from time to time i am asked what our family worships look like and how we structure the time together with families.  also i am so excited to be teaching on family worship at #kidmin15, so i thought i would include all the ingredients to our latest family worship on my blog.  enjoy 🙂

• we began the night with a timeline families were to work on as they arrived. their goal was to put in order all the inventions by the date they were invented. after families completed this activity we gave them the answers to see how well they did on their timeline. then we built a bridge from this very concrete activity to the very abstract theme of the night – uncreated Creator. we shared that each of the items on the timeline had a time before they existed. we know that because we know when they were invented. (we even asked families if they remember a time before recent inventions such as the remote control, smartphones, etc.) we shared that our minds work like this timeline. we look at things with a start and a finish, but that is not like how God is. He didn’t have an invention date. He simply always was, always is, and always will be.
• next we sang several worship songs with the families that all pointed to God as the Creator.
• then we had about 20 minutes of station time where families went to four stations that all reinforced our theme, guided Biblical discussion, and even gave them some things to take home to remember the night. here are the sheets for the four stations:

• after the stations our associate minister to children, jon meads, shared the Gospel with the families stressing that it all begins with God. He creates. He rules. He holds all things together.
• then we sang another worship song as a family.
• we ended the night with me sharing with the families that if God is this creative, powerful, wise, and perfect, we know we can trust Him to hold our tomorrow and our eternity in His hands. i then closed in prayer.
• we then had a family meal together and families got to take home their lego creations as a reminder that God is the uncreated Creator. (many also took home the firming powder, because the kids loved it.)

couple of other notes:
– here is a link to the firming powder we used for the “He holds all things together” station.  click here.

• here are the facts we put on the backs of the mirrors:

i don’t believe family worship has to be hard. i believe we bring families together and present a truth to them from God’s Word, allow them to experience and discuss this truth, reaffirm the truth, and then allow God to work in the lives of families for days/months to come. of all the things i am blessed to do in ministry, family worship is by far my favorite.