The Family Worship Book: A Resource Book for Family Devotions

This book is by far the best resource on Family Worship I own, it is also the best entry level book on worship I own. Another excellent resource for intermediate or advanced readers is 'Worship by the Book,' edited by D. A. Carson.With all the talk out there now about world-views that compete with the Christian world-view, its essential that Christian parents ground their family in the correct worldview, which is rooted in the truth about God. That truth begins with us (the creature) worshiping God (the Creator). Calvin and Luther understood that true reform begins with worship; that's why their first and greatest reforms were in the way the church worshipped God. We can do no better than follow the saints who have gone before us in faith.If you are a Christian parent, this book can be your friendly guide to help you lead your family in the adoration of the living God.Christian fathers: step up to the plate and be the family-leader God has called you to be. You are to train your children in the truth about God (Genesis 18.19; Deuteronomy 6.4-9; Psalm 78.1-6; Psalm 145.4) and that includes worshipping him with your family. By God's grace you can fulfill your calling. God is faithful to his covenant, so trust in what he is bringing about in your family. This resource can help you with the practical stuff, such as how to actually lead a home worship service.I use this book with my family (my wife reads the prayers and the creeds -- our children who are 4, 3, and 2 listen with all ears because the stories are so thrilling and mysterious). After the service, we re-enact the Bible story, something the kids love to do. This helps the basic message of the story take root in their young hearts.The whole family worship time lasts about half-an-hour and has knit our family more closely together. My children eagerly ask for devotions now. We do a semi-formal worship service in the morning (Call to Worship, Prayer of Approach, Creed, Hymns and Songs, Bible Story, Prayer [including adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication--but don't let the big words freak you out...it's all explained in this wonderful book], and doxology). And in the evening a more relaxed time of worship. We sing a song, continue our reading from the Children's Bible, and close with another song.Sound complicated? It's not. The book provides examples of how to do all this; it is very user-friendly. It has literally revolutionized our family devotions. I use to find it so hard to know what to do for evening devotions. This book lays it out very clearly (but isn't rigid or uptight...there's room for experimentation). It's so good that it inspired my wife and me to begin our day in worship, too. This has meant restructuring our morning--but its worth it! Starting the day in worship with the whole family has been a blessing. The songs, prayers, creed, and Bible story lives on in our memories throughout the day.By the way, the children's Bible we use is 'Bible Stories for our Little Ones' by W.G. Van De Hulst, published by Inheritance Publications. It is outstanding because it is written to be read aloud. Our kids are able to grasp the key points of the story when we ask them age-appropriate questions. We trust and pray that God blesses our efforts by way of his mercy and lovingkindness.

This is a great book for family worship

For those who are looking for a resource that they can use consistently for family worship, and don't have or expect to use anything else, this is an excellent product. Some of the resources were unnecessary in my mind though, and redundant if you already had a hymnal, a psalter, and a catechism. The first 40 or so pages explained family worship, the reasons for it, and (a) structure for it, which were helpful.The Bible reading record seemed out of place. If anything, it should be a separate sheet, detachable from the book, and not in the middle of it. At the start, it is recommended to vary the readings, and not go straight from Genesis to Revelation in sequence, but the list itself is given that way with no suggested order.I was happy to see the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and there's also the Catechism for Young Children provided. However, both of these are available in more convenient formats. The Bible memorization list wasn't a bad selection, but with 50 individual selections each with a unique topic, there wasn't any structure or organization that I could perceive to it.The historical resources section (Watts' guide to prayer, Manton's address to the readers of the Westminster Standards, and the Westminster Directory for Family Worship) was a very good section, with parts that are excellent for people today to read. The recovery of the Westminster Directory for Family Worship is especially good.The remainder of the book was Psalms and Hymns. However, only lyrics were provided, with a suggested tune name. No music was actually given. For those unfamiliar with how older metrical psalters worked, this is very off-putting, and confusing. Most of the tunes (if not all) are not copyrighted, and thus should be able to have been included. For what should be one of the more accessible parts of family worship, this makes it difficult to use without another resource that can either display or play the tune. For some of the Psalms, that is further difficult, as the tune is known only by an obscure name, and not a song/hymn which is sung to it. Since in the text it is explicitly stated that the tunes are to be found in the Trinity Hymnal and Trinity Psalter (music edition), one wonders why the lyrics are still included without the music, instead of just a list of preferred selections from those two works, or both the lyrics and music. Finally, the style of Psalter selections is unhelpful, as it is with older English style ("thee", and confusing word order). While there is nothing wrong per se with those arrangements, they are not helpful to the modern person seeking to learn Psalms and get into family worship, especially when either modernized metrical translations exist, or it is simple to modify the existing ones to make them modernized and more accessible.It has problems, and if you have other resources already, is probably not worth getting. However, if you are looking to start family worship, it is a good place. If you're looking for a one-stop-shop without needing anything else, it's also a good collection. That said, I was disappointed by the overall structure of it, as it seems it could have been better organized, or had the first several sections + the directory prepended to a short Psalter-Hymnal, and copy of the Catechisms. It appeared more like a disjoint collection of various things, instead of a harmonized and ordered whole. It is however, the only resource of its kind, and a good starting place.

Cons:The beginning of the book is not what I expected. The author opens with with driving home the idea that a Christian family must attend Sunday services. However he also repeatedly talks about how church and making Sunday the Lord's day(translate the OT Sabbath over to Sunday) will solve all of your problems. If you just show up to church without skipping any days all your problems will be solved. Maybe I have just not attended the right church but I have yet to see that play out in real life. Church attendance while good and helpful is not a magical cure all for life's troubles.Pros:That being said the actual practical part of the book about designing and applying a family worship method is very good. He breaks down daily family worship into 4 sections which cover a lot of ground while remaining fairly short. Some of the practices are rotated through so you are not memorizing or reciting the exact same thing every day.Some of the songs are Psalms and I have not yet had time to see if I can find any resources to help us learn them. The older hymns though are mostly classics but common ones. Even if you are unfamiliar with them places like YouTube have them freely available. One good thing compared to other books of this nature is that while he offers a format he does not present it as the one and only way to have family worship time.

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.