“SHEPHERDING A CHILD’S HEART”

Everyone wants to be a great parent—the biggest responsibility of parenthood is teaching your children to love Jesus with all of their heart, soul, and strength. For parents with children of any age, Dr. Tripp's insightful, biblical teaching provides perspectives and procedures for shepherding your child's heart into the paths of life.

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Attention: To sign up for the class you need to fill out the registration card and mail it along with payment to the church office. Also, you can download a brochure. The cost is for an individual $30 and for a couple $50.

Would you like a bulletin insert for your church? If so, click here! Or you can download a poster.

October 24-25, 2008
 SEMINAR SESSION SUMMARIES 

Friday Evening

6:30 p.m.- 7:00 p.m. Registration

7:00 p.m.- 8:00 p.m.  
  
Session 1         Getting to the Heart of Behavior
      
       The major theme of Shepherding a Child’s Heart is that the heart directs behavior.  In this session Dr. Tripp presents an overview of several passages that teach that the heart is the wellspring of life.  Since behavior is heart driven (Luke 6:45), it cannot be understood or addressed biblically in isolation from the heart.  What a child says and does is a reflection of the abundance of his heart.  This session explores some of the common ways that we try to address behavior without shepherding the heart, helping parents gain skill at working back from behavior to the heart unmasking heart issues for their children.

8:00 p.m.- 8:15 p.m. Break

8:15 p.m.- 9:15 p.m. 

Session 2         Helping our Kids See the Glory of God

       Shaping influences of childhood are the events and circumstances in a child’s developmental years that prove to be catalysts for the person he becomes. Shaping influences, however, are only half the story.  A child interacts with the shaping influences of life.  Children are worshippers so they interact with the shaping        influences of life out of the Godward orientation of their hearts.  Since they are worshippers children either worship God or idols. They filter the experiences of life through a religious grid.  Since their Godward orientation will determine the ways they respond to the shaping influences of life, one of the primary tasks of the parent is to help their children see the glories of God.  They are made to be dazzled and awed by        God.  The parents calling is to help them see the glories and excellencies of the one for who they have been made. Psalm 145 describes parenting as “one generation commending the works of God to another.”  A major portion of our parenting task is holding the glories of God before our children.  We are creatures who were uniquely designed to worship.  Our calling is to help our children, who are worshipers, to see the glory of the One true object of worship.

Saturday

8:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast     

9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.  

Session 3         Early Childhood: Helping our Children Live Joyfully under Authority
      
       These early days are wonderful day for helping children understand that they are designed to live under authority.  Kind and gracious authority is a blessing for children since they lack wisdom, maturity and life experience.  Our task is helping them see that God, who is good and kind, has designed them to function as people under authority.  God has promised wonderful blessing for children who learn to honor and        obey Mom and Dad.

10:10 a.m.- 11:10 a.m. 

Session 4         Childhood: Helping Children Understand How to Identify Attitudes of Heart

       There are many issues that arise in shepherding our children that cannot be reduced to living under authority.  The Bible teaches that the heart has strayed long before the behavior strays.  We must help our children understand the heart attitudes that are behind common behavior problems.  Focus on the heart keeps before us the need for the transformation that grace brings.  This session will present a paradigm for getting   from behavior to heart attitudes and helping children understand ways that their    straying hearts show how profoundly they need the forgiveness, grace and empowerment of the gospel.

 

 11:20 a.m.- 12:30 p.m.  

Session 5         Teenagers: Helping Young People Embrace the Gospel as their own Living Faith

       This is the time to pass the baton of faith from one generation to the next.  There are foundational issues in Proverbs 1: the fear of the Lord, remembering your parent’s words and disassociation from the wicked.  The parent accomplishes the tasks of this developmental stage through rich biblical communication.  We will dicover that the finest art of communication is understand the other person, in this case our teen.

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About Dr. Tripp

In writing Shepherding A Child's Heart, Dr. Tripp drew on his 30+ years of experience as a pastor, counselor, school administrator, and father. He now also includes 10 years of insights from teaching this material in his conferences offered around the world. In addition to speaking at conferences, Dr. Tripp is the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Hazleton, PA.
The things your child does and says flow from the heart, and Dr. Tripp's Shepherding A Child's Heart conference is about how to speak to and engage with the heart of children.

"God is concerned with the heart - the well-spring of life"
Proverbs 4:23

"Parents tend to focus on the externals of behavior rather than the internal overflow of the heart. We tend to worry more about the "what" of behavior than the "why." Accordingly, most of us spend an enormous amount of energy in controlling and constraining behavior. To the degree and extent to which our focus is on behavior, we miss the heart."

Tedd Tripp, Senior Pastor
Grace Fellowship Church, Hazelton, PA

Would you like a bulletin insert for your church? If so, click here! Or you can download a poster.