One of our goals derived from our mission statement is to renew family discipleship. This means we want to see husbands take up the mantle of leading their wives in prayer and spiritual care, and parents to be intentional about discipling their children. One of the ways we hope to do that is to use the change of pace of the summer to equip and encourage parents (father’s in particular) to have family devotions. We will be doing that in a number of cooperative ways and want to encourage you to be a part of it.

1. Corporate worship: During our corporate worship we have a time for confessing our faith with the historic church. We will use that time to go through the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Each week we will have the Heads-of-families ask the question and others to answer. During the past two years CSCK has been developing a chant based on the children’s catechism (which breaks down the WSC into simpler questions). We’ll chant those relevant questions and answers as well. The goal is that you spend the week before memorizing the Q&A so that when you come to worship, you and your family are prepared to answer.
2. Family Gospel U. (aka Sunday School): During the summer months we want families to come together and have a devotional together. We will be using a family devotional book called Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade (some of you have already purchased this book). In this way we can come alongside each other in actually doing a family devotion.
3. Family Devotions at Home: The idea of family devotions is a great one, but often difficult to do. Families are often busy and Dads are often not sure of what to do. We want to take advantage of the summer’s change of pace and put the tools in Dads’ hands to make it happen. The book we’re using in Gospel U. has a short devotional for every day that relates to the catechism question that we’ll be working on each week in worship. It points you to Bible passages to read and questions to discuss. These books will be available in the sanctuary bookstore (the West wall of the foyer).

Below is the weekly schedule so that you can plan your devotions and know which question to work on memorizing for which week:

I know that summers are irregular times and you may miss a week or two, but don’t let that discourage you. Just keep plugging along as you are able. The nice thing about having the book and the schedule is that you can take it with you and work on it. Remember, the Lord has instituted the family as the place where this is to happen which means you are God’s ordained means (see Deuteronomy 6:4-9). As God’s means, you can count on God to fuel your efforts with Holy Spirit guidance and power. Be encouraged and be diligent!

So that the next generation might know Him,

Carter