My Magdalene

March 20, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

She's almost 5.

She sits in a boaster seat now. She can so gracefully strap herself in. She adjust the air vents and opens the back window, not because its hot but because she can reach them.

She walks on her toes. Barefoot. Dressy shoes. Boots. Tennis shoes. Flip flops. It doesn't matter. Always on those toes. So eloquent as she enters a room.

She's a little ball of muscle. Twisting and turning. Flipping and climbing. and again, on her toes All The Time.

She speaks so clearly. Telling stories with such seriousness you'd think she was a tween already. Everything so intense.

She can count to 100. She can count by ones. She can count by 5s. She can count by 10s.

She can read all the letter forms of numbers up to 20. Sounding out each letter. She can identify numerous signs, symbols, and logos but the sounding out is new.

She can write her name. She can write everyone in our family's name. The can do copy work; copying letter for letter a sentence I've written for her, usually a story all her own.

She can carry on a conversation with adults and babies alike. Learning new vocabulary and teaching what's she's memorized.

Her siblings adore her. She convenes them to listen to her and they learn.. She fight with them from the back seat, guarding paper-page books against tiny fingers. She passes out breakfast and snacks.

She loves her daddy! She chats to him as soon as he walks in the door. She snuggles in his lap to read stories. She goes on dates with him.

Mags. Maggie. Magnadoodle. The sweet Magdalene Reece. My snugly, big girl, huge-hearted helper.

The growing to be a disciple of Jesus, Madgalene Reece Rothacher.

Filed Under: Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

What I want you to know about: Church Planting {and waiting….}

March 19, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

My family has been "called" to become church planters in another town.

There are so many things I'd like you to know. What is a church planter? Why do we need more churches? What all does that involve? How do you know your "called"? But first I need you to know what it's like to wait..........

We finished our youth pastor position in May of 2012 with a sign in our yard that had been there since, awaiting the swift sale of our gorgeous Victorian, 3000 sq ft, 4 bed, 4 full baths, living & family rooms, dinning & eat -in kitchen home plotted in the middle of 3 lots in an adorable neighborhood with 2 parks and tennis courts. It's January. 2013! We're still here. In our 2 story beaut'. The walls are moving further and further in on us as our 'close friends' dwindle along with our anticipation of the giant move of God in the next town we plan to plant our lives and new church.

That may sound extreme but it's where we're at. I think we are right where Satan wants us. Sad. Huge lack of enthusiasm and energy. Becoming scared. Withdrawn. Depressed. Anxious.

With so many with very little knowledge about the who's, what's, whens, wheres, and hows of Church Planting; we sit lonely. People scared to talk to us. We're "Those weird people. A little less odd than the foreign missionaries type but getting close." With lack of knowledge comes hatred; or at least lack of love. Now that I've depressed all the readers here at Rage Against the Minivan, let me show you our true personality and shed some light on me, my family, and the world of Church Planting.

My husband, Matt & I have been in full time ministry together literally since we first met in 2003. We have been married since 2004 & actively serving the Lord throughout the state of Arkansas. We've added to the Rothacher clan with 3 beautiful blessings; Magdalene (6/08), Isabella (1/10), and Benjamin (1/11) also known as Maggie, Izzie, and Jamin. We have a deep desire to see God move in and through our generation. Matt loves the Word of God and is passionate about preaching it and helping people apply it to their lives. He is particularly concerned with being someone that takes the Gospel to the ends of the earth and to be a part of the epic story that God is writing throughout the history of the world.

We are going to be instruments for a new move of God through the realm of church planting. Meaning that we are not about starting a church so much as being a catalyst for an outpouring of the Spirit of God, resulting in a new expression of the church. We are going to accomplish that by being about:
“Authentic Biblical community, Strong Biblical teaching, creating Gospel centered lifestyles, and mobilizing to reach the world."

I'm not gonna lie to ya, I don't know if I could explain church planting as concise and as well as Tim Keller so I just want to quote him:

We want to be true to THE BIBLICAL MANDATE

Jesus' essential call was to plant churches.

Paul's whole strategy was to plant urban churches.

We want to be true to THE GREAT COMMISSION.

New churches best reach a) new generations, b) new residents, and c) new people groups.

New churches best reach the unchurched.

We want to continually RENEW THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST.

First, the new churches bring new ideas to the whole Body.

Second, new churches are one of the best ways to surface creative, strong leaders for the whole Body.

Third, the new churches challenge other churches to self-examination.

Fourth, the new church may be an 'evangelistic feeder' for a whole community.

As an exercise in KINGDOM-MINDEDNESS

New church planting is the only way that we can be sure we are going to increase the number of believers in a city and one of the best ways to renew the whole Body of Christ. The evidence for this statement is strong--Biblically, sociologically, and historically. In the end, a lack of kingdom-mindedness may simply blind us to all this evidence. We must beware of that.

Find the entire resource at Why Plant Churches.

Thanks for reading. I pray that now that you know about church planting you can better support those starting a church, educate those ragging new plants, or possibly be inspired to be a part of a new church plant! We're all one body with the same goal in mind: Share Christ!

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You can download and listen to my interview on our plant HERE or just head on over to The Valley site. Of course The Valley is on Twitter and Facebook as well!

Filed Under: The DeChurched, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

The Adventure That IS The Christian Life.

March 18, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

I showed up two days late. I was wearing a t-shirt with a giant tweety bird on the front of it with matching tweety bird print cotton shorts that were very possibly viewed as pajama shorts. Not exactly how you should probably start out junior high.

That first day was hard to say the least. All my peers {including familiar friends from elementary school, had already worked out some of those first day hiccups. I was just now experiencing them. I’m not sure if it was while I sat next to the kids with a mustache who’d already done his share of 7^th grade…a couple times, or if it was sitting among a huge classroom full of nothing but other 7^th grade girls. They all seemed to know exactly who they were, or at least who they wanted to be. Confidence oozed whither they were strut’n a ‘stache or rock’n a new do while singing. {as much as a 7^th grader can really strut and rock in their lankiness- but I didn’t know that then}

Not me. Sitting in my cartoon-clad, cotton monstrosity, I was very aware that I didn’t even have enough confidence in who I was to tell my grandmother, while birthday clothes shopping, I was sorta…fading out of my Tweety phase.

As I trudged through 7^th grade I tried to find myself; not only in my new found fashion sense {or at least awareness} but in the, I’m-now-a-Christ-follower sense.

God’s timing is so perfect. What an amazing time to have found Christ- Old enough to understand larger concepts of lordship but not so set too much in my selfish this-is-who-I-am personality that I was still moldable.

After my backseat conversion, realized I couldn’t just live as an ‘undercover’ Christian. God has set me apart. There is no way for me to blend in; fly under the radar; be just like everyone else ever again. Working my way through junior high as well as high school, I joined every Christian group I could find trying to be apart of the greater story I wanted to be a part of so desperately.

Now, there is nothing wrong with Christian clubs and organizations but somehow this way of organizing my ‘faith’ wasn’t as extreme as I dreamed. It seemed to help me compartmentalize God in a separate box from everything else in my life. It wasn’t as unmistakable as the Bible described. I was gaining much-needed discipline in my life but not living the adventure that is the Christian life.

Awe, poor junior high, just another part of God drawing me closer to him.

Filed Under: Testimony, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Activities for Littles & Winter Sanity {Thoughtful Thursday}

March 14, 2013 by Jules 1 Comment

I know its supposed to be turning spring...really! Any day now. But if you live in Arkansas or any state with bipolar weather like AR then you know you're gonna need some tricks up your sleeve this month {and maybe next month as well} for those days when the brisk wind is more like ice daggers. Today I wanna share 3 silly things my kids love that cost little to nothing and entertained them for quite a while.

Pipe Cleaner Art

I had some construction paper, pipe cleaners, and {glitter} glue already in our craft supplies. My 4.5-year-old just went at it! Twisting and gluing. My 3-year-old was having a little more trouble. I ended up cutting lots of different colored pipe cleaners into tiny pieces. Then she told me what picture she wanted to make. I sketched the picture she described with a marker then I helped her outline the sketch with the glue, adding different colors to each part of the picture. They both really enjoyed it!

Indoor Water Play

You may remember we recently went to an awesome indoor playground called the Wonder Place. It was filled with numerous educational centers to play in, one of which being the giant water table. My kids spent the majority of our visit there. This reassured me that my plan to make a homemade outdoor water table for this summer was definitely gonna be worth it! BUT seeing as how we are still in transition and the weather is not exactly conducive to wet outdoor play, we modified our water play.

I filled our kitchen sink with warm water and dish soap. Simply giving them a few "tool" {strainer, spoon, fork, whisk, different sized cups & bowls, grater, etc} to do "experiments" with kept them more than busy.

I wasn't quite comfortable with my 2-year-old standing on a chair, step, or sharing the bench with his sisters for a prolonged period of time...there may or may not have been shoving involved. I chose to give him his own small tray of water with soap, and some safer tools on top of a drop clothe. #winning

Playdough Art

My kids all three love Playdough, like most kids. They do seem to get bored with the same ol' roll, smash, etc. They haven't quite mastered the molding concept yet. Soooo, I have saved a silly amount of cardboard circles from frozen pizza and we decided to use them in our playdough-play. We made, pizzas, faces, several other meals, and lots of "imaginary" things...

Once I got them going on these activities and gave general 'rules', they played interdependent very nicely. Giving them a "new game" seems to help them play well together as well as stay focused for a little longer.

Hope these help spark some ideas in these last few weeks of wacky weather and indoor boredom!

Filed Under: Homeschool, Parenting, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home, Thoughtful Thursdays

Backseat Conversion

February 27, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

12 years old and sitting in the backseat of my mamma’s fashionable station wagon, we pulled away from the church building that Sunday morning. I don’t remember what the details of the conversation where but somehow I ended up making the statement, “Well…I’m a Christian…” Without skipping a beat my mom responded, “Says who? You haven’t ever told anyone that.” I’m pretty sure there may or may not have been a reference to the whole, “deny me I’ll deny you” passage but I can’t be certain. And thus began my journey in knowing God.

You see, since the beginning of time…or at least the beginning of me, my family has always attended church. I heard all the great stories of the bible {G rated of course}, could sing the songs, and knew tons about God. I totally knew there was a God. I was too smart to think this all came about because a big mass of nothing exploded. My theory was, “I’ll just act like everyone else so they’ll see you don’t have to change anything to become a Christian.” How right and wrong that theory was all at the same time.

Yes, there is nothing you can change about your life, do better, or stop doing to earn the gift Jesus has given us but at the same time, when His spirit moves in...you are never the same again.
{that's another post for another time 😉 }

I chewed on my mom's truthful blunt statement for a while. Thinking. Seeking. Struggling. Yep...there needs to be a change in my life.

It's funny how God knows His intentions amidst your life, even before you fully commit to Him. He's just that good. I can just picture...

God's like a first time daddy holding his baby girl. She has no way of knowing the depth of love he already has for her. He enjoys rocking her. Protecting her. Guiding her heart. He dreams of what he'll teach her. The silly conversations they'll have. Watching her grow up and fall in love only to meet a guy that would love her as much as he does.

God's like a boyfriend holding an engagement ring the moment he met his love and waiting to give it to her until she finally realized they're meant to be. He dreaming about all the fun we're going to have. Deep, hard, emotional conversations that are to come. How we'll grow to be one.

God loves me so much that He wants to allow me to be a part of and used in HIS story. {swoon} Christ is my only hope and because of that, I wanted to serve Him the rest of my life.

The next year, I sat on an outside stair case reading my bible. I was falling more and more with my new daddy & the love of my life. Nothing would ever be the same. That day, I clearly felt God tell me I was gonna be a pastor's wife. I was totally cool with that. I had no idea what that meant but I was cool with that. And for some odd reason I prayed that we would be poor. LOL Maybe I thought that would keep me from being materialistic or maybe I just thought "poor" just came with being a "pastor's" wife. I digress...

Again, He knows me so well! All our relationship He seems to have given me hints of what was to come. Being the control freak that I am, I think He tries to ease my stress by letting me in on things slowly.

That backseat conversion was just the beginning of the crazy cool adventure God was planning on taking me on!