Parenting Seminar

Hello Friends,

I want to personally invite you to attend a free Love and Logic® parenting seminar sponsored by our church. Please feel free to pass along this invitation to anyone you think would be interested even if you're not.

It’s for parents of children of any age who want to sharpen their parenting skills or anyone hoping to be a parent one day. As a parent of two myself I'm really looking forward to meeting up with others. Here’s the scoop.

When? There are two sessions. Each session will explore different content. You can attend only one day if you want.

Session A—February 18, 2012   5-7 PM
Session B—February 25, 2012   5-7 PM

Where?
Root River Center
7220 W. Rawson Ave
Franklin, WI 53132

Cost: Free (includes pizza and soda!)

Registration: Online directly at this link or from our church homepage. Please register by February 12th.

Here are just a few things you will learn during this training:

 Session A
- Handling misbehavior without breaking a sweat
- Putting an end to whining and arguing
- Neutralizing arguments
- Empathy vs sympathy
- Picking an empathetic statement
- Teaching kids to listen the first time
- Affordable and unaffordable mistakes

 Session B
-The science of control and meeting control needs
-The power of choices
-Modeling
-Turning your words to gold with enforceable statements
-Delaying the consequence
-The energy drain
-The team mentality
-The "Uh-Oh" song

Aaron and Sara Bauer will be our guest presenters. They are trained Love and Logic® presenters and Aaron currently teaches 4th grade at Garden Homes Lutheran School in Milwaukee. Aaron and Sara are parents of three preschool aged boys.

The VotL Story Blog

Howdy Friends,

Yesterday was a great day. We had a nice crowd for worship. Bible Quest re-expanded to serve kids through 5^th grade. We began our journey together through the Bible using The Story. I was extremely excited to see such a great turnout for the introductory session yesterday. I am praying that everyone who was there and even more of you will come aboard as we really get going our journey together this Sunday at 8:30. I think this journey together is going to be one of the most beneficial things we’ve ever done as a church. Please consider how you can be a part of it.

Just a quick reminder that there are a number of different ways to experience The Story.

1. There are of course the readings themselves. For example, please read through chapter 1 for this coming Sunday. Suggestion for parents: read your kids the same story using the appropriate kids’ version of The Story before bed and say a prayer afterwards. Or with older kids you could have a discussion after supper about how what you read applies to your family.
    
2. There are the group sessions which I will lead from here on out at 8:30 am in theater #1 at Showtime pending any changes.

3. There is The Story Blog online which you can interact with during the week.  Please be sure and check it out as there is some great content on there already. You can access the blog by clicking on The Story graphic from our website homepage or directly at http://thestoryvotl.blogspot.com/

4. We hope to record video from the Sunday morning group sessions so that if you miss a Sunday you can watch it online.

 Have a great week in the Lord, everybody!

Pastor Ben

The Best Laid Plans

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" (well not that far away actually), I played Quarterback on a football team. So bear with me. I will explain...but I'm going to use a football analogy. You see, as a Quarterback on the football team, I had to learn how to call an audible sometimes. An audible is when the Quarterback reacts to the defense by changing the play at the line of scrimmage... in other words, right before the play starts. Usually an audible is called when the play you had previously called just isn't going to work. Usually an audible is called because of an unexpected look that the defense presents. It's not that the original play itself was bad, it's just that the defense changed.

Why am I mentioning this? Because my friends, it's time for an audible. Unfortunately, the extra 30 minutes that we expected to get after church at the theater is suddenly only going to last one Sunday. That's because a Star Wars movie is being released in 3D at the theater on February 7th which they are under contract to have to show a certain number of times, meaning they have determined they have to show it early on Sunday mornings (around 11:30). Since they are going to be staffed and opening for an early showing of Star Wars they are also going to return to having other movies shown before noon as well. This decision was just recently made. I have discussed other options with theater management in the hope that we could still work out an arrangement whereby we could stay in the theater for an extra half hour, but it's simply a reality of the movie business that we are at their mercy and right now there are no alternatives. Such is the life of a portable church. We do our best to call the plays, and sometimes we have to call an audible.

What does this mean? A couple things...

1) We will proceed with having the introductory group study to The Story this Sunday, February 5th at the previously scheduled time, from 10:50-11:20. To make this happen for this one week. Bible Quest will run from 9:30-11:20. We're going to make use of our one extra half hour to get into God's Word.

2) Starting the following Sunday, February 12th, we will have The Story group study from 8:30-9:00 in theater #1. Because one of my goals in using The Story at VotL was to bring our whole church together for a journey through God's Word, we hope to recruit parents to volunteer to watch kids from 8:30-9:00 on a rotating basis so that most parents can still attend The Story group study.

3) Bible Quest will continue to start regularly at 9:30. Also, we are still going to be able to expand Bible Quest through 5th grade once again. Thus Bible Quest will be able to serve children 18 months - 5th grade thanks to the number of volunteers that we have who make this possible for us by willingly choosing to serve even though it means they aren't then able to go to church and worship with the rest of us. I cannot say enough about how awesome and flexible our Bible Quest staff has been. Cassy and her team have done a great job of being flexible in dealing with all the unique challenges of our situation as a portable church even though many times plans have had to change. Cassy will be sending out more information to parents regarding Bible Quest later this week.

So we commit this and all our other plans to the Lord. I am thankful for all our blessings. I am still hopeful that you will be able to participate in the The Story group study even though it will mainly take place before church instead of after now.

May God be glorified in all that we do and may he enable us to share Christ's victory with our community.

Operation Jesus Cares - The Christmas Project

Today was a day I'll never forget. It was a day our church family stepped up and got to reflect the generous heart of God in a real world kind of way. I am so proud of our suburban church for having the desire and willingness to serve and show the love of Jesus in an urban setting. We partnered with the students from Christ-St. Peter school on the south side of Milwaukee to help them make a difference in their community. We supplied the contents for 233 care packages which the kids packaged throughout the day and delivered to their neighbors. It was a tremendous day! Many people's lives were touched and transformed by the love of Christ. Thank you, everyone! Check out the video I made from today. Merry Christmas and God bless you all!

Still a Go at Showtime

This past week Showtime Cinema here in Franklin was recently acquired by Marcus Theatres. A lot you have been wondering, "What does this mean for Votl?"

Well the good news is that it sounds like nothing major's going to change for us. I got to meet with the new general manager today this week. He knew our church met there and is happy to have our church continue to meet there. He seems like a great guy. Marcus Theatres have a history of being welcoming to churches. I was given a new key to get in the building. I took that as a good sign!

So...I know some of you were praying about the situation and I want to thank you for that. Some of you asked, "Are we going to have church on Sunday?" And the answer of course is Yes!

God has taught me personally a lot over the past five years of starting a church from scratch and I can honestly say I wasn't really sweating this one. As always Jesus is at the right hand of the Father working out all things for our good. He's in control even when things aren't in our control. I know that's also true for whatever other future opportunities God has in store for us as a church.

Finally, I want to mention that over the last couple years I got to know a lot of people who will no longer be at Showtime. I always really appreciated their help in allowing us to meet and worship there. I definitely wish them the best and God's blessings even as I get to know new people there now too.

In His grip,
Pastor Ben

I'm Staying!

Thank you for all your prayers, texts, phone calls, and conversations over the last couple weeks as I deliberated my call to serve as the pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Madison. I can only describe the last couple weeks as a time of intense wrestling with God. Their vision to reach their rapidly changing and diverse urban neighborhood is compelling and urgent.

However, after prayerful wrestling, deep soul searching, and many long conversations...yesterday I announced my decision to stay at Victory of the Lamb and continue to share Christ's victory here in Franklin with you. I am so thankful to God for all that’s he’s done through us here and I look forward to seeing what more we can accomplish by his power and grace.

I do believe this whole call process has been healthy for all of us to go through. I believe through this call process that God has given me many insights not only about myself but about our mission here in Southeastern Wisconsin. Undoubtedly this is one reason why God gives a pastor and his church another call to consider sometimes.

One thing I have personally committed to doing and I would ask you to do also is to be praying for Our Redeemer church and school until the Holy Spirit sends them just the man he already has in mind to be their shepherd.

Finally, one verse that I found especially comforting over the last month is when Jesus told his little group of followers, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

Come Learn About Grace

You know someone who struggles to comprehend grace or doesn't think it could possibly apply to them? You'll want to invite them to come with you to church this Sunday at Victory of the Lamb. Don't miss out on the message that I'll be preaching based on Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyard.

Worship is at 9:30. Come earlier at 8:30 for Bible study. I'd love to have you come even earlier at 7:30 to help set up and learn how to help take everything down after church.

I look forward to sharing God's Word with you on Sunday. I hope to see you there.