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The Family Worship Book: A Resource Book for Family Devotions
Do you struggle to provide enjoyable, meaningful and spiritual times of family devotions? Do you avoid the whole subject but have the nagging thought that you should be doing something? Let Terry & Family Worship equip you for leading your family in worship with the help of some key What is family worship? What have other people done? Why Should I do it? How can I start? A Valuable resource which you will not exhaust in years.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
12 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
Terry L. Johnson
36 books12 followersTerry Johnson was born and raised in Los Angeles. He studied history at the University of Southern California and also studied at Trinity College, Bristol, England, and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, before earning his D. Min in 2008 from Erskine Theological Seminary.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 10, 2020
I read this a long long time ago. This book was instrumental in my beginning to have family worship with my children. I remember feeling like I only talked about God during discipline moments and that did not seem right. I wanted to talk about God in our day in and day out life. This book really helped frame that time for me and my family.
October 7, 2018
Our family has used this as a helpful tool for intentional family worship. This is a great resource.
March 22, 2025
Heavy on "resources" and light on "book." I thought this was useful, convincing, and well-laid out, but the original content is basically essay-length and most of the book is devoted to resources which, while helpful, could be gathered pretty easily now given the proliferation of the internet since this was first published.
November 3, 2025
I wouldn’t recommend for everyone and have some disagreements at points (author seems to be a strong sabbatarian), but for those who desire a robust pattern of family worship with catechisms, diverse prayer, and Scripture memory, the resources provided are pretty great.
February 18, 2020
Helpful but lacking in some aspects.
October 6, 2025
Thorough.
June 19, 2011
As a husband and father, it is my responsibility to lead my family in worship. I am to shepherd and teach them as one who will have to give an account. This is a duty I do not want to take lightly!
Unfortunately, I haven't done a great job of this so far. The biggest reason? I didn't know how; or at least I thought I didn't know how. The reality, though, is that I just hadn't tried. The first step is the hardest.
That's why I'm so grateful for this book. While there is a short section at the beginning that outlines the Scriptural reasons why men should lead their families in worship — and everything in this section is solid — I didn't really need to be convinced of that. I already knew what I should be doing. (However, it's worth pointing out that Johnson is quite clear that our #1 responsibility is to have our families committed to and involved with the covenant community in a local church; a point much appreciated.)
The most helpful parts of the book are the practical considerations. How are we to structure family worship time? What is included? When during the day should we do it, and how often? Johnson lays out suggested elements of family worship time (singing, prayer, confession of faith, teaching, etc) as well as an outline for family worship. These chapters are especially useful for a guy like me, who has a lot of trouble moving from the theoretical to the practical; how to get beyond simply having a good idea and start putting it into practice. Perhaps one day I'll be confident and competent enough to come up with my own order of worship for my family, but in the meantime having an outline (which, thanks to the vast amount of resources in this book, is almost infinitely variable) will make it easy to take that first step, and to commit to regular, daily family worship for long enough that it becomes a permanent part of our family culture.
In addition to the "how to" chapters, the book also includes plenty of "what to" resources. Among these resources are a family reading record (which has a suggested reading schedule omitting a number of chapters that are "ill-suited to family worship due to their contents or repetition"); two catechisms (the Catechism for Young Children and the Westminster Shorter Catechism); 50 suggested passages for Bible memorization; several historical writings on family worship; and a family hymnbook/psalter containing 60 hymns and 60 psalms for singing together. The reading plan and the hymnbook/psalter both come with a ten year teaching schedule to help make sure that families are able to benefit from the full counsel of Scripture and a wide variety of songs for worship over the long-haul.
This is a book that is sure to find a prominent place on our family bookshelf for years to come.
Unfortunately, I haven't done a great job of this so far. The biggest reason? I didn't know how; or at least I thought I didn't know how. The reality, though, is that I just hadn't tried. The first step is the hardest.
That's why I'm so grateful for this book. While there is a short section at the beginning that outlines the Scriptural reasons why men should lead their families in worship — and everything in this section is solid — I didn't really need to be convinced of that. I already knew what I should be doing. (However, it's worth pointing out that Johnson is quite clear that our #1 responsibility is to have our families committed to and involved with the covenant community in a local church; a point much appreciated.)
The most helpful parts of the book are the practical considerations. How are we to structure family worship time? What is included? When during the day should we do it, and how often? Johnson lays out suggested elements of family worship time (singing, prayer, confession of faith, teaching, etc) as well as an outline for family worship. These chapters are especially useful for a guy like me, who has a lot of trouble moving from the theoretical to the practical; how to get beyond simply having a good idea and start putting it into practice. Perhaps one day I'll be confident and competent enough to come up with my own order of worship for my family, but in the meantime having an outline (which, thanks to the vast amount of resources in this book, is almost infinitely variable) will make it easy to take that first step, and to commit to regular, daily family worship for long enough that it becomes a permanent part of our family culture.
In addition to the "how to" chapters, the book also includes plenty of "what to" resources. Among these resources are a family reading record (which has a suggested reading schedule omitting a number of chapters that are "ill-suited to family worship due to their contents or repetition"); two catechisms (the Catechism for Young Children and the Westminster Shorter Catechism); 50 suggested passages for Bible memorization; several historical writings on family worship; and a family hymnbook/psalter containing 60 hymns and 60 psalms for singing together. The reading plan and the hymnbook/psalter both come with a ten year teaching schedule to help make sure that families are able to benefit from the full counsel of Scripture and a wide variety of songs for worship over the long-haul.
This is a book that is sure to find a prominent place on our family bookshelf for years to come.
January 31, 2015
If you’ve only got time to read one book on family worship, I really recommend A Neglected Grace over The Family Worship Book: A Resource Book for Family Devotions.
That said, if you’re interested in the topic of how to set up family worship (or Bible time, or family devotions, or whatever you want to call it), The Family Worship Book may have some helpful ideas for you. Personally, I found the tone a little less encouraging, and the suggestions seemed more black and white and less flexible. But I did get some good ideas for components that could figure into our practice, and also a good list of hymns and Psalms that reminded me of favorites I still need to teach the kids. I could have gotten that from a quick perusal of the hymnal and Psalter we own, but the list was a nice quick reminder.
{Read my full review here}
That said, if you’re interested in the topic of how to set up family worship (or Bible time, or family devotions, or whatever you want to call it), The Family Worship Book may have some helpful ideas for you. Personally, I found the tone a little less encouraging, and the suggestions seemed more black and white and less flexible. But I did get some good ideas for components that could figure into our practice, and also a good list of hymns and Psalms that reminded me of favorites I still need to teach the kids. I could have gotten that from a quick perusal of the hymnal and Psalter we own, but the list was a nice quick reminder.
{Read my full review here}
January 10, 2012
How could I have forgotten to add this book? Before attending Christ Church of Morgantown I had no clue as to how to do family worship, God just impressed upon me to do it. I got frustrated, and at times did nothing. This book gave me a great starting point. This book helped me focus and keep things simple. I try to make things complicated but Terry Johnson does a great job in explaining the how's and why's. If you are struggling on how, why, when or what to include with family worship I recommend this book.
July 15, 2017
I recommend this book for every Christian family. It's a how-to manual for family worship. It explains what family worship is and why it's important. It has a sample outline for family worship, sample prayers, Creeds, The Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and benedictions. It also includes the Children's Catechism and the Shorter Catechism, 50 Bible memory verses, 60 Psalms, and 60 hymns, plus a bunch of other great resources.
May 23, 2014
I was already convinced of the merits of family worship when I bought this book, but this book helped me learn more about it, and gave me helpful tips on how to structure the endeavor. My wife and I each have a copy, and use it almost every day. It has some beautiful hymns, psalms, creeds, confessions, catechisms and a wonderful section of Scripture to read as a call to worship. It also has a great section on prayer from the works of Isaac Watts that I found beneficial as well.
December 21, 2015
A great resource for family worship. It lays out what it is and discusses the various aspects. Includes a 10 year plan of rotating between psalm and hymn, one a month. This I find rich as the author states that a family in ten years could put to memory 60 psalms and 60 hymns. I highly recommend this to all heads of house. I intend on using this tool often.
April 19, 2016
Great book to get you started leading family worship. Note that you don't have to do too much at first, and the author walks you through what is essential. I'm not Presbyterian myself, so I don't agree 100% with everything in the book, but it is a solid resource for a Christian family of any denomination. Hey, get the book even if you're single and use it for your own devotionals.
June 6, 2015
A solid and very help resource in understanding the why and how we should conduct family worship in the home. I really enjoyed it, especially being newer to the family worship idea. I definitely recommend it to first timers like myself. I promise you won't be disappointed.
January 26, 2010
My family and I have been blessed by this book. Great for anyone who's always wanted to start doing family worship at home, but didn't know how to get started.
April 10, 2012
Really helpful. More of a reference than a sit-down-and-read-cover-to-cover. It has been very useful in our household
December 21, 2014
Life changing book!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews