Customer Reviews

The Family Worship Book: A Resource Book for Family Devotions

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The two hardest things about family worship are getting started and getting started. On the one hand I had a desire to lead my family in studying God's Word and helping us all to store it up in our hearts, but it is difficult with busy and erratic schedules to know when to do it. Combine that with the fact that there is very little precedent for actually leading it or knowing how to lead it and you have a recipe for never getting going. I knew that it was something that needed to be done so I set a date when we would get started and then began my hunt for resources that would help me know exactly what I should do in leading this time. I did a bit of research and found this book. After taking a look and reading some reviews I decided to order it, and am I glad that I did.

This book is a great resource for anyone wishing to start family worship or for anyone who is already leading but feels that there could be more to it. The book gives a good introduction to the what and why of family worship (which I, frankly, skimmed since I didn't need any convincing). The author then dives into the meat of the book; how to lead and what this time should consist of. The book includes several hymns and selections from the psalter (sans music, although it does give suggested tunes for all the songs). There are also several other resources including creeds and confession, suggested Bible reading timelines, the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms, articles on prayer and many other great resources for leading worship. I have found this book to be truly indispensable as we have begun this endeavor.

My wife bought me this book, and I couldn't have picked a better book for our entire family. Terry L. Johnson does a wonderful job of giving the case for family worship and then gives practical advice on how to perform it. The most important advice that he gives is, "Just do it." He includes numerous resources in planning daily worship times with your family from the "Call to Worship" to the "Benediction." It includes hymns and the complete psalter, but if you do not know music (like my wife and me), then you might want to buy a CD that has the music. It also includes a Bible Reading Record and Memorization helps along with the Shorter Catechism and the Apostle's and Niceane Creeds for you and your children to memorize.

Family worship was very new to us, especially with very small children. We were struggling to find a resource that could help us in figuring out if we were "doing it right." The one thing that I realized most of all that doing it is much better than waiting to do it right. However, having this resource helps those of us that hate to step out without the safety net.

If you are a Christian and you have children, you should be doing daily family devotions. If you are a Christian father, you should be leading your family in daily worship. However, many people don't know how to begin to do it. We bought this book to help us and it has been very helpful. We practice family worship every night of the week and this resource has been invaluable in keeping our children involved and interested. The results we have seen are awesome. Our girls are learning the Bible, Christian doctrine, the creeds, and are practicing to sit through Church and participate in the service instead of squirming all over because they are bored. Plus, they are learning the daily pattern of walking with Christ, which is more valuable than anything you could give your children. I highly recommend this to Christian parents. Start worshipping together as a family, this book can help you get started.

As a husband and father, it is my responsibility to lead my family in worship. I am to shepherd and teach them as one who will have to give an account. This is a duty I do not want to take lightly!

Unfortunately, I haven't done a great job of this so far. The biggest reason? I didn't know how; or at least I thought I didn't know how. The reality, though, is that I just hadn't tried. The first step is the hardest.

That's why I'm so grateful for this book. While there is a short section at the beginning that outlines the Scriptural reasons why men should lead their families in worship -- and everything in this section is solid -- I didn't really need to be convinced of that. I already knew what I should be doing. (However, it's worth pointing out that Johnson is quite clear that our #1 responsibility is to have our families committed to and involved with the covenant community in a local church; a point much appreciated.)

The most helpful parts of the book are the practical considerations. How are we to structure family worship time? What is included? When during the day should we do it, and how often? Johnson lays out suggested elements of family worship time (singing, prayer, confession of faith, teaching, etc) as well as an outline for family worship. These chapters are especially useful for a guy like me, who has a lot of trouble moving from the theoretical to the practical; how to get beyond simply having a good idea and start putting it into practice. Perhaps one day I'll be confident and competent enough to come up with my own order of worship for my family, but in the meantime having an outline (which, thanks to the vast amount of resources in this book, is almost infinitely variable) will make it easy to take that first step, and to commit to regular, daily family worship for long enough that it becomes a permanent part of our family culture.

In addition to the "how to" chapters, the book also includes plenty of "what to" resources. Among these resources are a family reading record (which has a suggested reading schedule omitting a number of chapters that are "ill-suited to family worship due to their contents or repetition"); two catechisms (the Catechism for Young Children and the Westminster Shorter Catechism); 50 suggested passages for Bible memorization; several historical writings on family worship; and a family hymnbook/psalter containing 60 hymns and 60 psalms for singing together. The reading plan and the hymnbook/psalter both come with a ten year teaching schedule to help make sure that families are able to benefit from the full counsel of Scripture and a wide variety of songs for worship over the long-haul.

This is a book that is sure to find a prominent place on our family bookshelf for years to come.

Family worship is an essential fount by which a family grows closer to the Lord and one another. In "Family Worship" Terry L. Johnson provides a very helpful and potent resource deigned to assist families in forming and organizating daily family devotions. The Puritans believed that family worship was a chief imperative as historian Edmund Morgan: "If the family failed to teach its members properly, neither the state nor the church could be expected to accomplish much" (Edmund S. Morgan, The Puritan Family). He added: "Every morning immediately upon rising and every evening before retiring a good Puritan father led his household in prayer, in scriptural reading, and in singing of Psalms."

Many Christian do not understand that Christian families should have daily devotions; we must aim to have family worship times that help our children and spouses learn God's word, worship the Lord, and memorize Bible doctrines.

It is well to remember the great command that the Lord God declared:

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in your heart: and thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up" (Deut. 6:4-7).
The Puritan family aimed not only to be a miniature church but a miniature school, and a small commonwealth. One historian added: "The family was regarded as a religious society with the obligations of group Scripture reading, prayer, and catechizing... Within the family the husband was without question the master. He was prince and teacher, pastor and judge in his household" (Francis J. Bremer, The Puritan Experiment).

The first pioneers of Salem affirmed a solemn covenant in 1629: "Promising also unto our best ability to teach our children and servants the knowledge of God, and of His Will, that they may serve Him also" (Cited in Cotton Mather, The Great Works of Christ in America). Cotton Mather recounts: "It was his manner to rise early, even before day, to enjoy the devotion of his closet; after which he spent considerable time in reading, and opening, and applying the word of God unto his family" (Mather, Vol. I.).

Yes with Cable, DVDs, Wii, the internet, etc. there are countless distractions that take a family away from that which truly matters. Yet the Puritans focused on Family worship: Mather observes of that Eaton daily called "his family together, he would then read a portion of Scripture among them, and after some devout and useful reflections upon it, he would make a prayer, not long, but extraordinarily pertinent and reverent; and in the evening some of the same exercises were again attended" (Mather, Vol. I.).

The Lord God is the center of our devotion in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. In Exodus 20:2-3, God says, "I am the LORD your God .....You shall have no other gods before me." In Matthew 4:10, Jesus says, "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only." So, worship is not just a delight, it's a command from God.
Psalm 96:9 says, "Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth." Psalm 29:2 says, "Give unto the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."

A.W. Tozer said, "Without worship, we go about miserable." To love God and teach our families to do so stirs the heart towards God and one another.

This volume is a wonderful tool for the parent aiming to start family worship. Johnson instructs the reader How To:

- lead a family worship time
- sing hymns and he provides some selections from the Psalter
- include the confession and Bible reading
- memorize the Westminster Catechisms
- pray together

Proverbs 6:20-22 My son, keep your father's command:

And do not forsake the law of your mother.
21 Bind them continually upon your heart;
Tie them around your neck.
22 When you roam, they[b] will lead you;
When you sleep, they will keep you;
And when you awake, they will speak with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp,
And the law a light;
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life.

If you are a Christian parent and you have not started family worship time, this is a powerful and practical resource for you. As a pastor and father I heartily recommend it.

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For anyone wanting to lead their family in worship of God, this is an excellent resource. It gives you a good understanding of what is involved in worship and provides nearly all the resources (catechism, Bible suggestions, songs, etc.) you would need to start having family worship in a day or two. Very practical and gives examples. Loving leading my family in worship almost daily now. All it takes is 15 minutes and will make a huge impact on your family. Glory to God!

Really enjoying this resource. It's answered many of our questions and opened many opportunities to.have discussions about worship with others we respect. Book came promptly and in good condition

I ordered this book as a basic primer for my children when we have family worship time at home. It covers all of the basics and we have gotten much use from it.

This book is somewhat helpful in giving some practical guidelines for organizing family worship time, and I certainly aprreciate the authors heart on the matter, because we do need to get back to family centered worship. However, the methods and examples that the book offers are somewhat rigid and boring. This may be approptiate for older children or families that are used to a very traditional style of worship, but the old hymns, most of which I don't even know the tune to, and reciting of the apostle's creed won't keep my four and one year old's attention for very long. I guess I was hoping for something that would offer some varying ideas for creating a meaningful family devotional experiance, and this book really only offers a strictly traditional one. I did, however, enjoy the metered Psalms that are included, but again my young children didn't really understand them so their attention was lost. I understand that the author wanted to convey a need for communicating to our families the historic doctrines of our faith, ones which have been lost in many of our contemporary churches, but I think there are more flexible and engaging ways that this could be done other than reciting creeds and confessions. I guess overall I was dissapointed with this book and would only cautiously reccomend it to you.