December 23, 2025 • 37 mins
Wrapping up Family Matters before Christmas, Dina, Peter, and Tyler take a clear look at how family schedules, sports, screens, and commitments shape what we value most. They offer practical guidance for reordering time around faith, helping families choose what matters without guilt—and build healthier rhythms at home.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:04):
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings
podcast, where we dive a littlebit deeper into the message that
we are studying and see whatwe're taking beyond Sunday.
My name is Dina Newsom, and Ihave got a couple great guests
for our Christmas week episode.
Go ahead and introduceyourselves.
SPEAKER_01 (00:21):
Merry Christmas, Dina.
SPEAKER_03 (00:23):
Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_01 (00:24):
This is Tyler from our Fremont Campus.
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
Hi, my name is Peter Beg, King King's Northwest
Campus Director.
And for those just listening,I'm also there's a camera on me
this week.
So I'm I'm looking very intentlyinto it.
Lots of camera eye contact.
SPEAKER_03 (00:42):
Um, you'll have to picture it.
There will be some uh snippetson social media of Peter on
camera, and you have to checkout his hat.
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Well, no, just do it.
Show it off now.
You have a you have an awesomehat, and then you also have a
drink that you need to show off.
SPEAKER_00 (00:54):
Yeah, yeah.
So uh runza, and I would saythat the the item the runza, if
I would put it as the worst fastfood item in the history of fast
food.
That's a very strong statement.
That's very strong, yes, and Iknow that some people with that
some drama, and I'm here for it.
SPEAKER_01 (01:10):
Are you taking into account the heat that comes off
the runza when you're at a coldNebraska game?
And the purpose is not to feedyourself but to warm up your
hands?
SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
That's cool, actually.
I like the way you justdescribed that.
So if you're using runza as ahand warmer, then it might be
top five for fast food handwarmer foods.
No, I would say that the runzarestaurant, though, is one of my
favorite fast food places, andI've been looking for this hat
because this is an alternateuniform hat for the storm
(01:39):
chasers, and I found it forthree bucks at a resale.
Wonderful.
Hey, toxic waste, hazardous,hazardously satisfying.
I'd give this a two out of tenon taste.
SPEAKER_03 (01:50):
This is the drink he's drinking.
That's what it is for ourlisteners.
SPEAKER_00 (01:53):
It's the drink, and I got it from Ollie's great
stuff cheap store.
It's north uh Omaha, like 72ndand up there north somewhere,
and really great deals.
If you get a chance to go out toOllie's, uh if you like bad
energy drinks, toxic waste.
SPEAKER_03 (02:10):
That's the one for you.
SPEAKER_01 (02:11):
For those of you just listening, Peter has been
looking at the camera the entiretime while he was doing that
promo.
That's right.
SPEAKER_03 (02:17):
None of that's gonna see the light of day.
SPEAKER_00 (02:20):
Yeah, they don't show my clips as often.
SPEAKER_03 (02:23):
Okay, well, I don't know if you guys know, but today
is National Cookie Exchange Day.
Today is the day most peopleexchange cookies for the
holidays.
So, in light of that, I wantedto ask, what's your favorite
cookie?
Doesn't have to be a Christmascookie.
What's your favorite cookie?
SPEAKER_01 (02:43):
Um, this is just it's more of from the nostalgia,
not necessarily I just love thetaste, but I do like the taste.
The simple peanut butterblossoms.
That's what my mom would alwayscall them, my grandma too, where
it's like a peanut butter cookiethat you roll in sugar and then
you press the Hershey Kiss intothe top.
It just takes me back to mychildhood and it's tasty.
And we only have them atChristmas time, too.
Like we don't make them anyother time.
SPEAKER_00 (03:04):
Yeah, that sounds good.
I would say my favorite cookies,fresh, like warm.
SPEAKER_03 (03:10):
Any cookie, as long as it's fresh.
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
Most any.
Now I'm a big chocolate fan, butif you can like pull the cookie
apart and there's like a acocoa, a chocolate pole, like
that's just the best.
So slightly undercooked, freshcookie.
SPEAKER_03 (03:28):
What was the airline that used to bake cookies on the
flight?
Do you frontier was it that usedto do?
I think it was Frontier.
I'm not sure.
There was an airline that bakedchocolate chip cookies on the
flight.
So the whole plane smelled likechocolate chip cookies and they
served them warm.
Now, they could have been frozenand they just heated them up.
unknown (03:48):
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (03:49):
I couldn't.
SPEAKER_03 (03:50):
Or they could have been three days old and they
still just heated them up.
SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
Here's the deal.
I think frozen food gets thisweird bad rap.
But it's not like fresh food isnot that much better than frozen
food.
I want to put that on the recordhere.
SPEAKER_03 (04:03):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (04:04):
I mean, it it appears to be better.
SPEAKER_03 (04:06):
Throwing things down today.
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
But if you put a if you put like a homemade uh
whatever cookie next to one thatwas frozen, like you then you
freeze that homemade cookie andyou heat them both up.
How different is the taste?
I'm willing to try this.
Somebody bring me two and we'lldo this.
SPEAKER_01 (04:22):
Dina, what I will say, you oversee guest
experience here at our Millardcampus.
Like you understand the value ofa good smelling area and how
that changes the guestexperience.
SPEAKER_03 (04:32):
Yep.
Yep.
I will say at Jersey Sunday onLabor Day, we really wanted to
make fresh popcorn so the smellof popcorn would be.
And then we decided for thenumber of people we have here,
it was a bit impractical.
So I went searching for roomspray that smelled like popcorn.
I could not find a quality onethat was going to arrive in
(04:53):
time.
They were coming from very faraway, which I don't know what
that means about how they'remade.
But had we filled the corridorwith the smell of popcorn, it
would have been delightful.
SPEAKER_02 (05:03):
So you probably need to go to Ollie's at 70 seconded
up mark.
SPEAKER_03 (05:08):
Great stuff cheap.
My favorite cookie is just thetraditional sugar cookie.
I love just a regular sugarcookie, but not all of them
taste the same.
SPEAKER_00 (05:19):
No.
SPEAKER_03 (05:20):
Eileen's sugar cookies, yay.
SPEAKER_00 (05:22):
Oh, good.
SPEAKER_03 (05:23):
Most grocery store sugar cookies, nay.
SPEAKER_01 (05:27):
Are we icing and frosting or no?
SPEAKER_03 (05:29):
I don't like the icing and frosting.
So maybe just a little, like ifyou've made it at home.
I'm not a big frosting person.
Like I peel the frosting offcupcakes or cake, stuff like
that.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:39):
I do too with my face.
SPEAKER_03 (05:45):
All right.
So moving on.
We are in week three of ourFamily Matters series.
And Pastor Seth Flick has beentaking us through this.
And I really have been enjoyingthis series and kind of felt
challenged by it, even though mykids are a little bit older.
So some of the pieces,especially like this week, where
it was a lot of it was talkingabout your kids.
(06:05):
My kids are grown.
So it's a different picture.
But what are you guys takingbeyond Sunday from this week's
message?
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
Yeah, I really appreciate Pastor Seth.
Um I think he's done greattaking us into Jacob's story and
then applying it to our worldand through the lens of the
gospel, all the things we reallycare about here at King Kings.
Um, what I took away fromyesterday is his his tagline.
He had us, he had us repeat itwas, you know, bury your idols
(06:32):
and build your family.
And having that second piecereally, really, I really
appreciated that because and heeven said it at one point where
we if you only do part one,those idols or some other idol
will just kind of come up in itsplace.
And so to do the bury and thebuild, um, having both together,
I that's what I took away fromyesterday.
SPEAKER_00 (06:54):
Yeah, one um the statistics were interesting.
I mean, and those are averages.
So for for every the majority ofum, or how do I say this, if if
there's 400 kids in the school,two of 200 of them aren't even
doing athletics.
(07:15):
And so if your one kid is if theaverage is 4.3, they likely are
closer to eight already on theirown.
And so, like, I thought he wasvery conservative and even
gentle with some of thestatistics.
And the reality is uh theprophet or uh the what was it,
the idol of ball ball.
Yes, and uh, and then by thetime he got to screens, it was
(07:38):
like, oh my goodness.
Um that uh that that's that wasconvicting to me, and to what
you were saying, it's reallyhard to bury those easier to
say, like, we need to do that.
It's a hard thing to do it.
So there was some greatconviction for me to build my
(07:59):
family.
Like I have to intentionallystart lowering down the priority
on the other areas of my life.
SPEAKER_03 (08:06):
The statistics were what really got me.
I mean, just hearing them alltogether.
And like I said, my kids are outof the house now, so I'm not in
the thick of that.
Of um, but at one time I had twogirls that played for two
basketball teams each, thoseschedules.
My husband at the time wascoaching those teams.
(08:28):
So he was, we had a three orfour-year-old that was along in
tow.
We were had Girl Scouts, we hadall the things, you know.
Um, and cell phones had justbecome smartphones.
So, like there was all the funof that.
And I think back and I neverimagined like that would be the
(08:48):
amount of time that we wereprobably spending on those
things.
But I I I'm sure it was so true.
Like, so true.
Yeah.
That smacked me in the face.
SPEAKER_00 (08:57):
Yeah, and the stark contrast of amount of time that
Christian families spend talkingabout God's word and Jesus and
the whole thing.
15 minutes.
SPEAKER_03 (09:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:05):
Holy smokes.
SPEAKER_03 (09:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:07):
And I get it, because I mean, we can we can be
the same.
It's built into our schedule.
Jada's practices are Monday,Wednesday, Bentons are Tuesday,
Thursday, games, Friday,Saturday, sometimes even Sunday
afternoon.
Those are on the schedule.
We're gonna do them.
But we don't schedule um well,we haven't yet scheduled
devotion time, Bible study time,prayer time.
(09:31):
Uh so those things happen in ourhouse, but not as regularly as
the sports.
SPEAKER_03 (09:36):
It's too easy to push off.
Right.
We'll do that tomorrow.
unknown (09:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (09:40):
Okay, so how do you guys think that sports and other
activities have become modernday altars in our society?
SPEAKER_00 (09:48):
Oh boy.
Yeah.
Well, one, this is gonna bedramatic, but I I feel like
you're gonna be able to do that.
I would expect nothing less ifyou're gonna be able to do it.
SPEAKER_03 (09:58):
He's pushing buttons all over today.
SPEAKER_00 (10:00):
Yeah, I I think that youth sports um is one of the
most damaging, it can be one ofthe most damaging things to
families that exists currently.
And I'm a person who is involvedand coaches and advocates for
(10:21):
it.
But how we handle it one, thecost of it's outrageous, so
financially that's tough.
That causes lots of stress infamilies.
Two, uh, if your child's in ahigher level where you're
traveling a lot, it separatesthe families.
Moms and dads are oftenseparated, uh, siblings are
(10:41):
separated, and I know that likesounds good, but in the long
haul, it that that's damaging.
Uh, and makes um it becomes likewe were talking earlier,
prioritization on your schedule.
So um, if you have a tournamentin Des Moines that's Saturday,
Sunday, uh your churchattendance in Omaha, it's it's
(11:02):
gone.
And so um I know a lot offamilies who are very
intentional to then find achurch in Des Moines and then go
there.
Great, like awesome, but yourconsistency at your home base,
your local church, uh thatstarts to go away.
And so I I I find that youthsports have the potential to be
(11:23):
incredibly damaging to theformation of a family.
That being said, we as Christianparents who love sports do have
a choice on how to handle itwell.
Um, and how to talk to our kidsabout sportsmanship, how to talk
to them about how, yep, this issomething you committed to, and
we're doing this, it's not themost important thing in your
(11:43):
life.
How to have great discussionsabout failure, so many
opportunities to fail in sports,which is wonderful.
Um, and so I think like justthat category alone, uh, it it
has that potential, but we canalso use it for good.
And we as parents need to makethe decision that we're in
(12:05):
control of our kids' schedules,uh, not their sports that can't
be in control.
We still need to get to make thefinal decision.
And if we our final decision isyou know what, we're just gonna
do one team this year becausethat's healthier for the family,
our kids will be okay.
And down the road they mighteven thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (12:26):
Yeah.
Um the the where I would kind ofhave like a yes and with what
you said there, Peter, is thisis not a question of is it a is
it a good thing or a bad thing,right?
Like the there there are plentyof things that if the if the you
know, even if going to our ourtext out of out of Genesis, like
(12:47):
worshiping false gods, that's abad thing.
In this case, we would say,well, it becomes a bad thing
when it's just not put in itsright place.
And that's something Sethemphasized over and over again.
It's like it just needs to beput in its right place.
Um, and so when we talk aboutkind of idolatry, which which is
a very like the Bible takes itvery seriously, God takes it
very seriously, you shall haveno other gods before me.
(13:09):
It's saying, well, what what hassupplanted the place of God and
prioritizing the thing that isthat which is most important?
And so then the question is, howdo we as Christians responsibly
put this thing that is good,kids competing in sports?
It's a good thing in its rightplace.
Um I I think about my mypersonal story.
(13:29):
So um I'm not particularlyathletic.
Um, I'm not fast, not strong.
My older brother and sister werelike all they they did all of
the club soccer stuff.
My brother's team was like thebest in the state, 10 years
running.
They would always go toregionals.
I think a couple years they wentto nationals.
Um, I was told by my parents umafter my fifth grade year
(13:50):
playing soccer, they're like,Um, Tyler, we're we don't think
you should do soccer again.
And I they totally made theright decision because I wasn't
good.
And they saw what the level ofinvestment that they put in for
my brother and sister, andthey're just like, we're looking
at the trajectory, like we thinkyou probably want to pursue some
of these other interests.
(14:10):
And then I started doing a bunchof stuff with music and acting
and all that sort of thing.
Um and so I see the good side ofit for like my brother, like
that that led his way to get adivision one scholarship, but
then he allowed he got hisundergrad degree in um
pre-medicine, and now he's a nowhe's a intron medicine doctor,
(14:31):
right?
Like they there there are thereare really redeeming factors of
it.
Um, but we also don't want to beunder the illusion that there
are all of these scholarshipsthat are just waiting.
It's like there actually arelimited.
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (14:43):
Yeah.
Um unless you're a girl golfer,there's a ton.
That's the most availablescholarship in college sports.
Come talk to me.
I coach at Concordia HighSchool.
SPEAKER_01 (14:52):
Are are we up to like six times where Peter's
talked directly into the cameraas promos?
SPEAKER_03 (14:57):
I think it's more than six.
SPEAKER_01 (14:58):
None of these will get used, but maybe they will.
As I was thinking aboutyesterday and putting myself in
kind of the just the the averagefamily in the seats, right, that
have multiple kids and are insports.
I wonder if a lot of it is wejust don't know another way.
And I think this kind of bleedsinto the tech conversation as
(15:20):
well.
Um, I'm I'm actually reallyencouraged by some of the
cultural moves where it's likefrom state legislatures that are
saying no phones in highschools, that sort of thing.
That's like so needed.
We had this 10-year period whereI think everyone recognized like
this isn't good for my kid andit's not good for their
education, but they see alltheir friends that are doing
(15:43):
this.
And so then it's like, are wegonna be the bad guys that they
can't connect with theirfriends?
And that kind of has thisnegative, negative momentum.
And I wonder if it's the samething with the youth sports
conversation, where it's like,well, that's where their friends
are.
They really want to do it.
We don't want to deprive ofopportunities.
And and so it really is aquestion of like, okay, what
(16:04):
does it look like for you tofollow Jesus as a family in this
specific context?
And and having having a uh maybesome encouragement to take some
convictions and be willing tosay no and even potentially risk
being seen as a little bit of aweirdo of saying no to the
things that everyone else issaying yes to?
(16:24):
Ultimately, like the Bible doessay we're we're in the world,
but not of it.
And if we're experiencing, youknow, Peter used the word
destructive to describe this,it's like, man, if we're
experiencing destruction, thenwe we probably want to find a
different and a better way, butthat's gonna look and feel a
little weird.
SPEAKER_03 (16:42):
All right.
So, what role can churchcommunities play in helping
families refocus on spiritualpriorities?
SPEAKER_00 (16:52):
Yeah, I mean, one like uh Sus Message really
that's that was the purpose ofit is speaking into that and and
having a culture in the familythat's going to um bury the
idols and build up the family.
Uh, I I think as a church, it'sit one, we do need to understand
that these families, um, and myfamily included, who have put
(17:15):
their kids in sports, they'renot bad.
It's not a good or badconversation like what you
mentioned earlier, Tyler.
Uh, and I and I know a lot offamilies who attend out at King
Kings Northwest and all over thecity who value their
relationship with God and valuechurch highly and are trying to
find that balance of how to doyouth sports and church uh and
(17:39):
my relationship with God, evenmore importantly, do it well.
And so as a church, I think weneed we do need to understand
okay, um, we are for you, andhow can we give you the ability
to church wherever you are?
And so King Kings, I think, hasdone that really well.
Um, if you don't know, uhKingKings.org has the service
(18:01):
every single week, uh, as wellas the King of Kings app.
Um, you can also catch just themessage, and so you can either
way, you can worship fromwherever you are.
Um, not only that, there's allkinds of content that you can
find.
On the app, um, there's contentfor kids and families and teens,
(18:22):
and so uh being able to get indiscussion about God and his
word wherever you are matters.
So, yes, there will be if you'rein youth sports and you're gone
and you're in Des Moines for theweekend, like your relationship
with Christ still comes first.
So talk about it.
(18:42):
Um, I and then on the other sideof it, I think we as families,
um if we know what our identityis, we and place that above our
activity, that'll go a long wayinto how we treat each other.
This last weekend, uh, my sonBenton had a game, and and there
(19:04):
was a boy on the other team whowas just like off his rocker,
like this dude, and you couldjust feel the judgment from the
other parents in the gym oflike, what is going on with this
little guy?
I I naturally was like, I wasshocked by it, but then I was
also like, uh, I found myselfimmediately like praying for his
(19:25):
parents, praying for theirrelationship with each other, if
if they're together or if or ifthey're apart, you know, like uh
as they co-parent or as theyparent this this young man who's
just clearly struggling.
Um and and his behavior was sotough that like it became a
conversation between Benton andI at home where he was like, Why
(19:47):
do you think that was the case?
And what should I do?
And then we got to craft thatconversation.
I had a choice to either say,Yeah, that kid's just a lost
cause or he's a mess, or hisparents did a terrible job.
None of those would beproductive or helpful.
Versus saying, Well, what do youthink, buddy?
Like, do you think that hereally liked himself out there?
(20:09):
Like, do you think he had apositive thought of himself?
And the answer was obvious, no.
Okay, well, like how how do wehave a positive look thought of
ourselves?
And then it always goes back toidentity in Christ.
And crafting conversations thatway helped Benton to actually be
like, we should pray for thisguy.
Yeah.
We absolutely should.
(20:30):
So that's like our identity overour activity makes a big
difference.
SPEAKER_01 (20:34):
Oh, I like that.
Identity over activity.
Yeah.
Um, I think one uh Sethemphasized this at the end, and
so I'm just basically repeatingwhat he said.
Um, I remember when we startedthe Fremont campus, as I was
talking with Pastor Greg andPastor uh Zach about, you know,
kind of next steps and goals,that sort of thing.
They kept saying over and overagain, it's like, it's okay to
(20:55):
start small and don't put thepressure on yourself to have
everything developed within thisthree-month time span.
It's like just one step at atime, start small and grow.
And so that that's the same kindof advice I would give to
families where you likely arefeeling overwhelmed and your
schedule is stressed, you'retrying to do school and homework
(21:16):
and sports and activities andtimes the number of kids that
you have.
And so taking an inventory ofwhere you are right now and then
say, what is one thing that wecan do different or more in the
spiritual formation realm overthe next season?
And and so and Seth kind of justtook it one step at a time.
(21:37):
And so if you're not prayingbefore meals, that's a great
first step, thanking the Lordfor the food that's before you.
Gratitude is great.
We we emphasize this with ourkids all the time.
Like, thank you prayers.
If we can get if you can walkout of the Rawlson household in
18 years and recognize God isthe giver of every good gift,
praise God.
We did it, we did awesome.
I was about to say we did ourjob.
There's a little bit more thanthat, but that's a good start.
(21:58):
Um, if you're already praying atmeals, find a way to work in a
scripture, maybe a familymemorization scripture, but not
putting the pressure on like,okay, within the next week,
we're going to be leading30-minute Bible studies, which
each child uh uh around thetable asking very inquisitive
questions, and everyone hastheir own commentaries of age.
Like it it's good to just startand to start small.
(22:22):
Um, and and and like the whybehind it, why are we doing
this, Peter?
You you elucided elucidated itso well is like we are
elucidated.
SPEAKER_02 (22:33):
I don't know why I said that.
That sounds like a drug term.
Elucidated.
You are you are drinking toxicwaste right.
SPEAKER_03 (22:39):
There you go.
SPEAKER_01 (22:39):
Um, but you yeah, you you said it in that like
we're we're going to we're wesay we're Christians, we are
baptized, we're loved by God,we're saved by Christ, and now
we're we're living that out, andthat's going to have a bearing
on our life and on ourpriorities.
And sometimes that means it'sgonna look a little different.
Um, but we want to work towardsthat goal, and it's okay to
start small.
SPEAKER_00 (23:00):
Gosh, that's such a great point, Ty.
Can you elucidate a littlefurther, Peter?
I have no idea.
I in my mind that's like imaginethings that don't exist.
So uh, no, I cannot do that,Tyler.
No, I actually can.
I'm pretty good at that,actually.
Um but the expectation also of afamily, I think that like
(23:21):
incremental growth.
Um, so if you one thing, one bigchange that I've made with with
my kids is at night, I've justsaid, instead of me just
praying, because I love to pray,I say, I'm gonna pray, and then
you're gonna pray.
And sometimes they're like,okay, and sometimes they're
like, Oh, I don't want to, Idon't have anything.
And then I'm just like, justthank you, whatever it is, it's
(23:44):
fine.
And every single time they'vedone it, and it's been
wonderful.
And I just I say my prayer, andthen I'm quiet, and like
sometimes they have more to say,and sometimes it's less, and
that's okay.
And oftentimes it's been forlike last night.
I'm trying to think of myseven-year-old prayed for her
two teachers that are havingsurgeries over break, it was
(24:05):
beautiful, and then we saidamen, and then she wanted to
talk more about why she waspraying for those teachers, and
it created conversations.
Um, my uh 11-year-old, um, he'she prayed for the young boy
who's who was struggling duringthe basketball game, and that
was a product of theconversation that we had prior.
(24:25):
And so, like, that's uh onething.
Now, my expectation cannot bethat I add this thing and it's
gonna work well right away, oralways going to work well.
These are kids, and so sometimesit happens with a little bit of
like I don't want to do it, orsometimes it happens with the
kid giggling and like it'smessy, and that's okay.
(24:46):
So, having our expectationsthere.
Secondly, so I was listening tothis great podcast with Jelly
Roll.
Jelly Roll's the singer, and uhI thought you were gonna say I
was listening to this greatpodcast hosted by Dina Newsome
by Dina called Beyond Sunday.
Check it out wherever you findyour podcast.
And Jelly Roll, who has becomethis um, he's got this
(25:07):
relationship with Christ that hetalks about a lot, which is
awesome.
Um, he's a singer, and he Ithink is he right now he's known
for his incredible weight lossjourney.
SPEAKER_03 (25:18):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (25:19):
And he uh a couple years ago he was 550 pounds.
SPEAKER_02 (25:23):
What?
SPEAKER_00 (25:23):
And he has lost over 300 pounds with no um like uh
he's not taking any um whatwhatever GOPs uh because he was
nervous that it was gonna affecthis um acid reflux that he was
struggling with, and he's asinger, and that'd be terrifying
for him.
So he didn't use any of thoseand he's lost 300 pounds.
(25:43):
And one of the things that hesaid is like, you can accomplish
way more than you think in ayear.
But we have a tendency to makegoals for a month or three
months, and then it's hard tomake those because we make we
say, I want to do all thiswithin a month, and then we fail
and we give up.
And he said, versus if you'relike a year from now, if we talk
(26:05):
more consistently aboutgratitude in our family, that'd
be a great thing.
What are tiny goals that help usget there?
So uh I I think that's a bigthing.
You want a family that praysmore, we'll make a tiny goal
saying, All right, kids, I'mgonna pray, then you pray.
You want a family that's moregenerous?
(26:26):
Rather than starting with eachof us is going to give uh 10%
right now, maybe it's um, hey,I'm gonna give each of you kids
a quarter this week for you togive in the offering at church.
And start with small things andsee what God does in a year.
SPEAKER_01 (26:44):
Dina, I have a question for you.
SPEAKER_03 (26:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (26:46):
Because Peter and I both have young, young to
younger kids at home, and you'rein a different life stage.
And so as you heard Pastor Sethsharing yesterday, and then this
conversation, what are youthinking about that it kind of
applies to your life stage?
SPEAKER_03 (27:00):
Right now, my life stage is really focused on my
grandkids and be sure being surethat my grandkids are plugged in
in a way that um I think thatthey're being raised in the
faith.
Um, and so that's something thatI um like even the Christmas
gifts I've picked out for themare things that are gonna talk
(27:21):
about praying or um things thatlead to faith or Christian
books, you know, things likethat.
That is my way of contributingto that.
With my grown-up kids, um, it'sreally um encouraging them to
stay plugged into a church.
And, you know, as they gothrough adult stages, that comes
and goes.
And as a parent, that's hardwhen they get to make that
(27:43):
choice by themselves and I don'tget to drive them to church or
force them, you know, up to go.
Um and it's been interesting towatch um and interesting even to
see the growth in my own abilityto speak up about it because I I
felt very shy about it at first.
I'm like, oh, well, they're anadult.
This is not mine to speak into.
And um I'm not doing my job as aparent, even though I'm not
(28:07):
feeding them and clothing themand driving them anywhere.
I'm still a parent and I Godstill entrusted that child to me
to take care of and to raise inhis faith, even when they're an
adult.
And I see that in how my fatherparents me.
And so I try to encourage that.
Not like all the time in yourface, you know, but you know,
(28:28):
slide in those little ways of,you know, hey, what did you take
up from this sermon?
Or, you know, what are you umwhat what what's the last thing
you read in your Bible?
You know, like let's talk aboutit.
Um, the other thing that Iwanted to bring up with this
question about churchcommunities is really connect
groups.
I think that having a connectgroup, especially as a family
(28:49):
that maybe is at a same lifestage as you and being able to
invest in that, even if you gettogether socially, like this
last Sunday, not yesterday, butthe um the Sunday before, one of
our Connect group leaders,Harrett Millard, was leaving
with his family.
And I said, Oh, hey, you guysgot big plans for the day.
And he said, actually, we'rehaving our Connect group over
(29:09):
tonight.
We're just kind of having asocial Christmas party.
We're just getting together andjust gonna be together.
And I was like, Okay, it's not aplan devotion.
It's not a Bible study.
You're not gonna sit down anddiscuss the sermon, but you're
investing in those relationshipsthat are surrounding you and
your kids with people that wantthe same thing and understand
(29:32):
the same God that you do.
And how does that set your kidsup for how they can seek out
relationships like that as theygrow older?
Or how do they feel buffered byhaving a safe place to talk
about Jesus, where maybe thatdoesn't feel safe at school or
on their sports team orsomething like that?
I think that's another way thatour church community can really
(29:55):
help our families.
Plus, that's time that you canspend with people that maybe is
not on screens or, you know, notin busy, it may be busyness, you
know, to plan a get together,but it's uh a good investment, I
think.
SPEAKER_01 (30:08):
That's uh what I love about what you just said
there.
Well, I loved all of it.
Um but shout out to all of ourcampuses, kids' ministry staff,
and volunteers.
You know, the the old phrase, ittakes a village, it it's it's
true.
And and so for parents, like youyou do have the primary
responsibility of spiritualdevelopment of your child child,
(30:31):
but God also, in his grace, likesurrounds you a church
community.
And I can't think of a betterway for my kids to be built up
in the faith than to have othertrusted adults who love Jesus,
love the word, and love my kids.
And like to so then it's notjust coming from one or two
sources, but it's from amultitude of sources.
(30:53):
And, you know, Dina, you workedin kids' ministry for a number
of years.
Peter, you got a kids' ministrybackground.
I think we've I think we've seenit, right?
Where maybe there's something inthe relationship with parents
where parents can only get sofar in terms of what they're
able to to to plant seeds intheir kids, but then that one
trusted relationship at churchthat just breaks through because
(31:14):
the Lord just set it up thatway.
SPEAKER_03 (31:16):
Um, it was really cool here at our Millard campus
about a week ago.
We celebrated Didi Knipe'sretirement, um, who has been in
ministry for 30 years.
And it was neat to see some ofthe families that came to visit
her that were kids that were inDee Dee's kids' ministry that
now have their own kids.
Um, and just recognizing theplace that she played in their
(31:38):
grow in their spiritualdevelopment.
Yeah.
All right.
So why is it significant thatJesus met the Samaritan woman at
Jacob's well?
And how did this story apply tothe sermon's message?
SPEAKER_01 (31:53):
Yeah, Seth, Seth tied this in so beautifully.
So if you go back to was itGenesis 35, where uh Jacob is
instructed by the Lord, uh,leave Shechem, go to Bethel, and
Shechem is the place where allof the idol worship was
happening, where family memberswere uh kind of mixing, mixing
(32:17):
gods together.
And God said, No, no, worship meand build an altar at Bethel.
And then, and then quicklyfollowed up with that is the
well that Jacob digs, and thenwe fast forward how many years
would that be, Peter?
2000?
SPEAKER_00 (32:29):
Yeah, approximately.
SPEAKER_02 (32:32):
He he has his Bible history map pulled out in front
of us right now, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:37):
Um, to John chapter four, and just that amazing
passage where Jesus meets theSamaritan woman crossing every
kind of faux pas boundary umthat you can think of in that
time.
And where does he meet her atJacob's well?
And even in the conversation,this woman asks, asks Jesus, Are
(32:58):
Are you greater than our fatherJacob?
And Jesus is it, he doesn't sayit outright, but yeah, he is the
greater Jacob because he's theone that does um ultimately
defeat all of the idols um andthen gives us the living water
that will well up to everlastinglife.
SPEAKER_00 (33:16):
And I'm and I'm like, uh read the Old Testament,
and Jacob's a stinker.
This dude is an ultimatestinker, which I appreciate
because I I think I'm in thesame camp.
Saved, saved by grace.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
All right, as we wrap up today, what are your
final takeaways from thismessage, this whole series even?
Um, so this week or this FamilyMatter series.
SPEAKER_00 (33:41):
Yeah, I would say if this series was convicting to
you, um, in in forgiveness andreconciliation with siblings,
parents, authority, um, God,that good.
Like I do I do believe that theHoly Spirit convicts.
(34:06):
I do believe that we are calledto forgive.
And when we don't forgive, itjails us.
I as Seth Pastor Seth mentioned,we're not always called to
reconcile.
Um but we do need to bereconciled with God and with
Christ.
And so if this if there ischallenges for you, go into
(34:28):
God's word and see what his wordhas to say about it.
Pray to God and say, I'm I'mchallenged with this.
Find another Christian brotheror sister to discuss it and pray
about it.
And uh these challenges, if it,if it pricks some feelings,
yeah, because there's nothingcloser to us than the people
(34:49):
that God has placed around us.
And so that's a real feeling.
Um not something to run awayfrom, but something to run
towards.
And uh, and God is there, he isfaithful, he is ever present um
in your time of exploration orchallenge or mourning and
(35:11):
desirous for you to come to him.
That's good, Peter.
SPEAKER_01 (35:14):
Uh yeah, final takeaway from me, it really is
just the the title of theseries, and and Seth kind of
landed here.
It's so simple.
But yeah, like our familiesreally do matter.
Um, and the the reason that wewould take three weeks and and
even maybe a bit of a harderlook and maybe more challenging
look is um the Bible takes thisseriously, and like this is like
(35:40):
the primary avenue for us todevelop as people and develop as
disciples to exercise kind ofthe uh the stewardship that
God's given us and his parentsand his siblings to live out the
messiness of relationships.
And so doing it God's way and asmessy as it can feel and as
imperfect as it is, um, itmatters.
(36:00):
Like your family matters, ourfamily matters.
Um, and ultimately, as we lookahead to Christmas this week,
like Jesus was born into a messyfamily.
And uh it's important.
Let's not lose sight of it.
SPEAKER_03 (36:12):
I really felt convicted by this series.
I said that before, but I reallyliked each week.
I felt that like the topics werevery easy to point your finger
at somebody else.
Oh, this is my parents' fault,this is my siblings' fault, this
is the school's fault or thesports team's fault or you know,
whatever.
Um, but I feel like in the end,each one was pointing the finger
(36:32):
back at yourself.
These are the choices that Imake and I'm responsible for.
I'm responsible for choices formy time, for my family, for my
relationship with my siblings,for my forgiveness, for my
obedience, um, you know, mysubmission, um, all of those
things.
And I really um I that I took itto heart, you know, that I
(36:54):
really needed to look at myselfand not um where my piece of the
puzzle was.
So that's I really enjoyed.
All right.
Well, thank you guys for beinghere.
We are on break next week forthe holiday.
So we will be back in 2026 withthe next um episode of our
podcast.
And until then, let's keepliving our faith beyond Sunday.
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings
podcast, where we dive a littlebit deeper into the message that
we are studying and see whatwe're taking beyond Sunday.
My name is Dina Newsom, and Ihave got a couple great guests
for our Christmas week episode.
Go ahead and introduceyourselves.
SPEAKER_01 (00:21):
Merry Christmas, Dina.
SPEAKER_03 (00:23):
Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_01 (00:24):
This is Tyler from our Fremont Campus.
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
Hi, my name is Peter Beg, King King's Northwest
Campus Director.
And for those just listening,I'm also there's a camera on me
this week.
So I'm I'm looking very intentlyinto it.
Lots of camera eye contact.
SPEAKER_03 (00:42):
Um, you'll have to picture it.
There will be some uh snippetson social media of Peter on
camera, and you have to checkout his hat.
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Well, no, just do it.
Show it off now.
You have a you have an awesomehat, and then you also have a
drink that you need to show off.
SPEAKER_00 (00:54):
Yeah, yeah.
So uh runza, and I would saythat the the item the runza, if
I would put it as the worst fastfood item in the history of fast
food.
That's a very strong statement.
That's very strong, yes, and Iknow that some people with that
some drama, and I'm here for it.
SPEAKER_01 (01:10):
Are you taking into account the heat that comes off
the runza when you're at a coldNebraska game?
And the purpose is not to feedyourself but to warm up your
hands?
SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
That's cool, actually.
I like the way you justdescribed that.
So if you're using runza as ahand warmer, then it might be
top five for fast food handwarmer foods.
No, I would say that the runzarestaurant, though, is one of my
favorite fast food places, andI've been looking for this hat
because this is an alternateuniform hat for the storm
(01:39):
chasers, and I found it forthree bucks at a resale.
Wonderful.
Hey, toxic waste, hazardous,hazardously satisfying.
I'd give this a two out of tenon taste.
SPEAKER_03 (01:50):
This is the drink he's drinking.
That's what it is for ourlisteners.
SPEAKER_00 (01:53):
It's the drink, and I got it from Ollie's great
stuff cheap store.
It's north uh Omaha, like 72ndand up there north somewhere,
and really great deals.
If you get a chance to go out toOllie's, uh if you like bad
energy drinks, toxic waste.
SPEAKER_03 (02:10):
That's the one for you.
SPEAKER_01 (02:11):
For those of you just listening, Peter has been
looking at the camera the entiretime while he was doing that
promo.
That's right.
SPEAKER_03 (02:17):
None of that's gonna see the light of day.
SPEAKER_00 (02:20):
Yeah, they don't show my clips as often.
SPEAKER_03 (02:23):
Okay, well, I don't know if you guys know, but today
is National Cookie Exchange Day.
Today is the day most peopleexchange cookies for the
holidays.
So, in light of that, I wantedto ask, what's your favorite
cookie?
Doesn't have to be a Christmascookie.
What's your favorite cookie?
SPEAKER_01 (02:43):
Um, this is just it's more of from the nostalgia,
not necessarily I just love thetaste, but I do like the taste.
The simple peanut butterblossoms.
That's what my mom would alwayscall them, my grandma too, where
it's like a peanut butter cookiethat you roll in sugar and then
you press the Hershey Kiss intothe top.
It just takes me back to mychildhood and it's tasty.
And we only have them atChristmas time, too.
Like we don't make them anyother time.
SPEAKER_00 (03:04):
Yeah, that sounds good.
I would say my favorite cookies,fresh, like warm.
SPEAKER_03 (03:10):
Any cookie, as long as it's fresh.
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
Most any.
Now I'm a big chocolate fan, butif you can like pull the cookie
apart and there's like a acocoa, a chocolate pole, like
that's just the best.
So slightly undercooked, freshcookie.
SPEAKER_03 (03:28):
What was the airline that used to bake cookies on the
flight?
Do you frontier was it that usedto do?
I think it was Frontier.
I'm not sure.
There was an airline that bakedchocolate chip cookies on the
flight.
So the whole plane smelled likechocolate chip cookies and they
served them warm.
Now, they could have been frozenand they just heated them up.
unknown (03:48):
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (03:49):
I couldn't.
SPEAKER_03 (03:50):
Or they could have been three days old and they
still just heated them up.
SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
Here's the deal.
I think frozen food gets thisweird bad rap.
But it's not like fresh food isnot that much better than frozen
food.
I want to put that on the recordhere.
SPEAKER_03 (04:03):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (04:04):
I mean, it it appears to be better.
SPEAKER_03 (04:06):
Throwing things down today.
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
But if you put a if you put like a homemade uh
whatever cookie next to one thatwas frozen, like you then you
freeze that homemade cookie andyou heat them both up.
How different is the taste?
I'm willing to try this.
Somebody bring me two and we'lldo this.
SPEAKER_01 (04:22):
Dina, what I will say, you oversee guest
experience here at our Millardcampus.
Like you understand the value ofa good smelling area and how
that changes the guestexperience.
SPEAKER_03 (04:32):
Yep.
Yep.
I will say at Jersey Sunday onLabor Day, we really wanted to
make fresh popcorn so the smellof popcorn would be.
And then we decided for thenumber of people we have here,
it was a bit impractical.
So I went searching for roomspray that smelled like popcorn.
I could not find a quality onethat was going to arrive in
(04:53):
time.
They were coming from very faraway, which I don't know what
that means about how they'remade.
But had we filled the corridorwith the smell of popcorn, it
would have been delightful.
SPEAKER_02 (05:03):
So you probably need to go to Ollie's at 70 seconded
up mark.
SPEAKER_03 (05:08):
Great stuff cheap.
My favorite cookie is just thetraditional sugar cookie.
I love just a regular sugarcookie, but not all of them
taste the same.
SPEAKER_00 (05:19):
No.
SPEAKER_03 (05:20):
Eileen's sugar cookies, yay.
SPEAKER_00 (05:22):
Oh, good.
SPEAKER_03 (05:23):
Most grocery store sugar cookies, nay.
SPEAKER_01 (05:27):
Are we icing and frosting or no?
SPEAKER_03 (05:29):
I don't like the icing and frosting.
So maybe just a little, like ifyou've made it at home.
I'm not a big frosting person.
Like I peel the frosting offcupcakes or cake, stuff like
that.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:39):
I do too with my face.
SPEAKER_03 (05:45):
All right.
So moving on.
We are in week three of ourFamily Matters series.
And Pastor Seth Flick has beentaking us through this.
And I really have been enjoyingthis series and kind of felt
challenged by it, even though mykids are a little bit older.
So some of the pieces,especially like this week, where
it was a lot of it was talkingabout your kids.
(06:05):
My kids are grown.
So it's a different picture.
But what are you guys takingbeyond Sunday from this week's
message?
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
Yeah, I really appreciate Pastor Seth.
Um I think he's done greattaking us into Jacob's story and
then applying it to our worldand through the lens of the
gospel, all the things we reallycare about here at King Kings.
Um, what I took away fromyesterday is his his tagline.
He had us, he had us repeat itwas, you know, bury your idols
(06:32):
and build your family.
And having that second piecereally, really, I really
appreciated that because and heeven said it at one point where
we if you only do part one,those idols or some other idol
will just kind of come up in itsplace.
And so to do the bury and thebuild, um, having both together,
I that's what I took away fromyesterday.
SPEAKER_00 (06:54):
Yeah, one um the statistics were interesting.
I mean, and those are averages.
So for for every the majority ofum, or how do I say this, if if
there's 400 kids in the school,two of 200 of them aren't even
doing athletics.
(07:15):
And so if your one kid is if theaverage is 4.3, they likely are
closer to eight already on theirown.
And so, like, I thought he wasvery conservative and even
gentle with some of thestatistics.
And the reality is uh theprophet or uh the what was it,
the idol of ball ball.
Yes, and uh, and then by thetime he got to screens, it was
(07:38):
like, oh my goodness.
Um that uh that that's that wasconvicting to me, and to what
you were saying, it's reallyhard to bury those easier to
say, like, we need to do that.
It's a hard thing to do it.
So there was some greatconviction for me to build my
(07:59):
family.
Like I have to intentionallystart lowering down the priority
on the other areas of my life.
SPEAKER_03 (08:06):
The statistics were what really got me.
I mean, just hearing them alltogether.
And like I said, my kids are outof the house now, so I'm not in
the thick of that.
Of um, but at one time I had twogirls that played for two
basketball teams each, thoseschedules.
My husband at the time wascoaching those teams.
(08:28):
So he was, we had a three orfour-year-old that was along in
tow.
We were had Girl Scouts, we hadall the things, you know.
Um, and cell phones had justbecome smartphones.
So, like there was all the funof that.
And I think back and I neverimagined like that would be the
(08:48):
amount of time that we wereprobably spending on those
things.
But I I I'm sure it was so true.
Like, so true.
Yeah.
That smacked me in the face.
SPEAKER_00 (08:57):
Yeah, and the stark contrast of amount of time that
Christian families spend talkingabout God's word and Jesus and
the whole thing.
15 minutes.
SPEAKER_03 (09:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:05):
Holy smokes.
SPEAKER_03 (09:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:07):
And I get it, because I mean, we can we can be
the same.
It's built into our schedule.
Jada's practices are Monday,Wednesday, Bentons are Tuesday,
Thursday, games, Friday,Saturday, sometimes even Sunday
afternoon.
Those are on the schedule.
We're gonna do them.
But we don't schedule um well,we haven't yet scheduled
devotion time, Bible study time,prayer time.
(09:31):
Uh so those things happen in ourhouse, but not as regularly as
the sports.
SPEAKER_03 (09:36):
It's too easy to push off.
Right.
We'll do that tomorrow.
unknown (09:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (09:40):
Okay, so how do you guys think that sports and other
activities have become modernday altars in our society?
SPEAKER_00 (09:48):
Oh boy.
Yeah.
Well, one, this is gonna bedramatic, but I I feel like
you're gonna be able to do that.
I would expect nothing less ifyou're gonna be able to do it.
SPEAKER_03 (09:58):
He's pushing buttons all over today.
SPEAKER_00 (10:00):
Yeah, I I think that youth sports um is one of the
most damaging, it can be one ofthe most damaging things to
families that exists currently.
And I'm a person who is involvedand coaches and advocates for
(10:21):
it.
But how we handle it one, thecost of it's outrageous, so
financially that's tough.
That causes lots of stress infamilies.
Two, uh, if your child's in ahigher level where you're
traveling a lot, it separatesthe families.
Moms and dads are oftenseparated, uh, siblings are
(10:41):
separated, and I know that likesounds good, but in the long
haul, it that that's damaging.
Uh, and makes um it becomes likewe were talking earlier,
prioritization on your schedule.
So um, if you have a tournamentin Des Moines that's Saturday,
Sunday, uh your churchattendance in Omaha, it's it's
(11:02):
gone.
And so um I know a lot offamilies who are very
intentional to then find achurch in Des Moines and then go
there.
Great, like awesome, but yourconsistency at your home base,
your local church, uh thatstarts to go away.
And so I I I find that youthsports have the potential to be
(11:23):
incredibly damaging to theformation of a family.
That being said, we as Christianparents who love sports do have
a choice on how to handle itwell.
Um, and how to talk to our kidsabout sportsmanship, how to talk
to them about how, yep, this issomething you committed to, and
we're doing this, it's not themost important thing in your
(11:43):
life.
How to have great discussionsabout failure, so many
opportunities to fail in sports,which is wonderful.
Um, and so I think like justthat category alone, uh, it it
has that potential, but we canalso use it for good.
And we as parents need to makethe decision that we're in
(12:05):
control of our kids' schedules,uh, not their sports that can't
be in control.
We still need to get to make thefinal decision.
And if we our final decision isyou know what, we're just gonna
do one team this year becausethat's healthier for the family,
our kids will be okay.
And down the road they mighteven thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (12:26):
Yeah.
Um the the where I would kind ofhave like a yes and with what
you said there, Peter, is thisis not a question of is it a is
it a good thing or a bad thing,right?
Like the there there are plentyof things that if the if the you
know, even if going to our ourtext out of out of Genesis, like
(12:47):
worshiping false gods, that's abad thing.
In this case, we would say,well, it becomes a bad thing
when it's just not put in itsright place.
And that's something Sethemphasized over and over again.
It's like it just needs to beput in its right place.
Um, and so when we talk aboutkind of idolatry, which which is
a very like the Bible takes itvery seriously, God takes it
very seriously, you shall haveno other gods before me.
(13:09):
It's saying, well, what what hassupplanted the place of God and
prioritizing the thing that isthat which is most important?
And so then the question is, howdo we as Christians responsibly
put this thing that is good,kids competing in sports?
It's a good thing in its rightplace.
Um I I think about my mypersonal story.
(13:29):
So um I'm not particularlyathletic.
Um, I'm not fast, not strong.
My older brother and sister werelike all they they did all of
the club soccer stuff.
My brother's team was like thebest in the state, 10 years
running.
They would always go toregionals.
I think a couple years they wentto nationals.
Um, I was told by my parents umafter my fifth grade year
(13:50):
playing soccer, they're like,Um, Tyler, we're we don't think
you should do soccer again.
And I they totally made theright decision because I wasn't
good.
And they saw what the level ofinvestment that they put in for
my brother and sister, andthey're just like, we're looking
at the trajectory, like we thinkyou probably want to pursue some
of these other interests.
(14:10):
And then I started doing a bunchof stuff with music and acting
and all that sort of thing.
Um and so I see the good side ofit for like my brother, like
that that led his way to get adivision one scholarship, but
then he allowed he got hisundergrad degree in um
pre-medicine, and now he's a nowhe's a intron medicine doctor,
(14:31):
right?
Like they there there are thereare really redeeming factors of
it.
Um, but we also don't want to beunder the illusion that there
are all of these scholarshipsthat are just waiting.
It's like there actually arelimited.
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (14:43):
Yeah.
Um unless you're a girl golfer,there's a ton.
That's the most availablescholarship in college sports.
Come talk to me.
I coach at Concordia HighSchool.
SPEAKER_01 (14:52):
Are are we up to like six times where Peter's
talked directly into the cameraas promos?
SPEAKER_03 (14:57):
I think it's more than six.
SPEAKER_01 (14:58):
None of these will get used, but maybe they will.
As I was thinking aboutyesterday and putting myself in
kind of the just the the averagefamily in the seats, right, that
have multiple kids and are insports.
I wonder if a lot of it is wejust don't know another way.
And I think this kind of bleedsinto the tech conversation as
(15:20):
well.
Um, I'm I'm actually reallyencouraged by some of the
cultural moves where it's likefrom state legislatures that are
saying no phones in highschools, that sort of thing.
That's like so needed.
We had this 10-year period whereI think everyone recognized like
this isn't good for my kid andit's not good for their
education, but they see alltheir friends that are doing
(15:43):
this.
And so then it's like, are wegonna be the bad guys that they
can't connect with theirfriends?
And that kind of has thisnegative, negative momentum.
And I wonder if it's the samething with the youth sports
conversation, where it's like,well, that's where their friends
are.
They really want to do it.
We don't want to deprive ofopportunities.
And and so it really is aquestion of like, okay, what
(16:04):
does it look like for you tofollow Jesus as a family in this
specific context?
And and having having a uh maybesome encouragement to take some
convictions and be willing tosay no and even potentially risk
being seen as a little bit of aweirdo of saying no to the
things that everyone else issaying yes to?
(16:24):
Ultimately, like the Bible doessay we're we're in the world,
but not of it.
And if we're experiencing, youknow, Peter used the word
destructive to describe this,it's like, man, if we're
experiencing destruction, thenwe we probably want to find a
different and a better way, butthat's gonna look and feel a
little weird.
SPEAKER_03 (16:42):
All right.
So, what role can churchcommunities play in helping
families refocus on spiritualpriorities?
SPEAKER_00 (16:52):
Yeah, I mean, one like uh Sus Message really
that's that was the purpose ofit is speaking into that and and
having a culture in the familythat's going to um bury the
idols and build up the family.
Uh, I I think as a church, it'sit one, we do need to understand
that these families, um, and myfamily included, who have put
(17:15):
their kids in sports, they'renot bad.
It's not a good or badconversation like what you
mentioned earlier, Tyler.
Uh, and I and I know a lot offamilies who attend out at King
Kings Northwest and all over thecity who value their
relationship with God and valuechurch highly and are trying to
find that balance of how to doyouth sports and church uh and
(17:39):
my relationship with God, evenmore importantly, do it well.
And so as a church, I think weneed we do need to understand
okay, um, we are for you, andhow can we give you the ability
to church wherever you are?
And so King Kings, I think, hasdone that really well.
Um, if you don't know, uhKingKings.org has the service
(18:01):
every single week, uh, as wellas the King of Kings app.
Um, you can also catch just themessage, and so you can either
way, you can worship fromwherever you are.
Um, not only that, there's allkinds of content that you can
find.
On the app, um, there's contentfor kids and families and teens,
(18:22):
and so uh being able to get indiscussion about God and his
word wherever you are matters.
So, yes, there will be if you'rein youth sports and you're gone
and you're in Des Moines for theweekend, like your relationship
with Christ still comes first.
So talk about it.
(18:42):
Um, I and then on the other sideof it, I think we as families,
um if we know what our identityis, we and place that above our
activity, that'll go a long wayinto how we treat each other.
This last weekend, uh, my sonBenton had a game, and and there
(19:04):
was a boy on the other team whowas just like off his rocker,
like this dude, and you couldjust feel the judgment from the
other parents in the gym oflike, what is going on with this
little guy?
I I naturally was like, I wasshocked by it, but then I was
also like, uh, I found myselfimmediately like praying for his
(19:25):
parents, praying for theirrelationship with each other, if
if they're together or if or ifthey're apart, you know, like uh
as they co-parent or as theyparent this this young man who's
just clearly struggling.
Um and and his behavior was sotough that like it became a
conversation between Benton andI at home where he was like, Why
(19:47):
do you think that was the case?
And what should I do?
And then we got to craft thatconversation.
I had a choice to either say,Yeah, that kid's just a lost
cause or he's a mess, or hisparents did a terrible job.
None of those would beproductive or helpful.
Versus saying, Well, what do youthink, buddy?
Like, do you think that hereally liked himself out there?
(20:09):
Like, do you think he had apositive thought of himself?
And the answer was obvious, no.
Okay, well, like how how do wehave a positive look thought of
ourselves?
And then it always goes back toidentity in Christ.
And crafting conversations thatway helped Benton to actually be
like, we should pray for thisguy.
Yeah.
We absolutely should.
(20:30):
So that's like our identity overour activity makes a big
difference.
SPEAKER_01 (20:34):
Oh, I like that.
Identity over activity.
Yeah.
Um, I think one uh Sethemphasized this at the end, and
so I'm just basically repeatingwhat he said.
Um, I remember when we startedthe Fremont campus, as I was
talking with Pastor Greg andPastor uh Zach about, you know,
kind of next steps and goals,that sort of thing.
They kept saying over and overagain, it's like, it's okay to
(20:55):
start small and don't put thepressure on yourself to have
everything developed within thisthree-month time span.
It's like just one step at atime, start small and grow.
And so that that's the same kindof advice I would give to
families where you likely arefeeling overwhelmed and your
schedule is stressed, you'retrying to do school and homework
(21:16):
and sports and activities andtimes the number of kids that
you have.
And so taking an inventory ofwhere you are right now and then
say, what is one thing that wecan do different or more in the
spiritual formation realm overthe next season?
And and so and Seth kind of justtook it one step at a time.
(21:37):
And so if you're not prayingbefore meals, that's a great
first step, thanking the Lordfor the food that's before you.
Gratitude is great.
We we emphasize this with ourkids all the time.
Like, thank you prayers.
If we can get if you can walkout of the Rawlson household in
18 years and recognize God isthe giver of every good gift,
praise God.
We did it, we did awesome.
I was about to say we did ourjob.
There's a little bit more thanthat, but that's a good start.
(21:58):
Um, if you're already praying atmeals, find a way to work in a
scripture, maybe a familymemorization scripture, but not
putting the pressure on like,okay, within the next week,
we're going to be leading30-minute Bible studies, which
each child uh uh around thetable asking very inquisitive
questions, and everyone hastheir own commentaries of age.
Like it it's good to just startand to start small.
(22:22):
Um, and and and like the whybehind it, why are we doing
this, Peter?
You you elucided elucidated itso well is like we are
elucidated.
SPEAKER_02 (22:33):
I don't know why I said that.
That sounds like a drug term.
Elucidated.
You are you are drinking toxicwaste right.
SPEAKER_03 (22:39):
There you go.
SPEAKER_01 (22:39):
Um, but you yeah, you you said it in that like
we're we're going to we're wesay we're Christians, we are
baptized, we're loved by God,we're saved by Christ, and now
we're we're living that out, andthat's going to have a bearing
on our life and on ourpriorities.
And sometimes that means it'sgonna look a little different.
Um, but we want to work towardsthat goal, and it's okay to
start small.
SPEAKER_00 (23:00):
Gosh, that's such a great point, Ty.
Can you elucidate a littlefurther, Peter?
I have no idea.
I in my mind that's like imaginethings that don't exist.
So uh, no, I cannot do that,Tyler.
No, I actually can.
I'm pretty good at that,actually.
Um but the expectation also of afamily, I think that like
(23:21):
incremental growth.
Um, so if you one thing, one bigchange that I've made with with
my kids is at night, I've justsaid, instead of me just
praying, because I love to pray,I say, I'm gonna pray, and then
you're gonna pray.
And sometimes they're like,okay, and sometimes they're
like, Oh, I don't want to, Idon't have anything.
And then I'm just like, justthank you, whatever it is, it's
(23:44):
fine.
And every single time they'vedone it, and it's been
wonderful.
And I just I say my prayer, andthen I'm quiet, and like
sometimes they have more to say,and sometimes it's less, and
that's okay.
And oftentimes it's been forlike last night.
I'm trying to think of myseven-year-old prayed for her
two teachers that are havingsurgeries over break, it was
(24:05):
beautiful, and then we saidamen, and then she wanted to
talk more about why she waspraying for those teachers, and
it created conversations.
Um, my uh 11-year-old, um, he'she prayed for the young boy
who's who was struggling duringthe basketball game, and that
was a product of theconversation that we had prior.
(24:25):
And so, like, that's uh onething.
Now, my expectation cannot bethat I add this thing and it's
gonna work well right away, oralways going to work well.
These are kids, and so sometimesit happens with a little bit of
like I don't want to do it, orsometimes it happens with the
kid giggling and like it'smessy, and that's okay.
(24:46):
So, having our expectationsthere.
Secondly, so I was listening tothis great podcast with Jelly
Roll.
Jelly Roll's the singer, and uhI thought you were gonna say I
was listening to this greatpodcast hosted by Dina Newsome
by Dina called Beyond Sunday.
Check it out wherever you findyour podcast.
And Jelly Roll, who has becomethis um, he's got this
(25:07):
relationship with Christ that hetalks about a lot, which is
awesome.
Um, he's a singer, and he Ithink is he right now he's known
for his incredible weight lossjourney.
SPEAKER_03 (25:18):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (25:19):
And he uh a couple years ago he was 550 pounds.
SPEAKER_02 (25:23):
What?
SPEAKER_00 (25:23):
And he has lost over 300 pounds with no um like uh
he's not taking any um whatwhatever GOPs uh because he was
nervous that it was gonna affecthis um acid reflux that he was
struggling with, and he's asinger, and that'd be terrifying
for him.
So he didn't use any of thoseand he's lost 300 pounds.
(25:43):
And one of the things that hesaid is like, you can accomplish
way more than you think in ayear.
But we have a tendency to makegoals for a month or three
months, and then it's hard tomake those because we make we
say, I want to do all thiswithin a month, and then we fail
and we give up.
And he said, versus if you'relike a year from now, if we talk
(26:05):
more consistently aboutgratitude in our family, that'd
be a great thing.
What are tiny goals that help usget there?
So uh I I think that's a bigthing.
You want a family that praysmore, we'll make a tiny goal
saying, All right, kids, I'mgonna pray, then you pray.
You want a family that's moregenerous?
(26:26):
Rather than starting with eachof us is going to give uh 10%
right now, maybe it's um, hey,I'm gonna give each of you kids
a quarter this week for you togive in the offering at church.
And start with small things andsee what God does in a year.
SPEAKER_01 (26:44):
Dina, I have a question for you.
SPEAKER_03 (26:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (26:46):
Because Peter and I both have young, young to
younger kids at home, and you'rein a different life stage.
And so as you heard Pastor Sethsharing yesterday, and then this
conversation, what are youthinking about that it kind of
applies to your life stage?
SPEAKER_03 (27:00):
Right now, my life stage is really focused on my
grandkids and be sure being surethat my grandkids are plugged in
in a way that um I think thatthey're being raised in the
faith.
Um, and so that's something thatI um like even the Christmas
gifts I've picked out for themare things that are gonna talk
(27:21):
about praying or um things thatlead to faith or Christian
books, you know, things likethat.
That is my way of contributingto that.
With my grown-up kids, um, it'sreally um encouraging them to
stay plugged into a church.
And, you know, as they gothrough adult stages, that comes
and goes.
And as a parent, that's hardwhen they get to make that
(27:43):
choice by themselves and I don'tget to drive them to church or
force them, you know, up to go.
Um and it's been interesting towatch um and interesting even to
see the growth in my own abilityto speak up about it because I I
felt very shy about it at first.
I'm like, oh, well, they're anadult.
This is not mine to speak into.
And um I'm not doing my job as aparent, even though I'm not
(28:07):
feeding them and clothing themand driving them anywhere.
I'm still a parent and I Godstill entrusted that child to me
to take care of and to raise inhis faith, even when they're an
adult.
And I see that in how my fatherparents me.
And so I try to encourage that.
Not like all the time in yourface, you know, but you know,
(28:28):
slide in those little ways of,you know, hey, what did you take
up from this sermon?
Or, you know, what are you umwhat what what's the last thing
you read in your Bible?
You know, like let's talk aboutit.
Um, the other thing that Iwanted to bring up with this
question about churchcommunities is really connect
groups.
I think that having a connectgroup, especially as a family
(28:49):
that maybe is at a same lifestage as you and being able to
invest in that, even if you gettogether socially, like this
last Sunday, not yesterday, butthe um the Sunday before, one of
our Connect group leaders,Harrett Millard, was leaving
with his family.
And I said, Oh, hey, you guysgot big plans for the day.
And he said, actually, we'rehaving our Connect group over
(29:09):
tonight.
We're just kind of having asocial Christmas party.
We're just getting together andjust gonna be together.
And I was like, Okay, it's not aplan devotion.
It's not a Bible study.
You're not gonna sit down anddiscuss the sermon, but you're
investing in those relationshipsthat are surrounding you and
your kids with people that wantthe same thing and understand
(29:32):
the same God that you do.
And how does that set your kidsup for how they can seek out
relationships like that as theygrow older?
Or how do they feel buffered byhaving a safe place to talk
about Jesus, where maybe thatdoesn't feel safe at school or
on their sports team orsomething like that?
I think that's another way thatour church community can really
(29:55):
help our families.
Plus, that's time that you canspend with people that maybe is
not on screens or, you know, notin busy, it may be busyness, you
know, to plan a get together,but it's uh a good investment, I
think.
SPEAKER_01 (30:08):
That's uh what I love about what you just said
there.
Well, I loved all of it.
Um but shout out to all of ourcampuses, kids' ministry staff,
and volunteers.
You know, the the old phrase, ittakes a village, it it's it's
true.
And and so for parents, like youyou do have the primary
responsibility of spiritualdevelopment of your child child,
(30:31):
but God also, in his grace, likesurrounds you a church
community.
And I can't think of a betterway for my kids to be built up
in the faith than to have othertrusted adults who love Jesus,
love the word, and love my kids.
And like to so then it's notjust coming from one or two
sources, but it's from amultitude of sources.
(30:53):
And, you know, Dina, you workedin kids' ministry for a number
of years.
Peter, you got a kids' ministrybackground.
I think we've I think we've seenit, right?
Where maybe there's something inthe relationship with parents
where parents can only get sofar in terms of what they're
able to to to plant seeds intheir kids, but then that one
trusted relationship at churchthat just breaks through because
(31:14):
the Lord just set it up thatway.
SPEAKER_03 (31:16):
Um, it was really cool here at our Millard campus
about a week ago.
We celebrated Didi Knipe'sretirement, um, who has been in
ministry for 30 years.
And it was neat to see some ofthe families that came to visit
her that were kids that were inDee Dee's kids' ministry that
now have their own kids.
Um, and just recognizing theplace that she played in their
(31:38):
grow in their spiritualdevelopment.
Yeah.
All right.
So why is it significant thatJesus met the Samaritan woman at
Jacob's well?
And how did this story apply tothe sermon's message?
SPEAKER_01 (31:53):
Yeah, Seth, Seth tied this in so beautifully.
So if you go back to was itGenesis 35, where uh Jacob is
instructed by the Lord, uh,leave Shechem, go to Bethel, and
Shechem is the place where allof the idol worship was
happening, where family memberswere uh kind of mixing, mixing
(32:17):
gods together.
And God said, No, no, worship meand build an altar at Bethel.
And then, and then quicklyfollowed up with that is the
well that Jacob digs, and thenwe fast forward how many years
would that be, Peter?
2000?
SPEAKER_00 (32:29):
Yeah, approximately.
SPEAKER_02 (32:32):
He he has his Bible history map pulled out in front
of us right now, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:37):
Um, to John chapter four, and just that amazing
passage where Jesus meets theSamaritan woman crossing every
kind of faux pas boundary umthat you can think of in that
time.
And where does he meet her atJacob's well?
And even in the conversation,this woman asks, asks Jesus, Are
(32:58):
Are you greater than our fatherJacob?
And Jesus is it, he doesn't sayit outright, but yeah, he is the
greater Jacob because he's theone that does um ultimately
defeat all of the idols um andthen gives us the living water
that will well up to everlastinglife.
SPEAKER_00 (33:16):
And I'm and I'm like, uh read the Old Testament,
and Jacob's a stinker.
This dude is an ultimatestinker, which I appreciate
because I I think I'm in thesame camp.
Saved, saved by grace.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
All right, as we wrap up today, what are your
final takeaways from thismessage, this whole series even?
Um, so this week or this FamilyMatter series.
SPEAKER_00 (33:41):
Yeah, I would say if this series was convicting to
you, um, in in forgiveness andreconciliation with siblings,
parents, authority, um, God,that good.
Like I do I do believe that theHoly Spirit convicts.
(34:06):
I do believe that we are calledto forgive.
And when we don't forgive, itjails us.
I as Seth Pastor Seth mentioned,we're not always called to
reconcile.
Um but we do need to bereconciled with God and with
Christ.
And so if this if there ischallenges for you, go into
(34:28):
God's word and see what his wordhas to say about it.
Pray to God and say, I'm I'mchallenged with this.
Find another Christian brotheror sister to discuss it and pray
about it.
And uh these challenges, if it,if it pricks some feelings,
yeah, because there's nothingcloser to us than the people
(34:49):
that God has placed around us.
And so that's a real feeling.
Um not something to run awayfrom, but something to run
towards.
And uh, and God is there, he isfaithful, he is ever present um
in your time of exploration orchallenge or mourning and
(35:11):
desirous for you to come to him.
That's good, Peter.
SPEAKER_01 (35:14):
Uh yeah, final takeaway from me, it really is
just the the title of theseries, and and Seth kind of
landed here.
It's so simple.
But yeah, like our familiesreally do matter.
Um, and the the reason that wewould take three weeks and and
even maybe a bit of a harderlook and maybe more challenging
look is um the Bible takes thisseriously, and like this is like
(35:40):
the primary avenue for us todevelop as people and develop as
disciples to exercise kind ofthe uh the stewardship that
God's given us and his parentsand his siblings to live out the
messiness of relationships.
And so doing it God's way and asmessy as it can feel and as
imperfect as it is, um, itmatters.
(36:00):
Like your family matters, ourfamily matters.
Um, and ultimately, as we lookahead to Christmas this week,
like Jesus was born into a messyfamily.
And uh it's important.
Let's not lose sight of it.
SPEAKER_03 (36:12):
I really felt convicted by this series.
I said that before, but I reallyliked each week.
I felt that like the topics werevery easy to point your finger
at somebody else.
Oh, this is my parents' fault,this is my siblings' fault, this
is the school's fault or thesports team's fault or you know,
whatever.
Um, but I feel like in the end,each one was pointing the finger
(36:32):
back at yourself.
These are the choices that Imake and I'm responsible for.
I'm responsible for choices formy time, for my family, for my
relationship with my siblings,for my forgiveness, for my
obedience, um, you know, mysubmission, um, all of those
things.
And I really um I that I took itto heart, you know, that I
(36:54):
really needed to look at myselfand not um where my piece of the
puzzle was.
So that's I really enjoyed.
All right.
Well, thank you guys for beinghere.
We are on break next week forthe holiday.
So we will be back in 2026 withthe next um episode of our
podcast.
And until then, let's keepliving our faith beyond Sunday.
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