The purpose of this post is not to be prescriptive. I don't want to tell you what you should do. Rather, I simply what to lay out how I lead my family in family Bible study. During the season of COVID-19, God has led me to be more intentional in how I lead my family spiritually and how to grow as a Christian myself, though I will leave that for another post.
Hymns: My wife and I come from traditional Southern Baptist churches. We grew us singing Southern Baptist hymns--what I mean are hymns often sung in Southern Baptist churches. These songs were important for our development as Christian men and women, and we want to pass them along to our children. Before we got married, we purchased a Southern Baptist hymnal. We pick two songs to sing from this hymnal each week. One to start the Bible study time and one for the end.
Now, I never mentioned the ESV, which is the Bible I chose for my family to use. I like it because it's close to being word-for-word like the NASB, though it takes a little more liberty so that it has good English. It is easy to read. It is enjoyable to read. I mean, clearly, the Bible is enjoyable to read, but even it wasn't holy words, it is well written. It does not have some of the difficult grammatical structures that the NASB has and is better for children trying to listen and learn. Therefore, I like the ESV the most for family worship and study because it's the most faithful to the original text while being easy to read in contemporary English.
My family has done Bible study or devotional time on and off since my oldest was pretty young. We would do it for a time, usually a couple months, and then fade away from it. The reasons we did this usually had to do with what I wanted to accomplish, the means I was using to accomplish it, and the fact that it usually took way too long. As an overzealous father, I would expect my children (under five at the time) to sit on the couch and pay attention well and not cause problems with one another for upward of an hour. Needless to say, it usually ended in frustration--for the children and me, and my wife who also endured it.
Later on, I wanted to be more intentional about teaching my children God's Word, and so we purchased The Gospel Project. I did my best to follow the plans. This time, at around 6:45 or 7:00 p.m., we would gather into the playroom, sit in a circle, and I would teach from the book and watch the accompanying videos. Around 7:45, my wife would start encouraging me to end things so the children could go to bed, but I wasn't finished. Sadly, this season of devoted family Bible study didn't last very long.
Then COVID-19 hit, and I had time at home--time in the morning for breakfast--because I was working from home. It was at this point that I found something that could actually work, and it continues to work now four months later. So I want to lay out what we do, and I hope it might benefit what you do or may do with your family.
THE NAAKTGEBOREN BIBLE STUDY
Opening: We now do our devotions around the table, usually for breakfast, but any meal works. One of the biggest issues with the other family devotional or study times was that it was later in the evening when it was nearing time for the children to go to bed. We had to eat dinner, rush to clean things, get the children cleaned up for bed, make sure they had everything ready for the next day, and then try to get everyone together. Now, we do it at a time when all of the children would have already been gathered together--I don't allow the children to eat anywhere besides the kitchen.
Before the meal is fully ready and on the table, we call the children to the table. Usually I, Michael, lead the study while my wife cooks. I cook sometimes, and she leads, but we like our kids to eat good tasting food, so she does most of the cooking. As she is finishing up the cooking, we sing a hymn.
I think it is important for families to worship the Lord through singing. I'm blessed to have a wife who is a good singer even though I am not. However, if neither parent is a good singer or just doesn't have enough time in singing Christian songs to do it well without music, grab your phone or computer and find it on YouTube. I also think it is important to worship through singing good Christian songs. Now, there are good Christians songs being written today. I think I might write a post on good modern hymns and Christian music songs that would be good for family worship. But, most of what you hear on the radio just isn't theologically deep enough; sometimes it is theologically wrong. If you want to include a contemporary Christian song like something from Phil Wickham, who I really like, try to pick something else that has good spiritual depth. Learning Christian music is good for the soul in worship, but it can also be a powerful blessing for the mind in learning good things about God. But, beware! Not everything in a hymnal is worthy of your time. Be selective in what the song teaches.
Study: By the time we finish the singing of the hymn, my wife is usually pretty much done with the meal, usually breakfast, and is sitting down to join us. It is at this point that we use the curriculum I noted earlier from The Gospel Project. What I love about The Gospel Project is that it goes through the Bible, so my children are learning the most important stories in sequence, but more importantly it focuses on what the story is teaching us about God and how it points to Jesus. You can surely teach good morals as you read through the stories, and I do my best to make sure I do this, but the Bible is primarily a revelation of God. I want to make sure my children are leaving the table knowing more about God in the hope that one day they might devote themselves to Him. I want them to walk away better people as well, but that is secondary because being good will never save them.
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| https://www.lifeway.com/en/shop/the-gospel-project/kids/home-edition |
Now, The Gospel Project curriculum is just that--it is a curriculum. I don't necessarily use it the way it's meant to be used. The main reason being time. Time has always been the thing that killed our previous family worship times. I really want this time of singing, study, and prayer to be about 30 minutes. Sometimes it goes longer, especially if time allows and a great gospel conversation is happening. I'm always okay with it "going long," I just don't want it to "be long."
So what do I leave out? We purchased the whole kits and may do the whole study someday. My family plans on homeschooling our children at some point, so we may be more intentional then about using the whole curriculum, which includes a workbook and videos. The workbook and videos are some of the things we leave out. A part of the curriculum also includes a fun Friday activity that is meant to reinforce what has been taught the whole week. I've never done one of those. They are usually some kind of craft, game, or cooking activity. I'm sure they are great, but they don't really fit into what I'm trying to accomplish.
What I do use are the scripted teaching points and the Bible passage. The scripted teaching part of The Gospel Project is great! Now, I've been a Christian for nearly twenty years--man, that is hard to believe, and I was saved at 17, so most of my Christian journey has been as an adult. I also have a bachelor's degree in biblical and theological studies and a master's degree in religion. That being the case, I know the stories The Gospel Project selects pretty well, and therefore I don't have to do any prep study. The first time I open the pages with my children is the first time I'm reading the text. Now, I'm not saying it's best. There are times it wants me to do an activity first, and when I skip that activity, what it wants me to say doesn't make any sense. But, my oldest is seven so she doesn't even notice that I'm ab living.
That being said, you might want to read over it before you start, but the fact that you don't have to come up with your own words is a huge benefit. I was a youth pastor, and I preach somewhat frequently. So, if I can admit that having the words to say are given to me is great, if you don't have the background and experiences I have, you can trust that it is great. For one, they help me make sure that I'm keeping the lesson focused on God and not the behaviors that I want to see them improve.
Bible Passage: The Gospel Project is also helpful because it gives an abridged telling of the story with things in bold to let you know what's most important. If your children are young, preschool age, I think reading this with them would be great. However, my older children are older, my oldest is going into second grade in 2020, so we actually read the pages from an ESV Bible. I will read the whole passage, which can be long at times, breaking it up along the way to highlight key points in the narrative and to identify what we should learn about God and mankind from the passage.
Bible for Family Worship: This post isn't meant to be a discussion on which Bible is best, so I don't want to let it go there. Instead, I'll simply explain why I chose to use the ESV for my family worship. The thing of first importance is that it is faithful to the original text. The Bible was first written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. English Bibles are either translated from these documents or are revisions of Bibles that were translated from these documents. Now there is some debate on which documents are best, but I am for sure not going there now.
In Bible translations, you have three main categories of Bibles. Those that want to be as close to the original text as possible in every word. Those that want to be close to the original text as possible in every thought. The last group isn't really a translation, but a paraphrase--what someone thinks the Bible is saying in a verse format. Now, there are too many English translations to talk about, so I won't be exhaustive, but here are a few. These are the most prominent Bible translations in evangelical circles that I know about.
- Word-for-word Bibles
- New American Standard Bibles (NASB)
- English Standard Version(ESV)
- King James Version and New King James Version (KJV & NKJV)
- Thought-for-though Bibles
- New International Version (NIV)
- Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
- Paraphrase - The Message
Out of this list, my personal favorite is the NASB. When studying Greek in college, I found that my translations were usually very close to the NASB. The reason I don't use the NASB for family Bible study is that the translators were so worried about being word-for-word, that it is sometimes difficult to read. It doesn't flow as beautifully as other translations. The KJV is pretty archaic. Parts of it are beautiful to read, but there are often times interpretation challenges because the use of words has changed so much since its last edits. The NKJV just isn't very popular anymore, and I've not read from one since my earliest Christian days. So, it wasn't really an option for me. The NIV is still probably the most popular Bible translation among evangelicals, but I have some issues with the liberties it takes in translation. Though I often agree with what the translators are trying to communicate, I think they put their own words into the text when they could just have put what a more word-for-word translation would have done. This is not an attack of the NIV though. It is still a trustworthy Bible. The HCSB is the Southern Baptist Bible. When in seminary, we often joked that HCSB stood for Hard Core Southern Baptist. It is also a fine translation but just isn't as popular. Now The Message is not really a translation. I think it can be used for devotion sometimes and be helpful and enjoyable, but it should not be used for study or memorization. It is just too far away from the original texts for that.
Review and Gospel Connection: After the Bible passage, there is another paragraph or two of scripted teaching points. It goes over what was just read very briefly and then points to Jesus. What I like is that it does a really good job of showing how the passage naturally points to Jesus, because the whole Bible is about Jesus, and doesn't just make Jesus an add-on. This is important because the ultimate goal of teaching God's Word is that in time the learner might repent and believe the gospel. Again, moral virtue formation is important, surely not to be neglected, but it must be second in biblical instruction. Of first importance is the gospel. It's nice that The Gospel Project does this for us. It makes it easier for us if we are untrained and inexperienced. It makes sure we do it if we should know better.
Review Questions: Each chapter ends with review questions. Some of the questions are particular to the specific passage that was just taught. Other questions are big picture questions. For example, in the first book, it starts with creation. The big picture question is, "Why did God create the world?" The answer is "God created the world and everything in it for His glory." The lesson specific questions are great because they help once again highlight the most important things that children should have learned. The big picture questions are great because they are things the children should commit to memory.
Catechism: I've already written about using a catechism, so if you haven't read that, I recommend it (Family Catechism). I'm in the process of creating my family catechism. I have a few main sources I'm using to create that catechism: the Baptist Catechism, a Baptist Catechism, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Westminster Longer Catechism, and The Gospel Project big picture questions. Here you can find what else I've written about catechism questions and answers if you like.
After completing the review question in The Gospel Project, I have a notebook with all of The Gospel Project's big picture questions and answers and the catechism questions and answers that I've taught so far. Each time we have a new big picture question and answer, I add it to the notebook. Each week when I teach a new catechism question, I add it to the notebook. Right now, there are about twenty questions and answers that we review each day. It is pretty cool seeing my two-year-old answer some of the questions. Eventually, I will divide them up into a Monday, Wednesday, Friday list and a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday list to keep the time brief. Again, long lessons have always been the death of our past Bible studies.
Prayer: We then transition into prayer time. Now, I've always struggled with whether or not I should have by children pray since they are not born again, they are not Christians. However, I think it is important to teach them how to pray, so we now have them pray. We have a prayer list that we've made as a family and our church provides a prayer list for missionaries we support. We go around the table and each person prays for another family member or someone on our prayer list. We help them pray when necessary, but they are starting to get it. The two-year-old just repeats one word at a time after us. I usually close the payer time with a longer prayer.
Final Hymn: As I noted before, we have two hymns that we use. We finish with the second hymn.
In all, this usually takes a little over thirty minutes. My oldest children are usually finished eating by the time we get to the final hymn. The younger two are nearly finished.
Again, I'm not saying this is how your family should do family worship or family Bible study. I can foresee things we will change eventually. Right now we do the plan I just told you about Monday through Saturday with exceptions here and there. We aim for every day, but we aren't legalistic about it. We aim for breakfast, but any mealtime works. When the children are older, and we've gone through all six books a couple of times, we might move to a different study. I could even see when they are all quite a bit older assigning them things to read and study that we would then talk about as a family with me not teaching as much. But for where we are now, four children ages 2-7, this has worked well for us.
Teaching New Catechism Questions and Answers: One thing I wanted to talk about is when I teach new catechism questions and answers. The questions and answers we get from The Gospel Project are added in as they are taught in the curriculum. Because it is summer and we don't have Sunday school at our church, I've been teaching a new catechism question and answer each Sunday. I'm not sure if we will be able to do that once we have Sunday school again (we also have limited church activities due to COVID-19). We all like to sleep in a little later on Sunday. I could see doing The Gospel Project Monday through Friday and the catechism question and answer on Saturday.
I think flexibility is important in family worship, but consistency is more important. The things my daughter can tell me about God's Word and about God blow me away. She knows things now that I didn't know until I was an adult. None of this would have happened if we hadn't been consistent. Thankfully, with The Gospel Project, you don't have to be a great teacher.
If you have questions about our family Bible study, don't hesitate to comment. If you want to share what you are doing, that would be great as well. There is always a great deal that can be learned from one another. I think the most important thing in this discussion is that families should be studying the Word of God together.
Written by Michael Naaktgeboren
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