On this page you will find a wide variety of Christian resources recommended by our Children’s Ministry, Parent Education and Youth Ministry staff. Please let us know if you have any questions!
- Resources for Parents
- Children’s & Student Bibles
- Family Devotionals
- Music
- Try This at Home
- Seasonal Resources
- Movies
- Children’s Books
- Online Resource Recommendation
Resources for Parents
Faith and the Modern Family by Craig Jutila
Craig Jutila spoke at Growing Families addressing some of the topics found in this book. Inundated with enticing technology, an abundance of activities and too many events to count, there isn’t much family time left, is there? With our schedules overflowing and anxiety weighing us down, how do we find family balance?
Stick Fait
h Guide for Your Family by Dr. Kara Powell
The latest release from the Sticky Faith research is a super practical guide filled with ideas of HOW to apply the research to your family. This is a great read for couples or a small group to go through together.
Home Front MagazineA free spiritual parenting resource that is published monthly. It is full of practical and fun ideas and tips on parenting as well as marriage.
Sticky Faith by Dr. Kara Powell & Dr. Chap Clark
If you are around Children’s or Youth Ministry at LCPC long enough you will most definitely hear two phrases in regards to how we do ministry: “Sticky Faith” and “Orange.” These first 2 books outline those ministry philosophies from a parental perspective. The definition of Sticky Faith itself refers to the transition between high school and college, but we would recommend it to parents of junior high and elementary students as well.
Parenting Beyond Your Capacity by Reggie Joiner & Carey Nieuwhof
This is the essence of “Orange” ministry for parents. Although many of the concepts relate to older children, the philosophy of the book is so foundational to how we want to do ministry at LCPC we would recommend it for parents with any age children.
Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel
Dr. Tim Kimmel, founder of Family Matters ministries offers a grace based solution to parenting. Grace-Based Parenting is a refreshing new book divided into two parts: the needs we are trying to meet in our children and the delivery system for how we meet them. Kimmel recommends creating a grace-based home environment that allows children to meet their full potential, to parent children in the same way God parents us.
Jesus Calling by Sarah Young
A Daily Devotional for adults that some families read together. There is also a kids version, Jesus Calling for Kids.
Impress Faith on Your Kids by Mark Holeman
A simple easy to read book that lays out how to pass faith onto your children.
The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian
After decades of raising her own children along with her husband, Michael, Stormie looks back at the trials and joys of parenting and the power found in praying for her kids. In 30 easy-to-read chapters, she shares from personal experience as to how parents can pray for their children. Perfect for new moms and dads as well as those a little further along in the journey.
The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian
Bestselling author Stormie Omartian inspires women to develop a deeper relationship with their husbands by praying for them. This encouraging resource is packed with practical advice on praying for specific areas of a husband’s life. Every woman who desires a closer relationship with her husband will appreciate the life illustrations, select Scripture verses, and the assurances of God’s promises and power for their marriage.
The Parent You Want to Be: Who You Are Matters More Than What You Do by Les & Leslie Parrott
Les and Leslie Parrott give you a proven plan for cultivating the traits you most want your child to have. A husband and wife team made up of two of today’s leading relationship experts, authors reveal their personal experiences as parents to help you fulfill the most important calling you will ever have. The Parent You Want to Be is inspiring, warm, and filled with a transformational power for your entire family.
The Hour That Matters Most: The Surprising Power of the Family Meal by Les & Leslie Parrott
Dinnertime is truly the most important hour in a day that a family can spend together. Focusing on the family meal, this book will help strengthen families by showing them how to reclaim this important time in order to build relationships, draw closer to one another, and restore a sense of peace in their homes.
The 21 Most Effective Prayers of the Bible by Dave Earley
The 21 Most Effective Prayers of the Bible speaks to believers of all ages, backgrounds, and maturity levels with an uplifting message: that the prayers of the Bible are prayers for us today. Not an exhaustive, scholarly study, this very readable volume investigates twenty-one heartfelt prayers that produced results.
The Love Dare by Stephen Kendrick
The Love Dare, as featured in the popular new movie Fireproof (from the makers of Facing the Giants), is a 40-day challenge for husbands and wives to understand and practice unconditional love. Whether your marriage is hanging by a thread or healthy and strong, The Love Dare is a journey you need to take. It’s time to learn the keys to finding true intimacy and developing a dynamic marriage. Take the dare!
Praying the Scriptures for Your Teenagers by Jodie Berndt
It’s never been tougher to be a teenager—or the parent of one. Thankfully, from your teen’s first date to the next time he or she borrows the car keys, you can take your concerns to God through prayer. Drawing on God’s Word, Praying the Scriptures for Your Teenager offers palpable help to pray about the stormy issues your teen faces: Relationships Depression Rejection Sexuality Eating disorders … and much more.
Visionary Parenting by Rob Rienow
Readers will capture a fresh, God-sized vision for their family. It begins with understanding God’s purpose for the family and taking an honest look at the current state of the home. The author shares foundational truth that God created the family to ensure that the next generation grows up to know, love, and serve Him. He reminds readers of the instructions from God given to parents in Deuteronomy 6:5-7 that will transform your home.
Resources to Help Protect Children Online
*Put together by the Youth Department
Children’s & Student Bibles
The fun-time, anytime read-aloud Bible rhyme! Boys and girls love the soothing rhyme in L.J. Sattagast’s bestseller The Rhyme Bible. Now toddlers have a Bible rhyme book designed just for them! This is the perfect choice for parents who want to introduce their toddlers to the Word of God. Joyful illustrations and classic stories told in vivid verse make this a sure favorite that will entertain your young ones and teach them biblical lessons that last a lifetime.
A comprehensive preschool Bible that includes almost all of the stories we use on Sunday mornings in Story Seekers. We have them available for purchase through Children’s Ministry. Perfect for 3 years-Kindergarten.
The Jesus Storybook BibleA great storybook Bible that weaves the Big God Story of our redemption through Jesus into each Bible story. Appropriate for 4-8 year olds.
A very fun comic book style Bible storybook. Good for 2nd grade & up.
The Adventure Bible (All 3rd graders at LCPC get this Bible on 3rd grade Bible Sunday as a gift from Children’s Ministry.) It is a full text Bible so that kids can look up any Bible verse.
The best thing about this Bible is that you can download an app for your iPad, iPhone or Android and when scanned over certain pages in the Bible, it brings up a 3D animation of whatever you were reading.
In this revised version of God’s Story, daily Bible readings lead readers ages seven and up through the Scriptures in just one year. The Day by Day Kid’s Bible bridges the gap between a Bible storybook and a full-text Bible since the Scriptures are simplified for young readers. New features include dated Bible readings for every day of the year, two-color interior, and full-color pictorial time line of events.
Discover life ‘on the edge’—that exciting time between childhood and adolescence (a.k.a. the tween years). The Edge Devotional Bible is packed with great stuff just for tweens. This Bible brings the wisdom of the Bible right into the real world of today. Check out what’s inside: – 260 Daily Devotions by Mark Littleton and Marnie Wooding – 52 Weekend Devotions by Sandy Silverthorne – Power Thoughts highlight important themes and help readers see how the Bible fits together.
Family Devotionals
Family Time Training (famtime.com)
The forerunners in Family Night Devotionals. If you are looking for ideas for fun structured family nights, their website is a great place to start.
Faith Conversations for Families
Most Christian parents know that the best way to leave a God-honoring legacy to their family is to nurture their children’s faith…but many don’t know where to start! This new resource from Jim Burns, founder of HomeWord, will equip parents to start important conversations with their kids- family time with an eternal impact. Each section of the book outlines an easy-to-follow dialog, which is flexible for children of different age groups.
Heritage Builders (heritagebuilders.com)
Tried, tested, and proven by families just like yours, these devotional family night activities help you pass your spiritual heritage along to your children. You get complete, clear plans for a dozen nights that combine fun and spiritual growth. Your kids will learn how to resist temptation, choose friends, understand salvation and much more.
Little Visits with God (ages 4-12)
This collection of devotions has served as a devotional resource for families with children (ages 7 to 10) for 50 years. An editor’s letter serves as a foreword, encouraging parents to attend weekly worship and to include devotions in their daily routine. Each devotion clearly articulates the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and offers practical examples of God’s action on our lives today. Each includes a Bible verse, short reading, activity suggestion, and prayer starter.
The One Year Book of Devotions for Boys or Girls (ages 8-12)
Both boys and girls will be eager to read these devotionals created just for them from the same people who created the One Year Book of Devotions for Kids #1-3. A variety of themes relevant to today’s elementary school-age boys and girls will encourage and challenge them to personalize lessons from Scripture.
Music
Seeds Family Worship (seedsfamilyworship.net)
The team at Seeds Family Worship continues to create great, scripture-based music. But, we also see God’s call to further equip churches and homes with ways to encourage families to worship together. The sixth Seeds Family Worship album – Seeds of Character – has just released. In total, Seeds has grown to over 60 portions of scripture set to music!
Part of Sony Records “Shout To The Lord” series, Shout To The Lord Kids album features twelve contemporary worship songs for your kids.
Yancy has music for all ages. We especially like using her preschool music in our classrooms on Sundays.
We are The Rizers, a band that sings Scripture verses in the form of upbeat, kid-friendly music. Our name is short for “memorizers”- oh snap! The five band members are Gracie (lead vocals), Matty C. (guitar and vocals), Mei Mei (keytar) , A-Yo (drums) and Johnny Danger (bass). We aren’t rockstars or anything, we just like to rock out in our practice space (a.k.a. Matty C.’s garage) in the town of Rizing Springs.
We use a lot of Jana’s music videos in Story Seekers. If your preschoolers are singing “Jump, Jump, Jump into the Light, Light, Light,” Jana is the reason why!
Superstar features Go Fish favorites The Ten Commandment Boogie, Sail Away, That Acapella Sound, and amazing new arrangements of Jesus Loves Me and Lord I Lift Your Name On High. This CD is a must have for the little “superstars” in your life!
To celebrate the epic anniversary of one of the most popular and powerful songs in Christian music history (I Can Only Imagine), the band is releasing this must-have DVD/CD set. The CD features 12 of their best-loved songs spanning their 5 studio releases.
Online Recommended Resources
She Reads Truth – Devotionals written by women.
A Holy Experience – Anne Voskamp
Try This at Home
How some families in our church make their home the primary place for the spiritual formation of their children.
If you would like to submit an idea please email Heather (heather@lacanadapc.org).
- Read Jesus Calling together
- Listen to Christian music
- Pray at bedtime
- Save Christmas card pictures and pray for family and friends using their pictures throughout the year
- Read through a book of the Bible a few verses at a time
- Teach children to tithe by giving to the Children’s Offering regularly from their own money
- Pray in the car in the morning
- Serve at Children’s Hunger Fund
- Serve at Brother’s Helpers at LCPC on Wednesdays
- Light Advent candles at home
- Pack a shoebox in November
- Pray at mealtimes (we have a list of child friendly meal time prayers available from Children’s Ministry)
Seasonal Resources
Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper
God is the treasure of our lives. He is part of everything we do, think, act, and say-literally, he is a part of us. This precious heirloom of Christ himself must be passed on to future generations. Treasuring God in Our Traditions presents the importance of passing along Christ-centered traditions and a Bible-saturated legacy in Christ to future generations.
Resurrection Eggs by FamilyLife
Crack open the real Easter story. Watch Easter come to life in little hands! Each of these twelve colorful plastic eggs holds a different memory-grabbing surprise to take Jesus’ journey to the cross and beyond right into your child’s heart. Includes: 1 egg carton, 12 plastic eggs with surprises inside, and 1 bilingual, storybook.
Thanksgiving, A Time to Remember by Barbara Rainey
A holiday for celebrating faith, family, and freedom, Thanksgiving Day is both distinctly Christian and exclusively American. Barbara Rainey has created an excellent resource for enabling you and your family to remember the past, recognize God’s hand in our history, and express thankfulness to Him for His goodness today.
Nativity Playsets:
Product includes musical playset, teaches children the meaning behind the holiday, and provides 12exclusive Little People figurines.
Product includes child-friendly, wooden nativity set with 11 figures , the four-piece stable is easy to assemble and a Christmas story is included on the package.
Playmobil nativity manger with stable. Product dimensions are 15.7 x 11.8 x 3 inches. For ages 4 and up.
Unwrap the true meaning and wonder of Christmas in each colorful box of this interactive nativity for children. The beautifully illustrated poem tells God’s Christmas story through each character. With them, your child journeys to Bethlehem, and to the surprise ending of box #7, peeking inside the heart of God. From home to classroom to neighborhood party, open a child’s heart to the ultimate Gift!
Movies
FireproofA feel-good drama, Fireproof has a strong agenda: stay married, lead an honest life, and let your faith in a higher power help guide you. A still boyish-looking Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) stars as Caleb Holt, a mercurial-tempered firefighter whose marriage is on the rocks. Faced with impending divorce, Caleb’s dad challenges him to follow the “40-day love dare,” in which each task (cook her dinner, say nothing negative, etc.) is meant for him to better understand love and commitment and try and win his wife back.
CourageousFour men, one calling: To serve and protect. As law enforcement officers, they are confident and focused, standing up to the worst the streets can offer. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge they’re ill prepared to tackle: fatherhood. When tragedy strikes home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering. Sherwood Pictures, creators of Fireproof, returns with this heartfelt, action-packed story. Protecting the streets is second nature to these law enforcement officers.
A compelling drama with humor and heart that explores the power that prayer can have on marriages, parenting, careers, friendships, and every other area of our lives.
A new video series from Phil Vischer (creator of Veggietales) that focuses on the big picture of the Bible. Parents are learning as much as kids from these super informative videos. You can check them out from our Children’s Library on Sunday mornings.
This is an inspiring true story of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack and courageously overcame all odds to become a champion again, through her sheer determination and unwavering faith. In the wake of this life-changing event that took her arm and nearly her life, Bethany’s feisty determination and steadfast beliefs spur her toward an adventurous comeback that gives her the grit to turn her loss into a gift for others.
Children’s Books
We have a wonderful selection of Children’s Books that you can check out from the Children’s Library located on the 2nd floor of the Children’s Pavilion. Here are some of our favorites.
The Big God Story by Michelle Anthony
Current research points to the importance of children understanding that the Bible stories they often hear separately are all connected to one huge story of God’s grace and redemption. We emphasize this every week in Story Seekers (our Sunday morning program for 3 years-K); and so this is the book we gift to incoming 1st graders as a memento of their time in Story Seekers.
Am I Praying? by Jeannie St. John Taylor
“Am I Praying?” and other illustrated books by Jeannie St. John Taylor are written in a manner that is thought-provoking for both children and adults. Children are easily entertained by the style and the detail of the graphics as well.
You Are Special by Max Lucado
A fun picture book with an awesome message. Kids (and adults) 4 years and up will appreciate this book.
God Made You Nose to Toes by Leslie Parrott
A very cute board book for 1-4 year olds.
The Big Red Tractor and the Little Village by Francis Chan
The Big Red Tractor and His Little Village is a contemporary parable sharing a timeless truth: God has a special purpose for you and you can fulfill it through the help of his Spirit. It’s a powerful lesson perfectly told for little hearts.
Adventures in Odyssey Audio Series
The Green Ring Conspiracy is unlike any collection of stories found in Odyssey, yet still brings together the drama, fun, humor, and life-lessons audiences have come to expect from the show over the years.
Other Products
Gracemats: Reusable Placemats that Tell Bible Stories
