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Pillar Journal

Book of the Month for February 2024

Would we see revival among our children? Let us remember that God often uses the restoration of family worship to usher in church revival.
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Beeke’s Book of the Month for February 2024 is Family Worship by Dr. Joel Beeke. Enjoy this brief excerpt from the first chapter to learn why family worship is the foundation of biblical parenting. (Note: All of the references in this article are properly footnoted in the full text of Family Worship.)

“Every church desires growth. Surprisingly few churches, however, seek to promote internal church growth by stressing the need to raise children in covenantal truth. Few seriously grapple with why many adolescents become nominal members with mere notional faith or abandon evangelical truth for unbiblical doctrine and modes of worship.

I believe one major reason for this failure is the lack of stress upon family worship. In many churches and homes, family worship is an optional thing, or at most, a superficial exercise such as a brief table grace before meals. Consequently, many children grow up with no experience or impression of Christian faith and worship as a daily reality. When my parents commemorated their fiftieth anniversary, all five of us children decided to express thanks to our father and mother for one thing without consulting each other.

Remarkably, all five of us thanked our mother for her prayers, and all five of us thanked our father for his leadership of our Sunday evening family worship. My brother said, “Dad, the oldest memory I have is of tears streaming down your face as you taught us from Pilgrim’s Progress on Sunday evenings how the Holy Spirit leads believers. At the age of three, God used you in family worship to convict me that Christianity was real. No matter how far I went astray in later years, I could never seriously question the reality of Christianity, and I want to thank you for that.”

Would we see revival among our children? Let us remember that God often uses the restoration of family worship to usher in church revival. For example, the 1677 church covenant of the Puritan congregation in Dorchester, Massachusetts, included the commitment “to reform our families, engaging ourselves to a conscientious care to set before us and to maintain the worship of God in them; and to walk in our houses with perfect hearts in a faithful discharge of all domestic duties, educating, instructing, and charging our children and households to keep the ways of the Lord.”

As goes the home, so goes the church, so goes the nation. Family worship is a most decisive factor in how the home goes.

Family worship is not the only factor, of course. Family worship is not a substitute for other parental duties. Family worship without parental example is futile. Spontaneous teaching that arises throughout a typical day is crucial, yet set times of family worship are also important. Family worship is the foundation of biblical child-rearing.

In this booklet, we will examine family worship under five headings: (1) theological foundations, (2) duty; (3) implementation; (4) objections; (5) motivation.”

—Joel R. Beeke

Family Worship (Beeke) (2848 in Stock)

MSRP: $6.00 $4.50

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Dr. Beeke offers a heartfelt and solemn plea for families to return to Biblical, consistent and passionate family worship.

With pastoral insight and care the author provides practical and valuable answers to the practice of family worship and at the same time addresses objections raised against it. In a world of impossible standards and idealism, this book is a helpful and motivating guide to implement or increase the depth of your family devotions.

Read Sample Pages

 

Table of Contents:

1. Theological Foundations of Family Worship

2. The Duty of Family Worship

3. Implementing Family Worship

4. Objections Against Family Worship

5. Motivations for Family Worship

Appendix 1: The Directory for Family Worship

Appendix 2: John Paton Leaving Home

 

Series Description 

The church must maintain the divinely ordered role of the family to establish a godly heritage. In the Family Guidance series, Dr. Joel R. Beeke offers pastoral insight and biblical direction for building strong Christian families.

 

Author 

Joel R. Beeke (PhD, Westminster Seminary) is president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; a pastor of the Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan; editor of Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth; editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books; and a prolific author.

 

Endorsements

“I strongly recommend a reading of this booklet, especially by parents who are here given a warm and convincing case for the value of family worship to their children and indeed for all the household.” —Rev. Maurice Roberts

Dr. Joel R. Beeke has given us a gold mine of seasoned counsel for this grossly neglected duty in modern-day Reformation. If heeded, these clear and practical directives will play a vital role in building not only happier Christian homes, but also, healthier churches—churches that will last for generations to come!” —Pastor Jerry Marcellino