D-Ship 2.1

Family Worship

Here are some resources for you guys to peruse and get some great ideas from. The Catechism is basically a confession of faith. Most everything that we believe was articulated in a Catechism. I have met tons of people who catechize their families (sounds scary, huh). This involves memorizing the questions and the answers contained in the Catechism along with the Bible Verses that go with them. In the last 2 years, I have spoken to lots of people who are doing this with their families. They have told me about how this has brought their families together, and it has lengthened the attention span of their children who have ranged from 2-17 years old.

I asked several questions in regards to this when I speak to these people.

How did it work with your young kids?
-"Sometimes it is difficult, but since we started at a young age with our first one, when the other kids were born and get older, they are used to that set time, and they also want to be like their older siblings, so they usually stay in line."

How about when they were older with all the time consuming things that kids do?
-They have said that since this has always been in the family, when the kids got older, it was just a part of life. They also made the point that they had to live a life dedicated to expanding the kingdom of God by obedience to His scripture and Spirit. Soccer practice didn't interfere with this, nor plays, homework, TV, Church things or whatever activity. (Hardcore huh?)


Website By Donald Whitney, Look for the part that says Family Worship
http://www.spiritualdisciplines.org/articles.html#fworship

Website: By John Piper
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/104/

Website: Baptist Catechism Adapted to Modern English
http://www.corefellowship.net/catechism.htm

Website: With the Westminster Shorter Catechisms
http://bible.crosswalk.com/History/AD/CreedsandConfessions/Catechisms/TheWestminsterCatechism_Shorter.html

Website: By Brandon Porter Family Care Pastor at Living Hope Baptist Church
http://www.covenantlifetoday.org/2006/04/online_library.php

Website: Bible Reading Plans for a year
http://www.bibleplan.org/

Resource: A Bible companion that is rich with Biblical insights and life application (Living Hope Baptist Church is as a Church reading book 1 together for the year.)
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=48154&event=CF

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=48162&netp_id=449397&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW

Some other Ideas,

A basic Study time can be from something just as simple as reading a passage in the Bible together, to having a full out Family worship time.

Basic Bible reading: Start with a time of prayer, pray for: 1. Family (immediate, and extended) 2. Friends 3. Lost persons 4. Missions 5. Country and officials.
After a time of prayer, read a Bible passage together and talk about what it means. This is where something like a study Bible with concise commentary would be helpful, but better yet, get the "For the Love of God" book Vol I, II.. The link above will take you to a place to buy it. Then end the time with prayer.

Worship service: Start the same with prayer as seen above, and then move to a time of singing or reading a Psalm together. Read a passage or chapter from the Bible, and talk about what it means. End it with a time of prayer and reflection on what has been read.

If you decide to do a Catechism, read the question and then the response, and then do it again, but have the family respond with question from the answer you have previously read. Then, go to the verses associated with the questions, and look at what it says and how the writer of the catechism came to the question.

Know that you can incorporate any and all of these things into your family worship time. This can be done with a family of Mom Dad and kids, or something that singles do by themselves or with a friend on a consistent basis. It can be done between brothers and sisters whose parents do not come to Church, or are not interested, or with a single mom or dad and the kids. These ideas are not set in stone on a method for family worship, but the bottom line is WE NEED TO DO IT.

Next post will be about mentoring someone else. Mentoring is an extremely important thing that is not done very much at all. 2 Timothy 2 is what we are going to endeavour to do.