Check out this previous post for more reading.
When it comes to the discipleship of children, the Scriptures are clear that parents bear the primary responsibility. When it comes to the equipping of believers for this good and necessary work, the Scriptures are clear that the church bears the primary responsibility.
We are here to assist you as parents in this work, and each week on this blog you'll find a family worship guide that ties together thoughts from the previous sermon, the coming sermon, the music we'll sing together, and a catechism question that you can visit and re-visit during the week.
In light of the shock to our schedules brought about by the COVID-19 situation, we want to bring family worship and discipleship to the forefront as the church has been unable to meet corporately and it is even more important for families to be in the word together.
It is our hope that the circumstances of forced social distancing, school closings, and extracurricular cancellations will serve to aid our families in starting new habits of daily time together in the word and in worship. This is not a complicated or difficult undertaking, but it takes discipline, patience, and repetition.
The purpose of this post is to give a brief reminder of what to shoot for in family worship, as well as direct you to some free online resources from publishers we use already in our children's ministry should you want to do more at home.
Breaking Down Family Worship/Devotions: YOU CAN DO ALL OF THIS IN 10-15 MINUTES.
Keep it simple. Think: read, pray, sing.
READ: Pick a passage from the Bible. Keep it short, especially if you have younger kids. Incorporate what you are already reading on your own and share you insights. Read it out loud. Take a minute to explain and discuss it.
PRAY: Lead your family in prayer in response to what you read and encourage any who want to pray also. Share specific prayer requests and pray for them out loud together.
SING: We don't want the songs we sing each week to be new to anyone. They are posted ahead of time for your and your family's benefit. Go to the blog early in the week each week for YouTube links to what we're singing. Sing 1, 2, or all of them as part of your time together.
Other resources:
While the church is unable to meet and our children's activities are on hold, lots of publishers of kids' content are making things available for free. Since our 2 primary curriculum providers are LifeWay (Gospel Project for Kids***) and WMU (Kids on Mission), here are links to what they are giving away should you want to make use of them.
***Lifeway has given temporary permission for churches to provide activity pages from our materials. You may contact me directly if you want this.