Thank you Tim Keller
Monthly Archives: August 2010
The Next Nine Years
A few years ago I read THIS BOOK about raising boys. The concepts in the book were helpful but the actual plan the book presents just wasn’t my style. Nevertheless the book got me thinking about helping my sons (3) become men… My kids were young so it was one of those things I would get to at the appropriate time. Then, a month or two ago I was hit with a very scary reality. My oldest son, Noah is turning NINE this November… that mean’s, at least in our society, that he is 1/2 way to manhood.
Since then I have been planning, thinking, talking to Jennifer and praying about the appropriate steps to take to usher my son into manhood.
I developed a plan and last night we took a short trip over to Jessup Mannor so that I could reveal the plan to him. Here is what the night consisted of.
- A talk about the purpose of the weekend.
- Watching “The Passion of the Christ” and talking about it.
- Giving him a real Bible… (as opposed to a childrens Bible)
- And signing a “Father & Son Covenant”
The covenant was really the heart of the trip. Here is the text:
Noah McKade Clifton
August 20, 2010
NOAH, as your Dad GOD has given me the special job of teaching you how to become a man. Because I love you, and because I love God, I want to do the best I can at this special job.
In our society, a boy officially becomes a man when he is 18 years old. You are almost nine years old now, half way to being a man.
Since you were born your mom and I have been teaching you important things about how to live. We taught you how to eat, drink, get dressed, read, take a bath, tie your shoes and many other important things.
For the next nine years, it is my job to teach you how to become a man. I will teach you how to protect others, how to provide for your wife and children, how to manage your money, how to treat women, how to fix things, how your body works, what to do when someone hurts you and many other important things.
I will try to teach you these things all throughout the week but I want to make a special appointment with you every WEDNESDAY at 4pm to work on these things.
I want us to promise each other that we will meet every week at this time. There will be some times when we will not be able to meet; if we are apart from each other, if we have something important to do or if one of us is sick.
But other than those things I ask that you promise to meet me each week. I will do my very best to make our time together enjoyable so that you learn all the important things you need to know about becoming a man.
Our Covenant
Noah, I promise to meet with you each week. I promise to teach you how to become a man. I will always tell you the truth, I will never make fun of you, I will answer any question you have, I will do my very best to teach you all the things you need to know about being a Godly man.
Dad, I promise to meet with you each week. I promise to let you teach me how to become a man. I will always tell you the truth; I will always ask you the important questions that I have about life. I will do my best to learn from you how to be a Godly man. When God gives me a son, I will promise to teach him how to be a Godly man.
__________________________
Dad, Clint Clifton
_____________________________
Son, Noah Clifton
Excerpt: Well Nourished
A prolonged dependency on your mother is an indication that something is wrong with you. I remember a woman in my hometown (Palatka, Florida) that thought it was entirely appropriate to nurse her children until they were school age. To make matters worse, she was happy to nourish her children in very public locations around town. You could spot her breast-feeding a child half her size at the city park or at the grocery store. Her kids were old enough to hold a conversation, read simple phrases, eat a few slices of pizza in one sitting, and go to the bathroom on their own, yet they were still being breast-fed. They whole thing became a big joke, townsfolk would swap stories about the latest place they spotted her feeding her children while the other children poked fun at the well-nourished kids she had raised. Like breast feeding, sponsoring a new church is supposed to be a relatively brief experience, just as children are expected to grow up and function on their own, so are churches. Extended periods of dependency hurt both the mother and child. The continued drain on resources makes it impossible for the mother church to have more children and the new church’s extended adolescence prohibits them from becoming a mature, reproducing congregations.
Back to the Pillar House
A month from today I’m joining a team of five from Pillar Church to visit the Pillar House in Indonesia. We have some work to do, some plans to make and hope to spend a lot of time talking to nationals about Jesus. It’s been more than a year since my last visit to the house so I am anxious to see what progress has been made and to check up on the children who live there. If you want to send a bit of money to help buy some rice for the kids and supplies for the house you can do so by clicking HERE. If you just want to write a note to encourage the kids you can write it on the comments section on this post or send it to my email clint@pillarchurchsbc.com
CP Proposal: The Boston Initiative
A few days ago I got a Church Planting proposal from a guy headed to Boston, Juan McLean. It is the most well thought out, comprehensive church planting proposal I have ever seen… not to mention that it looks great. Let me encourage you to take a look, you can download it HERE or visit his website for an online version HERE. For you future church planters out there I would really encourage you to prepare something like this before hitting the road to raise support. Here are a few reasons:
- It proves that the planter has counted the cost and understands all the issues related to planting in this location. It is obvious that Juan has done a ton of research and knows (as best he can) the field he is headed to.
- It gives you a reference point to return to throughout your journey. I can imagine a church planter a few months in referring back to a document like this to check on his progress.
- It screams… “I’m serious about this” this isn’t a passing idea… I’m gunna do this.
