We are pleased to announce the date of the next Grace Church Family Matters Saturday seminar. Mark your calendars and book your baby sitters for Saturday 13th September 2008.

Our focus will be on marriage. We’ll be starting at 10am (coffee served from 9:45am) and finishing at 12:30pm. More details to follow as they become available.

As you may be aware, in the Spring of 2009, Grace Church is very excited and pleased to be hosting Pastor Tedd Tripp, best-selling author of books, “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” and “Instructing a Child’s Heart” for a weekend parenting conference.

We are in preparations and planning for the weekend, and wanted to make you aware of a new website that will be launched on 1st September 2008 – www.teddtripp.org – which will contain all the vital information for this weekend conference.

Bookmark the site address now and return on or after September 1 for more details, or alternatively email info@gracechurchbristol.org to be added to our mailing list.

Here’s the list of resources we mentioned at last Saturday’s Family Matters: Parenting Seminar.

Craftsmen by John Crotts

This book is an easy, short (relatively – 160 pages!) book for men. The subtitle captures the essence of the book – “Skillfully leading your family for Christ.”

John Crotts teaches and instructs us on how to be wise and skillful leads of our families and homes by opening up the wisdom in the book of Proverbs. The wisdom provided in this book will no doubt help us to equip our sons to be men too!

Another book recommendation was:
Proverbs for Parenting complied by Babara Decker.

In this book the author has gone through the book of Proverbs and categorised the various verses under particular headings – such as: anger, drunkenness, lust, etc. It’s perfect reference guide to help quickly find verse that address specific issues we face in our own lives and the lives of our children and bring God’s wisdom to bear on them!

Finally, for book recommendations…

A commentary for the study of Proverbs is a handy tool, and I’d suggest:

Proverbs by Charles Bridges.

For those interested in the article and questions on proverbs that we mentioned, you can download them by clicking the relevant links.

Finally, an audio message by Al Mohler on “Being Men, Raising Men.“

Audio and notes from Saturday 7th June 2008…

Session 1:
Boys To Men: Raising Sons for the Glory of God – Nathan Smith
Audio (42mins) Notes

Session 2:
Parenting Daughters – Peter Bowley
Audio (51mins) Notes

The third, and concluding part of CJ’s thoughts on enjoying God-glorifying family holidays is available to read here.

Alternatively, download the entire blog series in one handy document from here.

Part 2 of CJ Mahaney’s “Family Vacations” blog posts here.

Having mentioned earlier about our next Family Matters (don’t forget!) I thought this little video clip of all the things you mums have ever said to your kids packed into 60 seconds might give you a good laugh! Enjoy!

Our next Family Matters seminar is being held on Saturday 7th June 2008.

Please organise your babysitter NOW so you can make it for that Saturday. Our focus will be parenting.

Exact details of meeting time & venue to follow – watch this space! As always, questions are welcome ahead of time, leave a comment or send an email.

The audio and notes from Saturday’s Family Matters seminar are now available to download.

Session 1: When Marriage Meets Grace (Audio 47mins) 
Session 1: When Marriage Meets Grace (Notes)

Session 2: Happiness or Holiness? (Audio 47mins) 
Session 2: Happiness or Holiness? (Notes)

Session 3: Forgiveness in Marriage (Audio 35mins) 
Session 3: Forgiveness in Marriage (Notes)

The next Family Matters seminar is on Saturday 1st March 2008.

Please organise your baby sitter now so you can be there! The focus of these sessions will be marriage.

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