Real World Parents Training Re-Cap

Wow, am I excited to be a part of this thing...

I won't give away too many "content details", but let's just say that I think this really could start something good in parents (specifically, parents claiming allegiance to Christ). It is not really a bunch of "magic rocks" as Mark Matlock says, aka, "a bunch of tools so I can fix my kids", but instead it is meant to be a catalyst for families to ponder their place in truly answering God's call to make our families true ambassadors for Christ and our homes true embassies for God's Kingdom. The seminars are designed to be a "starting point" for a future discussion among families in the given community, whether through follow-up groups, studies, or just personal accountability. A website is even being designed for parents to be able to visit post-seminar so they can get more of the strategies to assist them in this endeavour.

We spent day one essentially being presented the material (in a somewhat raw form) by one of its' developers, Mark Matlock (with occasional embellishment from its' other developer, Jim Hancock, who mostly ran the media but was also present...both very cool guys). After each session, we'd spend quite a bit of time debriefing, critiquing, etc. It was a full day (9 am-4ish pm), but very much worth it. It was fun to connect with others who share this passion, especially a very nice surprise of coming back from a coffee-run pre-session to discover my first boss as a ministry intern (when I was at Christ Chapel in Ft. Worth, late-90s), Keith Mason, was sitting in the spot next to mine. It was so fun to reconnect with him!

The next day we did a bit more brainstorming on the material, followed by some more of the logistics, timeframes, and "legalese" involved in seeing all this stuff come to fruition. The goal start-date for seminars to begin being presented around the country is February 2009, and they are hoping to have us do a "blitz" of sorts (several conferences in a short timeframe) during the spring of 2009.

So, if you know of any churches interested in this amazing opportunity sometime next year, feel free to visit www.realworldparents.com beginning in mid-October to start the process...or you can email me: be_clingy@yahoo.com. Just put "Real World Parents" in the subject line.