¶ Introduction and Welcome
[Mic bleed]
Hi, I'm Hannah and I am the early childhood pastor at the Lake Forest campus. Happy to be here.
¶ Dream Now for Your Family
Thanks.
This week, we're going to be talking about Dream Now for your family. Hannah, what are you most excited about as Saddleback is called to Dream Now during this series?
Well, week two is probably gonna be my favorite because I love families. That's part of what I do with my ministry, is minister to little kids and their families, and I have two children myself, so I am all about it.
I'm happy to hear that because Listener, Hannah is also my wife and her children are my children. ,We are a family. So, this is a big week. at the Browning House, as we also are going through Dream now in our small group as a family. So, what does it? mean to dream For your family? What does it mean for families with children, for families who are newly married, for empty nesters, and even for people who are not married but are part of a broader family?
¶ Tips for Hosting Small Groups with Kids
we wanted to spend a few moments talking about how to Be a small group with kids. So Hannah, what are some of your tips for Hosting a small group while families have kids or bringing their kids
of course, there's a lot of different possibilities with age ranges and you can obviously adapt things, but, from my experience, we have young children, early elementary age and, we're not actually hosts. We go to someone's home every week with our children and, I have to say our hosts do a great job of supporting us as parents with what we need for our young kids each week.
So, sometimes we bring iPads for them at some point and so we can have a discussion and they are always open to like, oh, here, let us get you the Wi Fi code. Let there have a space for our kids to be in, um, if that's what we ask for and what we need in the moment. They're also really supportive if we want to bring our kids into certain aspects of the group. Like, they'll join us for prayer sometimes.
Or, when it's the end of our Bible discussion maybe, and we want to just fellowship, we'll bring the kids in with us. And they're definitely welcoming to them in that way as well.
And I, I don't want to sugar coat it because bringing kids to a small group is different than just going as a couple. But I think that for all of the additional challenges and logistics, it's worth it because we are building a stronger home and we are modeling a value that is important to our family.
Yeah, it is definitely messy sometimes, but that's, I mean, how parents parenting is.
Yeah, I, 100 percent agree. I, think that it is a picture of small groups as a whole. If you were to describe to someone just the logistics of parenting, just the dirty diapers, the driving kids around, the fighting over homework, the, like, eternal struggle to get them to clean their room or brush their teeth, they're all the things that just make them a decent human being. I That doesn't sound fun. It doesn't say if you were to only describe that to someone, they would say, why is it worth it?
But to anyone who has kids, it is worth it. And it's one of the most worthwhile things that we do. And that's true of a small group, small groups at times are messy because they are relationships.
I, and, uh, because people have feelings because people have opinions that are different than yours, that people have, uh, Things going on in their lives that make it hard, but it's so much more worth it because we're growing together In the same way that family grows together and because God is using them to shape me So Hannah, do you have any other tips for any small group that wants to Bring wants to include kids in that
a theme in
This is a theme in all of our podcasts.
¶ The Importance of Snacks and Preparation
Uh, snacks. is central And. honestly, this goes back to what we talked about last week in that being prepared. If you are a host having game ideas, snacks, a movie and popcorn, something like that for the kids, Or. even discussion questions for the, to include the kids, depending on how old they are.
Yeah, I think it's great when a host can set the expectation ahead of time of like, if they know some of the, their members have children, just going out of your way to be clear about like, yes, we are expecting your children. We have, we're ready for them, whatever that might look like. Making that clear that children are welcome and having snacks, that's got to be the number one reason why how we get our kids out the door on Friday nights for group. They're like, okay, we're tired.
We've had a long week of school. We'd rather just stay home and watch TV. Wait a minute. There's going to be snacks there. Okay, let's go. And that is huge for us. It's something to look forward to. And they know that they can expect that every week. And sometimes we bring the snacks to
And I, I will say
¶ Patience, Forgiveness, and Time Management
that. exercising patience and forgiveness at times as a host is valuable. Heavenly father let us forgive others as our host has forgiven us because we have uh, our kids have broken things at their house before
multiple interruptions.
And so they are exceedingly gracious and forgiving and honestly that is a valuable thing and a blessing to us.
Yeah, another thing that's really helpful if you do have kids in your group, no matter what level they're involved in, if every member comes prepared, like we're, we want to make the most of our time and not that, you know, catching up in relational, like just conversation isn't valuable, but like, if it's important for you to get through a certain chapter of a book, like be ready when you get there because you don't know exactly how much time you have before everything falls apart.
Can you tell which one in our relationship is the one who keeps the small group moving on time and which one
I'm like, all right, let's keep it moving, guys.
This is why we are complementary as a couple.
Yes. Uh huh. So being mindful of time. Set realistic time expectations for what, you know, everyone in your group can handle and stick to it, please.
Alright, and lastly, the same thing that is true for all groups, whether you have kids or not. is to be a good listener. People are sharing, people are, parents are trying to, talk about what's going on in their life while their kids are like yelling about something on the iPad in the other room or whatever But as a host be a good listener and be intentional. And also, even though our kids may be on iPads, it's a great time to put your phone away and ask follow up questions.
¶ Legacy and Stronger Homes Initiative
We want to look at how all of that can work in together, dreaming for future generations, it's a fun and exciting time to dream together as a family. And for some of you this may seem like a new thing, but Saddleback is actually. built on this kind of thing. You recently had some volunteers who just retired a husband and wife.
The Reedy's are a couple who have been serving at Lake Forest in the kindergarten classroom for 26 years and they started out when their own kids were young And they were faithful, they served together as a couple, as a team every single weekend. And they just now retired last year from SK. And they handed over their classroom to a couple of young ladies who are in college now.
Who had been also in the Reedy's class when they were in kindergarten and they grew up together and they served together as students in the Reedy's class. And now they are adults and officially have taken over the class. And that's what the Reedy's were waiting for to pass their, ministry down to the next generation. That was really cool.
I think that it's such a good picture of legacy and we get to see the whole picture from this Right now we're launching our stronger homes initiative. We're working on building a family equipping center, but it can be Hard to see the big picture. And I think the Reedy's are such a perfect illustration of that. Each one has their unique shape and specific gifting. But together their shapes form a complementary whole.
And that really is displayed in our small group. A small group is an entire family affair for us every week and, um, it's really interesting with kids.
Yes.
¶ Conclusion and Call for Stories
so don't forget. to send in stories of your dreams, whether that's your, own individual dream or your family's dream. We'd love to share those dreams on this podcast. So Hannah, thank you for joining us and we'll see you. all next week.