Family Worship: Selecting a Text

Let's say that you want to begin leading your family in consistent worship in the home. You recognize your responsibility to be the spiritual leader in the home. You want your children to know the Lord and His Word. You feel like church once a week is not a sufficient spiritual diet for your family. You are convinced that family worship should be a priority. Now what? Where do you begin? 

Perhaps you go online. You go to Amazon or christianbook.com and search something like "family devotions". What will you find? Options, hundreds of options, too many options. You also have to consider if this is from a reliable source. Is this a writer that you can trust and how much is this going to benefit your family? Is this just a collection of sentimental stories or will it actually help your family understand God's Word? 

I won't say there is necessarily anything wrong with using devotional materials written by others. But I will say that the best way to bring your children closer to the Lord and His Word, is to simply read them His Word. Read it to them. Read it aloud. Let them hear God speak. Why do I say this? Because as the Second Helvetic Confession states so clearly, "For God himself spoke to the fathers, prophets, apostles, and still speaks to us through the Holy Scriptures" (emphasis mine). This is simply a doctrinal conviction borne out of submission to Scripture. How does the Bible describe it's own effectiveness? 

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The Bible teaches. The Bible reproves and corrects. The Bible trains in righteousness. All the things you want to see happen in the life of your family are found in the Book. Take it up and read. 

This still leaves the question of what to read. You don't want to do the proverbial flip and dip where you let the Bible fall open where it may and read a couple of verses. How can you best serve your family through the reading of God's Word as a part of family worship? Here are five tips for selecting a text for family worship.

1. Pick a translation that works for your family. Don't restrict your family to one translation necessarily. You may have a preferred translation for reading and study. Or maybe your church has a common translation for their pew Bible. Those are good, but pick something that is good for your family. If your children are older, go for a more literal translation like the ESV or NASB. If they are a little younger go for something like the NIV, NET, or HCSB. These are all good translations. Pick one that is good for your family. That said, set the bar high. Don't read them a children's Bible which is a paraphrase. Read them the actual words of God. They pick up more than you might think. 
2. Start with narrative and work up to didactic. With kids it is good to spend the majority of your reading time in a narrative text. Pick something that tells a story. Something that has characters, a plot line, tension, and resolution. Go back to the beginning with the book of Genesis. Recount the great working of the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles. Or maybe take a desert tour in the book of Exodus. Start with narrative and you will hold your family's attention as they listen to the greatest story ever told; the story of God's redemptive work. As your kids grow older you can begin incorporating didactic texts; that is, texts that teach, books like the epistles. Having read through the historical accounts of God's redemptive work, they will be better suited to understand the theological implications and applications of that great redemption. 
3. Alternate between Old  Testament and New Testament. Your goal is to expose your children to the breadth and depth of God's word. Read through a book in the Pentateuch. Then, read through one of the gospels. As you alternate between the two testaments, you maintain a healthy variety. At the same time, you also begin to show your family the vast panorama of Scripture. 
4. Read a Psalm. Or two. After reading a chapter of narrative, end your reading with a psalm. Your kids might not grasp every poetic nuance. They might not identify with the voice of the psalmist. But they will begin to hear the glory of biblical praise to a wondrous God. You might have to read slowly and explain a few words, but it is worth it. 
5. Read a proverb. Perhaps last night you read a psalm after your main narrative chapter. This evening, read a pithy wisdom statement from the book of Proverbs. That is all you need, one proverb, one verse. Then explain it to them. You can make a big impact in your children's lives by simply explaining in bite-size pieces how to skillfully live the godly life. 

Selecting a text is the first and foundational step to beginning family worship. The benefit of selecting Scripture is you can read, pray, and trust God to do His work in the hearts of your family. 

How about you? Do you have anything you have found helpful for selecting a text? Let me know in the comments. And come back next time as I discuss how to read.

Family Worship: An Introduction

Last year my dad gave each of his children a copy of Don Whitney's Family Worship. It sat on my shelf for a few months and then made its way into my reading stack. 

Whitney has done the church a service in penning this little book. And little it is. At a mere 80 pages of 5x7 goodness, you should be able to read it through in one sitting. Some books of similar dimension are better suited to skimming. But Family Worship gave me cause to stop and evaluate.

This wasn't the first time that I had thought about family worship. We had made attempts in the past but consistency was elusive. Now, as I looked at my own spiritual leadership of my family I was convicted. Part of my problem was having unrealistic expectations. I kind of had this idea in my mind of a perfect "family worship" service. Imagine a mini church service. I also had set unrealistic expectations for what my kids could and could not handle. In one sense, they could handle more than I thought (more on that to come). Finally, I wasn't operating from conviction. In the past, I thought family worship was optional, a kind of add-on for super godly families. Whitney helped me see that consistent family worship should be the norm for all Christian families in the church.

The other motivator for me was that as a pastor, I want to be able to model godly leadership in the home. Family worship is an essential part of leadership in the home. I had some work to do.

The good news is for the last several months we have had regular, simple, uplifting family worship. And I would urge you to look at beginning this vital practice yourself. To that end I want to share some of the things I have learned about leading family worship and offer some practical advice on how you can do the same.

A good place to start would be picking up Donald Whitney's Family Worship. You can find it here. Tomorrow, I will look at selecting a text for family worship. Stay tuned.

Have any thoughts or tips you have found helpful for leading family worship? Let me know in the comments.

Leadership Lessons: Stonewall Jackson

As someone who has been called to minister in the local church, leadership is something I think about often. As a pastor, I am called to lead the congregation entrusted to my care. This includes setting direction for the church, directing the execution of the church's mission, modeling a godly life, and developing other leaders to continue the work of the ministry. Leadership is something I regularly study, read, think, and write about (so far that is just scribbles in my notebook). Leadership is something that I am passionate about. Leadership matters.

And the Scriptures have a lot to say about leadership. The Bible directs, instructs, and informs leaders. It also provides powerful models of leadership , both failed and successful.

But sometimes it is also helpful to draw leadership principles from other great men of the past. Great men of history provide a unique opportunity for studying leadership, both good and bad. We can look back and see where leaders came from, what molded them, what difficulties they faced, and how they led in the face of momentous challenges. We can look back and see where their decisions led. We can evaluate their accomplishments and failures and consider how we should lead in light of this.

Recently, I read Robert E. Lee: A Biography by Emory M. Thomas. Much could be said about Lee's leadership. But I was especially  intrigued to read about the bravery, conviction, and leadership of another great Confederate; perhaps the greatest subordinate to Lee, and in many ways Lee's superior, none other than Stonewall Jackson.

With my interest in Jackson piqued, I was excited to find a newer biography on Stonewall at my local public library, Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by S.C. Gwynne.

I started reading this biography last week and it has been hard to put down. Gwynne is a superb biographer and talented writer. He makes the days surrounding the Civil War come alive.

As I started reading about Jackson being thrust into leadership from relative anonymity, I found myself noting pages repeatedly (don't worry, in Evernote not on the pages). Jackson is a powerful example of great leadership. As Gwynne walks you through the dusty lanes of northern Virginia and the fiery baptism of those first battles, Jackson's leadership marches to the forefront.

While he was not perfect - and he would agree with that statement - Jackson was truly a great leader among men. He offers valuable lessons in leadership, timeless principles that need to be applied in our tumultuous times as well. So as I read Rebel Yell, I plan to post some brief summaries of leadership principles drawn from the life of this greatest of Southerners. I hope you will profit from it as much as I.