Mount Carmel Family,

This fall, Mount Carmel is conducting a seminar to help grow your faith and two opportunities to enhance your parenting skills. Collectively, we call them “Build Seminars”. These seminars will be presented by two of our staff members, Tim Peace and Lisa Davis, and one of Mount Carmel’s volunteers, Ronda Gaskill. These are great opportunities to grow, connect with others, and experience community.

Below, Tim Peace shares about “The Parables” a study he is conducting, and Lisa Davis shares about “Intentional Parenting” and “Parenting Your Spirited Child”. You can register for all of these on our events page at www.mtcarmelchurch.org.

BUILD SEMINARS

The Parables

One of my passions in life is to help people read Scripture well. But, unfortunately, we live in a time when religious literacy rates aren’t the best they’ve ever been. And, in the church, people often feel intimidated when they try to read, understand, and apply the Bible to their lives.

For this reason, we’ve begun to develop multiple Bible series through our Build Seminars ministry that are designed to help people study the Bible by studying the Bible together. Each of these series will be four sessions in length, occur three times annually, and clue people in on some tricks of the trade for reading the Bible well. In addition, we’ll provide an opportunity for Q&A and quick feedback during each session since the goal is to learn together.

The first Bible series from Build Seminars will be on the Parables. In the series, you’ll learn what a parable is, how they work, and how we can better interpret them so that our lives can be enriched by these wonderful short stories that Jesus’ so often used to teach people about living faithfully. The first session begins on Thursday, September 23, 2021, at 7:00 PM. I hope to see you there!

Timothy Peace
Teaching Minister

Intentional Parenting and Parenting Your Spirited Child

My husband and I have three daughters. They are married now to outstanding young men. We’ve been blessed with an adorable grandson who is two years old, and our second grandchild will arrive in February. For those of you who may not know, my husband, Brian, is a therapist. He works with a variety of counseling situations, including children. For all my adult life, I’ve worked in either Student Ministry or Children’s Ministry. You would think that what we do professionally would set us up for success when raising our own children. Although our books smarts and years of secondary education have been helpful, we muddled through like many others do.

Do you know what would have been so very helpful? Someone who was a few steps ahead who would walk through the parenting journey with us. As parents, we often are reactive to a parenting scenario rather than proactive. What I mean by this is that we often parent on the fly. Something happens, and we quickly decide what we’re going to do. The term for this type of parenting is called “quick fix parenting.” Sometimes you can squeak by with this method and wipe the sweat off your brow; whispering to each other; we dodged a bullet with that one!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could take a step back and really think about how you would like to model for your kids a well-thought-through plan? So, I want to encourage you to join me for the Build Seminar called Intentional Parenting. We’ll have some fun laughing together with small group conversation, but we’ll also work on an action plan to help you be the best parent that God has called you to be.

Another offering on the parent front for the Build Seminar is called Parenting Your Spirited Child. Parent, and MC Kids team member, Ronda Gaskill, will share her own story with you. Her son, Cayden, has many challenges, including ADHD. Ronda will share what she has learned through a summer program at CCHMC (Cincinnati Children’s) that has been life-changing for her and Cayden. You’ll have the opportunity to confidentially share your struggles and work through a behavior strategy that Ronda has learned. It includes a Child Compliance Protocol that will help your child focus on the task and an appropriate follow-through from you, the parent. Ronda will also share how words of praise and affirmation have been life-giving for Cayden. An additional piece of the seminar allows you to reward your child with deliberate time with them to make your relationship even stronger. She will also share the best methods of being an advocate for your child in the realm of education. Children are a gift, and Ronda will help you thoroughly enjoy your child even with their specific challenges. Who’s ready to stop counting to three? ☺

Lisa Davis
Children’s Minister