God’s Word from their head to their toes and seek to live out the gospel in every family relationship not only have more potential for cultural horsepower than God’s rivals, they are also position by God’s design to take on worldly strongholds: “your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies” (Gen 22:17); “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes” (Ps 8:2); “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.” (Ps 127:4). This session will interact with your questions on how the gospel lived out faithfully in families helps flank the cultural battles in front of us.
