Today our family participated in Redeemer’s first conference on Family Worship. Amy Thompson our Lead Pastor’s wife, has apparently busted her tail to write 19 days of curriculum leading up to Resurrection (Easter) Sunday, something along the lines of an Advent series that would prepare us for Christmas. For a church that is deliberately program-skinny, it is really helpful for our families (where we believe the bulk of our discipleship should be happening) to get together and discuss ways of leading, ways of serving, ways of living, and ways of following Christ. Today’s conference was a (two-hour) time of discussing God’s purpose in worship, our lives as offerings to God, and practical ways of worshiping corporately as families.
So tonight, after having an unplanned hang-time at Blue Sky Cafe with the Hedges, the Greshams, and the Miersmas, we came home and added some elements to our bedtime routine and “Family Devos.” (Pine Cove families and counselors … yes, you should do the chant here.)
- First, a candle (in our case, the "Joy" candle). [Hey, the Thompsons have a candle, and I'm a closet pyro, so why not?!?]
- Then we actually sang a song (planned) as opposed to the random singing we typically do (http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/print.php/id64268/?transpose=0).
- Then, an egg hunt for egg number one (that had, yes JJ, chocolate inside) and
- a reading from Luke of how Jesus himself showed up to explain all the scriptures to Cleopas and Simon. This is our job as parents … to show up, worship authentically with our lives, which overflows into special moments we deliberately craft … all of which moves us toward showing our children firsthand how all the scriptures point clearly and directly to the glory of God revealed in the sacrificial, atoning propitiation of our sin by Jesus the Christ.
So there you go, straight from the eight year-old.
For the record, my favorite part was playing the piano and having my whole family gathered around to sing their hearts out to the glory of our Father. Beautiful.