All parents, kids, and youth are invited to join us for our next Family Lunch on Sunday, March 4! Come to the 2nd Floor Auditorium after the First Service to eat some pizza and spend time connecting with other families.

This month we will help prepare hygiene kits for Relief Bus. Relief Bus is a homeless outreach program that provides food, supplies, and resources on the street to people who need them.

We'd love to see you there and encourage you to invite your friends to join us! Click here to RSVP.

During this "40 Days of Faith" (Lent), we encourage you to try the Family Dinner Liturgy once a week. We hope that this will be a fun way to take a moment to turn toward God together as a family. How do you do it? It’s easy.

1. Pick a day of the week when you are most likely to have everyone in the family at the dinner table. 
2. Take 3-5 minutes to do the liturgy below before the dinner.
3. Repeat weekly during the "40 Days of Faith."
4. Consider getting together with other families for dinner and liturgy.

For this week's "The Rich and the Poor" liturgy, click here and/or see below.

Family Dinner Liturgy: "The Rich and the Poor"
 
Opening Prayer
(Together holding hands)
We make room for you,
Come and fill us with your Spirit.

Candle Lighting
(Any kind of candles; as many as you want)
 
Blessing
(This is worth memorizing. A grown-up can say the blessing as she/he looks into everyone’s eyes OR everyone can recite this together for each other.)

“The Lord bless you
   and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine on you
   and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn His face toward you
   and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)

Story of the Week | The Widow's Offering
(Families with young kids might want to skip this part)

Mark 12:44-44
Jesus often explained God’s Upside-Down Love to His friends with stories, but they had a hard time understanding because it was upside-down from how people thought about it.

One time, He was sitting down near the collection box in the Temple. People came and dropped their money in the box. The money was used to fix anything broken in the Temple, to buy supplies, and to support those who worked at the Temple. People gave money because they loved God and because all money comes from God anyway.
 
As Jesus watched, many rich people put a lot of money into the collection box. Then a poor
woman came and dropped in two coins.

Jesus called His friends to Him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor woman has given more than all the others who gave money.” His friends were surprised because that was upside-down from what they thought. Jesus continued, “It may look like the rich people gave a lot, but they gave a tiny part of what they don’t need. But this woman, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

God blesses those who are poor and need God. The Kingdom of Heaven is theirs (Matthew 5:3). So, the poor are rich and the rich are poor in God . . . so upside-down!

Reflection

• “Jesus is __________ in this story”
• Discuss how you would fill in the blank (e.g. “forever,” “loving,” “humble”).
• Together, decide on one word.
• On a post-it, draw an upside-down heart and write the word inside it.
• Stick the post-it where it will be visible for a week. Every time you see it, hold the word inside of your heart for a few moments.

During this "40 Days of Faith" (Lent), we encourage you to try the Family Dinner Liturgy once a week. We hope that this will be a fun way to take a moment to turn toward God together as a family. How do you do it? It’s easy.

1. Pick a day of the week when you are most likely to have everyone in the family at the dinner table. 
2. Take 3-5 minutes to do the liturgy below before the dinner.
3. Repeat weekly during the "40 Days of Faith."
4. Consider getting together with other families for dinner and liturgy.

For this week's "The Strong and the Weak" liturgy, click here and/or see below.

​Family Dinner Liturgy: "The Strong and the Weak"
 
Opening Prayer
(Together holding hands)
We make room for you,
Come and fill us with your Spirit.

Candle Lighting
(Any kind of candles; as many as you want)
 
Blessing
(This is worth memorizing. A grown-up can say the blessing as she/he looks into everyone’s eyes OR everyone can recite this together for each other.)

“The Lord bless you
   and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine on you
   and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn His face toward you
   and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)

Story of the Week | Jesus’ Birth
(Families with young kids might want to skip this part)

John 1, Luke 2:7
In the very beginning, Jesus was there. Jesus was with God and Jesus was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through Jesus; the universe, the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Jesus gave Life to everything that was created; to trees, animals, birds, and people.
Jesus’ Life brought Light to everyone.
Jesus made everything in the world possible and was over everything.
Jesus was with God and was ONE with Him.

But to show us His Upside-Down Love, Jesus came into our world. Jesus became human and made His home among us. He was born to a young woman, Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit. When He was born, she wrapped him in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them.

He came into the very world He created as one of us and the world did not recognize Him. They did not understand the Upside-Down Love of God. He became small to show us how big His love for us is. He became weak and His love became stronger to reach us. Jesus was filled with never-failing and never-ending love for all. He gave Life and Light to whoever turned toward Him. No one has seen God, but Jesus, who is Himself God, has revealed God to us.

 Reflection 

• “Jesus is __________ in this story”
• Discuss how you would fill in the blank (e.g. “forever,” “loving,” “humble”).
• Together, decide on one word.
• On a post-it, draw an upside-down heart and write the word inside it.
• Stick the post-it where it will be visible for a week. Every time you see it, hold the word inside of your heart for a few moments. 

​Seasons give us rhythm and teach us about balance, letting go of control, and harmony. Over the years of leading the children's and youth ministry, I have come to really appreciate the wisdom of seasons. We learn what we live out, especially children. 

One of those big seasons in the Church calendar is coming up. This Sunday is the first Sunday of “40 Days of Faith,” which is what we call Lent at the River. For families who want to partake in drawing closer to God through this season, here is what we have prepared:  

This Year’s Theme: “The Upside-Down Love of Jesus”
During the Sunday RiverKids and RiverYouth sessions, we want to take a deeper look at Jesus’ love . . . how boundless and radical it is. Because of Jesus’ kind and gentle ways, we often forget how radical his approach to faith and life was. And that’s why people, including his own disciples, were constantly confounded by his words and actions. The world’s understanding of the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, the greatest and the least, the righteous and the humble, are put upside-down in Jesus’ love.  

During the next 6 Sundays, starting this Sunday, we will hear the stories of Jesus and ponder the Upside-Down Love of Jesus.  

How to Celebrate the Season as a Family

• Regular attendance on Sundays will help everyone in the family immerse themselves in the spirit of the season. Six weeks of looking at different ways Jesus put things upside-down will hopefully influence how we look at others and ourselves.
  

• Family Dinner Liturgy: At home, we encourage families to have a family dinner once a week with a short liturgy we have prepared. The liturgy is an opportunity to take a pause in our busy family lives and intentionally turn toward God together. It has a short opening prayer, candle lighting, and blessing. The Upside-Down Love story of Jesus of the week will be included as well, so you can be part of what the kids are learning on Sunday. You can just read the short story together and chat about it. The weekly liturgy will be sent to your inbox every Sunday. It will also be posted on the River app and the River Families Blog.
  

• Reflection: To deepen the conversation, we included a “Reflection” section in the liturgy. As a family, you can talk about what Jesus is like in the story. Decide together on a word that describes Jesus from the story, put it up somewhere visible, and meditate on it for a week. More detailed instructions will be included in the Liturgy.
  

• Bonus Fun: During “40 Days of Faith,” get together with other families for dinner and liturgy.