Tomorrow night we will be hosting a family worship seminar at Ephesus Church. I have worked closely with Steve Thomas, our pastor of family ministries, to develop a seminar that we believe will be very helpful to all who are in attendance. I will be preaching a sermon entitled “Deuteronomy 6: The Foundation of Family Worship.” Steve is preaching under the title “Ephesians 6: Individual Roles in Family Worship.” After that, we have 4 other men from the church with different sizes and ages within their families that conduct worship in their homes on a daily basis. Each man will discuss what he does with his family and how they avoid getting bogged down, and how their worship time has changed with the advancement of their children in age and understanding. We will have a time for discussion/Q&A and I will share several resources with the families that they can purchase and use.
I am very excited about what we have planned and hope to have a large turnout. I keep imagining what it would be like if even 10 more families at Ephesus Church began to engage in daily family worship — I believe that God would bless those efforts greatly and we’d see an amazing work of the Holy Spirit being done throughout the congregation. I will write a follow-up post to give the details of what our men had to say. Below I have listed the various books and websites that I am recommending our families purchase or look-up (the website list was compiled by InQuest Ministries).
Bibles
The Big Picture Story Bible, David Helm $15.17
ESV Children’s Bible $14.84
The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd-Jones $11.04
Verse Memory
Fighter Verses (ESV), Desiring God $12.00
Fighter Verse Review CDs (ESV), Desiring God $15.00
Foundation Verses (ESV), Children Desiring God $5.00
Fighter Verse Kit (ESV) (Fighter Verses, Review CDs, and Foundation Verses), CDG $25.00
Story Books
Most of All, Jesus Loves You!, Noel Piper $8.39
John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Retold by Gary Schmidt $14.30
Reformation Heroes, Diana Kleyn and Joel Beeke $17.00
Books for Family Worship Leaders
The Family Worship Book, Terry Johnson $13.59
Raising Children God’s Way, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones $7.70
Praying for the Next Generation, Sally Michael $4.00
Devotional Guides and Worship Helps
My 1st Book of Questions and Answers, Carine Mackenzie $2.48
Truth and Grace Memory Book 1 (Age 2 – 4th Grade), Tom Ascol $5.95
Truth and Grace Memory Book 2 (Grades 5 – 8 ), Tom Ascol $5.95
Truth and Grace Memory Book 3 (Grades 9 – 12), Tom Ascol $5.95
Lord, Teach Us to Pray: Family Devotional Guide, Sally Michael $9.50
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith: Family Devotional Guide, Sally Michael $9.50
Hymns for a Kid’s Heart Vol. 1, Bobbie Wolgemuth and Joni Eareckson Tada $14.29
Hymns for a Kid’s Heart Vol. 2, Bobbie Wolgemuth and Joni Eareckson Tada $14.29
Web Resources
Jim Heiser – 16 part series in both audio (mp3) and written (pdf) format addressing various topics families face, including emotional and sexual relations, parenting, pornography, family worship, education and more.
Directory of Family Worship (1647)
Act for observing the Directions of the General Assembly for secret and private Worship, and mutual Edification; and censuring such as neglect Family-worship.
Westminster Assembly Supplemental Document
A.W. Pink
A Brief History of Biblical Family Worship
Kerry Ptacek
The Daily Exercise of God’s Most Holy and Sacred Word
John Knox on Family Worship (1557)
Family and Government in Puritan New England
Kerry Ptacek (1620-1637) – The article introduces the 17th century New England Puritan view of covenant headship and its effect on their practice of family worship.
The Directory of Family Worship
Assembly at Edinburgh (1647)
Getting Started: The Biblical Elements of Family Worship
Kerry Ptacek
Joel R. Beeke
Leading Your Family in Worship
Presbyterian Church of America
Fathers Leading Family Worship
J.W. Alexander
The History, Nature and Warrant for Family Worship
J.W. Alexander
Motives for Family Worship – As For Me and My House
J. Merle D’Aubigne (1794-1872)
Donald Whitney
Filed under: Teaching, conference, discipleship, family, worship
I just wanted to say thanks, Ya’ll put in a lot of time, effort and work, and I for one learned a lot. Thanks for all you do and thanks to the guys that got up on stage and got real…
Hey Nick, looking forward to hearing about your conference. I’d like to use your list of recommended devotional materials on my blog when I get to discussing available resources in my current series on parents teaching devotions at home. There’s quite a few there I’d like to check out myself. Anxious to hear how it went.
[...] Worship Seminar :: Follow-Up Last week I wrote about the family worship seminar that we were holding at Ephesus Church — it’s over, [...]
Jessica — thanks. Glad you were there.
Deb — Feel free to use the list – some good stuff on here. I posted my notes from the seminar in a new post – check it out!