NCHE Conference!

We are looking forward to our ninth North Carolinians for Home Education Conference! There are only two days left for pre-registration prices. Register before midnight, May 7, and receive a free conference T-shirt! I will be presenting two workshops this year:

G Dr. Matthew McDill, Equip Children for Life with Three Critical Skills (Room E-G)

What will my children really remember after homeschool? (What do I remember from school?) Will my children have the skills necessary to be life-long learners? There are at least three important skills that will equip our children to succeed in any endeavor of life: 1) Research (finding the information they need); 2) Critical thinking (evaluating the information they find); 3) Communication (passing on the information they think is valuable). Come explore the importance of these skills and practical ways to teach them.

G Dr. Matthew McDill, A Basic Educational Strategy (South Main 3)

How do I know I am giving my children what they really need? For what purpose am I preparing them? How can I most effectively teach them? Are there faulty objectives and strategies I have unintentionally carried over from public education? Even those who have been teaching their children at home for years still struggle with these questions. Our answers influence our priorities and strategies. In this session, we will discuss a basic biblical philosophy of education upon which our daily teaching activities can be built.

Live a Life of Love

Our church (Highland Christians Fellowship) is continuing our study of Ephesians. On Sunday, I taught on Ephesians 5:1-2. The audio recording is now available. You can listen to or download it by using the audio player on the Teaching Audio page.

The Basis of Civilization

Here is a good article, "The Basis of Civilization" (thanks for the recommendation, Margaret). Here are a couple of excerpts:

"The family ideal as defended by Chesterton is something quite different than the industrialized consumer family, where the family members leave the house each morning by the clock and on a strict schedule to pursue work and recreation and the majority of life outside the home. Chesterton’s ideal was the productive home with its creative kitchen, its busy workshop, its fruitful garden, and its central role in entertainment, education, and livelihood. Unlike the industrial home, life in a productive household is not amenable to scheduling and anything but predictable."

"A college education is the most overpriced product on the planet, and over-rated as well. Parents have the privilege of sacrificing nearly everything to send their children to college, only to have them get their heads filled with doubts and destructive ideas, undermining everything their parents have taught them."

God in Your Work

Brother Lawrence on work, from Practicing the Presence of God

“We should offer our work to Him before we begin, and thank Him afterwards for the privilege of having done them for His sake.”

“Our sanctification does not depend as much on changing our activities as it does on doing them for God rather than for ourselves. The most effective way Brother Lawrence had for communicating with God was to simply do his ordinary work. He did this obediently out of pure love of God, purifying it as much as was humanly possible. He believed it was a serious mistake to think of our prayer time as being different from any other. Our actions should unite us with God when we are involved in our daily activities, just as our payer unites us with Him in our quiet time."

“He isn’t impressed so much with the dimensions of our work as with the love in which it is done.”

Pursuing a Life of Purpose

Last Sunday I completed a teaching series on "Pursuing a Life of Purpose." Although all the principles presented are biblical, many of the ideas were inspired from Stephen Covey's book, First Things First. You can listen to or download these messages in the audio player in the right sidebar. I have embedded the presentation (made on prezi.com) below if you want to see the main points and scripture references as you listen.

Moses and Shared Leadership

I am thankful to God this week for two new elders at our church, Highland Christian Fellowship. R.D. Hodges and I have been elders for about four years now. Last Sunday we added Walt Stringer and James Wilkes. It was a long and beautiful process to see our fellowship seek God’s leadership in this (I should write about that, too). I love shared leadership. It is biblical and it makes sense. Having a plurality of elders was one of the primary findings in my dissertation The Authority of Church Elders in the New Testament.

I encountered in my Scripture reading this morning another affirmation of this principle. It is in Numbers 11, which is interesting in light of the fact that some point to Moses as the paradigm for a one-man leadership model.

Moses prayed, “I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me” (v. 14). God answered, “Gather for me seventy men from the elders of Israel. . . . I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone” (v. 17).

Sometimes it is difficult for men to share leadership. They become jealous and prideful. But “Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3). When some men in the camp began to prophesy, manifesting that they also had received some of the Spirit, this bothered Joshua, Moses’ assistant. These men in the camp were not at the tent of meeting, where it seemed to Joshua that the official authorization of this shared leadership was imparted. Joshua said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.”

How common it is to try to control such things. But Moses responded to Joshua, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” This demonstrates one of the most important qualities of a leader. His objective is not to have control, do things his way, and have all the leadership, gifting, and honor. His goal is the good of the people. And when more of the people are gifted and active in ministry and leadership, the more blessed and healthy the people are.

World Stats: Smaller Families in Urban Areas

Interesting facts from Operation World: The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation (using data from the United Nations).

"The world's population nearly doubled between 1970 and 2010. Global population growth rates peaked around 1970 and have steadily declined since then - the main contribution to this decline is smaller family size."

51% of the world population are "urbanites." "The urban population reached over 50% for the first time in history in 2009."

Here is what God said about population growth:

"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. . . . Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it" (Gen 9:1, 7).