Secret Church |
| How do I order more study guides? Posted: 25 Mar 2014 10:01 PM PDT
If you ordered packages 1-6, then the only way for you to receive more simulcast study guides is by ordering another package. For example, someone who started with package 2 (including 10 study guides) and now has 14 people signed up to participate at their home will need to order an additional package 1 (including 5 study guides). That way, they’ll have a total of 15 study guides.
We don’t want to find you stressed out by last minute attenders you hadn’t planned on… but because we believe the material is worth hearing, we wouldn’t mind if you had to order more study guides. |
| Start Something Simple & Start Tonight: Matt Mason on Family Worship Posted: 25 Mar 2014 08:08 AM PDT Maybe you know that a consistent time of family worship would be a great blessing to the spiritual growth of your family. However, you often struggle with what this should look like on a day-to-day basis. I’ll bet you’ve asked questions like: How long should it be? What should we do once we’re gathered together? Is this only for older kids? How do I even get started? These are some of the questions I posed to Matt Mason, an elder and worship pastor at The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL. Matt has taught on the topic of family worship and has practiced it in his own home. As a result, he and his wife have seen spiritual fruit in the lives of their three children, now ages 15, 12, and 9. Because family worship is such a struggle for many Christians, I asked Matt some questions that will hopefully encourage you to move forward in putting this into practice in your own family. Family worship is one of the topics to be covered in the upcoming Secret Church 14, “The Cross and Everyday Life.” So, Matt… 1. To begin with the most basic question, what is your goal in family worship? Matt: At the most basic level, the goal is to hear from God (Scripture) and talk to God (prayer). 2. If we showed up at the Mason home for family worship, what would we see? Matt: Everybody comes into the living room. Usually someone is asking where his/her Bible went. Eventually we all sit down. We might sing at first or have some kind of Bible trivia to warm us up. Once we're all in place, we read some Scripture (one chapter from the Old Testament and one from the New). Often we'll split up the reading of the passage so everyone is involved, and I stop us from time to time to add a brief comment or ask a question here and there. Then we'll pray together. Sometimes we pray the Psalm of the given day (e.g. March 11 = Psalm 11)—each one of us taking one verse and praying from that verse (adapted this approach from Donald Whitney's excellent resources on praying the Psalms). Other times we pass out missionary info cards we have on the fridge and pray for them, along with friends and family. 3. How often does your family gather? How long do you gather? Matt: Most every night for about 15-25 minutes. We try to have some time in the morning when we know the night is not going to work. 4. Do you use Scripture, catechisms, or other resources? What about music? Matt: Yes, we've used various resources designed for helping families get a better grasp of biblical truth. There's so much good stuff! We've spent some time memorizing portions of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, used devotionals of all kinds, various children's Bibles, read and talked through a kid-friendly version of Pilgrim's Progress. We use music from time to time, most consistently along with Advent calendar in December. 5. How does family worship look different now that your kids are older? Matt: When the kids were really little, we'd take 10 minutes max, and we'd let them color or play with legos while we read to them. We take more time, dig a little deeper, and call for more focus and participation. 6. For someone who’s never tried family worship, how would you encourage them to get started? Matt: Start something simple and start tonight. Find a way to establish regular times for hearing God's Word and praying together as a family. Don't confuse a lack of excitement with this being a waste of time. God works through His Word and He answers prayer! Someone once defined a classic as a "book that everyone wants to have read, but no one actually reads." I think family worship is something Christian families want to say we did back when our kids were in the house. The question is will we carve out time to do it tonight? Sow the Word. Teach them to pray. Don't be overly formal. Have fun! To learn more about family worship as well as a number of other topics related to the cross and everyday living, join us at Secret Church 14. To register or find out more about Secret Church, go to www.secretchurch.org. |
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