Bringing the gospel to covenant children: In dependency on the Spirit

Family Guidance

by Joel R. Beeke

This booklet gives practical guidance on how to evangelize covenant children and how to make the home a nursery for heaven. The book first explains how parents fail to understand the role of the covenant in their children's lives and then details how to use prayer, family worship, teaching, everyday conversation and mentoring to evangelize children. Dr. Beeke provides a needed guide for a parent's most important and difficult task.

Genres: Theology, Parenting, Family, Nonfiction, Christian Living, Christian, Christianity

43 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2001

About the author

Dr. Joel R. Beeke serves as President and Professor of Systematic Theology, Church History, and Homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He has been in the ministry since 1978 and has served as a pastor of his current church, Heritage Reformed Congregation, since 1986. He is also editor of the Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books, president of Inheritance Publishers, and vice-president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. He has written, co-authored, or edited fifty books and contributed over fifteen hundred articles to Reformed books, journals, periodicals, and encyclopedias. His Ph.D. (1988) from Westminster Theological Seminary is in Reformation and Post-Reformation Theology. He is frequently called upon to lecture at Reformed seminaries and to speak at conferences around the world. He and his wife, Mary, have three children: Calvin, Esther, and Lydia.

Reviews

[Zak Graves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, Practical, Encouraging

[William Schrecengost · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good. But he approached it from the perspective of needing to evangelize your child who's already baptized and in the covenant. This makes baptism little more than a dedication. I don't like how many covenant theologians divide the covenant where you get an outward part at baptism, but have to make a profession of faith in order to get the other part.
Even so, he does have lots of good advice on family worship and would recommend it for that reason. Looking forward to reading the others in this series

[John Boyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little booklet on how to share the gospel with your children. I especially liked the ten steps on how to share the gospel. I found that very informative and helpful.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite good and practical. The book packs quite a punch even though it is relatively brief.
The only letdown is when the author veers too far into conscience issues such as watching television which the author considers a form of worldliness on account of most TV shows being immoral or even speaking of a 'beat' of music that is worldly.
A better approach would have been to leave it at judging matters on a case by case basis which the author does speak about. After all, the Westminster Confession in chapter 20 teaches that God alone is Lord of the conscience.
Nevertheless, the book overall is a must read for every parent in Reformed and Presbyterian churches. Sunday school teachers will also benefit greatly from it.
I especially appreciated the author highlighting how to go about using the 3 uses of the moral law in instructing children.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I do not hold to the underlying paedobaptist understanding of covenant children, there is a lot of helpful material here for all Christians. For those who do hold that theological position, Beeke reminds readers that even children born to believing parents need to be evangelized and urged to trust in Christ.

Beeke combines solid biblical and theological reflection on parenting with practical examples of how to lead your children to Christ, trusting the Holy Spirit to use means in His good timing. One of Beeke’s big emphases is the character and holiness of parents, and thus the example we give our children. There are important reminders to flee worldliness (including an appendix devoted to this topic).

It became clearer to me through reading this book how catechesis isn’t only a good idea, but actually directly biblical in its origins. The word in various forms is used in the NT in the sense of instructing one in the essentials of the faith.

One gets the sense through Beeke’s use of the KJV, occasional older language, and some of his illustrations, that Beeke ministers in a very traditional context. That may be off-putting to some, but I do not think it is overly distracting. So many rich reflections to be found in this book.

[Roger Keane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very rigorous book. Beeke is uncompromising in how he presents this topic and while he may lack nuance at points, the book is very helpful as an exhortation to great zeal in bringing the gospel to children.

[Sean McGowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful little book with wisdom, reminders, and practical application. Recommended.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tiny and so convicting.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical and theological.

He goes way too far on conscience issues. He condemns certain genres of music and dancing.

[Gradon Schaub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you are paedobaptist or credobaptist, this book is an excellent resource for parents. He packs a lot of sound biblical counsel into this book along with practical application. His standard for godly parents is high and will encourage to rely more and more upon the Spirit and God’s Word in your parenting.

[Becky Pliego · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very practical booklet in which the author explains clearly why it is important to bring the Gospel to our children, how to do it, and what things we should not forget to teach them.

Joel R. Beeke encourages prayer and reminds us to depend on God's grace as we parent our children.

I really enjoyed this book.

[Rachel Schultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read: liked

Second read: liked again

[Simon Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of practical wisdom as well as encouragement for the evangelisation as well as the discipleship of children. Beeke sets the bar and challenges parents to take seriously their calling before God. Christian parents should teach their household in the the same way that Abraham taught his household (Gen 18:19).
I liked the emphasis on catechising/instructing children as well as family worship.
There was little discussion over what makes a covenant child vs a child born outside of the covenant apart from the reference to children of at least one believer being holy according to in 1 Cor 7. As someone who belives in one covenant of grace, I would have been interested to understand the reasoning here.

[Jason Bray · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a decent amount of good child-rearing advice here, but he seems to have an approach to salvation of children that strikes me as odd. For one, he writes as though he wants you to be extremely uncertain about your child’s spiritual state and to communicate that uncertainty to your children. I can’t imagine a worse approach. It’s literally teaching them not to have faith. Conversion is an invisible action of the Spirit. We should cultivate obedience and the fruit of the Spirit, not obsess over getting them “converted”, which is neither doable by or knowable by us.

That said, if you can shed the fear motivation, I like the catechizing, praying, teaching your kids about the gospel, etc. All excellent advice.

[Matt Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Often times you can read a book and think it did not accomplish what it set out to do. That is not the case here. The only complaints you can really make about this book is that it’s not long enough, but it’s not meant to be. It’s meant to be a short booklet. Less than 100 pages. With the intention of getting your mind in the right place. It could be sun up as more as caught than hot. But it is a call, not to abandon our faith and not to abandon our children as they wander from the faith. We want our children to have the same lessons learned that we do, but we don’t want them to have gone through our experiences in order to have them. That can be awfully discouraging. So Dr. Beeke offers some encouragement.

[Jacob London · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this book ten stars I would. Beeke deals a crushing blow to the presumptive regeneration of Kuyper, showing with boldness that the family is to evangelize their children. Beeke humbly reminds us with scripture of our duties while comforting us with God's grace. Would recommend.

[Peter F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good encouragement to Christian parents to preach the gospel to their children. A more clear than normal explanation for what it actually means for children to be "in the covenant".

[Coram Deo Church]

Bringing the Gospel to Covenant Children is not currently available at local libraries.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A totally applicable guide to bringing the gospel to covenant children. I will be reaching for this as a quick guide whenever I need a quick motivating reminder. Quick & easy but beneficial read.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, encouraging and practical book.
May God bless all your families !

[Kevin Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short and helpful book (really a pamphlet) on an important topic. I found it to be convicting and practical.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purchase a copy of this booklet here! (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/4f8NurF
This little book is a wonderful summary and amendment to some of Beeke's other works on family worship, and on the nature of the gospel. I highly recommend this book to young families and newly married couples. It would even be useful to distribute to nursery volunteers or Sunday school teachers. I found the chapter on "Using the Means" to be the most useful, though his conclusion on avoiding worldliness was just as convicting!

[Josh Sieders · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful, short book with practical and specific guidance on passing our faith to our kids. The part I liked the most was the explanation of the relationship between baptized, covenant children and the need for parents to evangelize them and pray for their salvation. It was refreshing to hear an emphasis on both elements of this discussion.

[Steve Hemmeke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Direct, practical instruction on how to raise children in godliness, day by day.
Sometimes, it's a little too pietistic, but overall a very illuminating booklet.
Read, and do. Start in on this with your family!

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, clear, practical, helpful. Great little book.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite good. Some very helpful practical stuff in here, as well as a call to prayer.