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 embedded 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 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 the 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 a message of grace for the soul.
Grandparents: Building a Gospel Legacy Worth Outliving You
One of the most overlooked sources 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?
Cost:
Early Bird before April 1st - 2022:
$30/couple
$20/ person
After April 2nd - 2022
$40/couple
$25/person
Childcare: Please paste link below to sign up:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18FpeJIGpVyom1w6QKhlc5nimWxMkPKY5NfYUSd8u1aA/edit?chromeless=1
Schedule:
Saturday, May 7th
8:30 Doors open – Registration
9:00 Welcome & Worship
9:15 Main Session 1: A Gospel Shaped Family Cavin Harper
9:45 Main Session 2: Parenting - The Hurrican of Child Raising Bill Mitchell
10:30 Break Resource Time
10:45 Breakout 1
12:00 Lunch and Resource tables
1:00 Message 2: Grandparenting Sherry Schumann
1:45 Breakout 2
2:30 Blessing
2:45 Conference Ends
Main Sessions:
Parenting - The Hurricane of Child Raising
Bill Mitchell
Bill Mitchell will talk through a high-level view of the three phases in parenting: preschool, grade school, and teenagers. Each phase has its own challenges and requires different leadership styles to succeed. Understanding the big picture will help you and your spouse to be better unified and make better decisions.
Grandparents - Building a Gospel Legacy
Sherry Schuman
Grandparents are one of the most overlooked sources of spiritual influence in children’s lives. 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?
Breakout 1:
Training Your Child’s Heart
Bill Mitchell
Bill Mitchell will talk through training your child’s heart: what that means, why it’s important, and how to do so in a loving way. The workshop is for parents of preschoolers who are looking for practical advice on how to grow biblical character in their children
Examining Our Hindrances to Prayer
Deborah Haddix
Scripture tells us, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Why, then, do so many believers feel as though their prayers are powerless and ineffective?
Join Deborah Haddix as she delves into God’s Word and examines the hindrances, we encounter in our prayer life. During the first half of the workshop, Deborah invites the attendees to evaluate honestly the obstacles they encounter as they approach prayer. During the second half, she challenges everyone to examine tough topics such as pride and unforgiveness, which hinder the work of prayer. Both workshops are deeply grounded in God’s Word and offer practical solutions for the stumbling blocks we encounter in our daily prayer life.
ALLIES OR ADVERSARIES
Cavin Harper
One of the most challenging and painful battles for parents and grandparents often centers around their relationships with each other. While God designed family to be a partnership of parents and grandparents in the task of raising and discipling children to walk in the truth, it doesn’t always work as God intended. Our hope is not in better circumstances, but in God whose grace is sufficient. This session will explore five foundational principles for healthy relationships from the book of Ephesians.
Breakout 2:
The Power Of Spoken Blessing
Cavin Harper
One of the most overlooked yet powerful tools God has given to us to help the next generation succeed in life and understand God’s purpose for them is the spoken blessing. This session unpacks the what, why and how of this powerful tool can be one of the most impactful tools in a grandparent’s toolbox.
From Generation to Generation
Deborah Haddix
The Bible is clear that our God is the God of many generations, and that He clearly prefers to work within this framework. Yet many of us live our days from moment to moment, parenting and grandparenting without much thought ever given to this fact.
Come join Deborah for this enlightening session on the importance of embracing a generational mindset in all your relationships. We will search out biblical examples, weave in some informing self-assessment, and discuss practical application – for the good of our families.
Sharing the Jesus Within Us
Sherry Schumann
Do you fret about the what, when, where and how to share your legacy of faith? In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore interesting and fun ways to share the “Jesus within” you. We’ll discuss ideas for sharing the Gospel message, our salvation stories, stories of answered prayer, life’s lessons and family heritage. become mighty prayer warriors themselves.
Speakers:
Cavin Harper is the Founder and President of the Christian Grandparenting Network and the author of Courageous Grandparenting, Living Your Will, and Wayfinder. He and his wife, Diane, are the creators of GrandCamps. Cavin & Diane were married in 1969 and have two daughters and nine grandchildren. Their home is in Colorado Springs. Courageous Grandparenting challenges grandparents to sense the urgency of these turbulent times, participate in their grandchildren's worlds, and maximize opportunities to credibly, creatively engage them.
Sherry Schumann A masterful story-teller and prayer warrior, Sherry Schumann serves as senior writer for the Legacy Coalition and national prayer co-coordinator for Christian Grandparenting Network. Her first novel, The Christmas Bracelet, is an “ashes to beauty” holiday tale. Sherry’s life in rural South Carolina is simple and beautiful. She’s been married to her soul mate for thirty-four years. Her heart soars when the voices of their three sons, three daughters-in-love and three grandchildren fill their home.
Bill Mitchell is a retired technology and financial services executive with 30+ years of ministry experience including family, missions, and church leadership. Bill and his wife, Denise have, been married for 30+ years and have four adult children and two grandchildren.
Deborah Haddix is an author, speaker, and board certified advanced Christian life coach whose passion is to empower women to embrace God’s design for their life. Deborah’s desire is to encourage and equip Christian women to live more joyful and abundant lives in a world turned upside down. She writes, speaks, blogs, and coaches on topics of specific interest to today's busy woman.
One of the topics closest to her heart is Journaling for the Soul. After years of personal struggle with the discipline of journaling, Deborah finally stumbled on some exciting ways to incorporate this valuable discipline into her “grandma” role. And in more recent years, she has discovered the joys of putting a creative spin on her journaling as she uses it as a tool for soul care. Deborah loves sharing what she has learned about Journaling for the Soul through easy-to-navigate resources and engaging events. Two of her books Praying with Purpose: Helping Equip Your Grandchildren to Stand Fast in the Faith and Soul Nourishment: Satisfying Our Deep Longing for God share several creative journaling techniques.
Deborah and her husband, Don, live in Ohio and have been married forty-one years. They have three grown, married children and eleven grandchildren.
