The Family at Church: How Parents are Tour Guides for Joy (Brown)

Parents are tour guides at the gates of everlasting joy.  Don't miss the treasures. As a great tour guide, you need to help your children see the opportunities there. Help them experience the beautiful things God has in store for families who prioritize gathering with the redeemed in local churches. What is in store is better than what your children could gain from their sports or hobbies or camping.

Give your children 10,000 reasons to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and His Word is the sole authority. 

Do it now. Do it through full engagement in local church life.

Local churches offer dozens of opportunities to orient your family around the knowledge of the graces of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The earlier you get going on this, the sweeter life will be. Now is the time to strengthen your family and your church. 

Table of Contents: 

The Onramp to This Book
A Family Field Guide
The Power of Church and Family Life
Twenty Days to Transform Your Local Church Experience
A Vision of Hope
Chapter 1, Tour Guides for Everlasting Joy
Chapter 2, Your Golden Opportunity
Chapter 3, The Church Needs Strong Families 
Chapter 4, Love the Church 
Chapter 5, Show Them the Treasures
Chapter 6, Joined and Knit Together
Chapter 7, Face to Face Relationships
Chapter 8, The Day of Rest
Chapter 9, Delightful Celebration
Chapter 10, The Family Together in Church
Chapter 11, Keeping Children in Worship Services
Chapter 12, Distracted Children 
Chapter 13, Fellowship of Gladness and Sincerity of Heart
Chapter 14, Joyful Singing
Chapter 15, Teaching Children to Sing
Chapter 16, Listening to Sermons
Chapter 17, Applying Sermons 
Chapter 18, Prayer Meetings
Chapter 19, The Ordinances of the Lord's Supper and Baptism
Chapter 20, At the Gates of Everlasting Joy

Endorsements

“When I read this book, I feel as if I am eavesdropping on a conversation with a man who has thought and labored much as both a father and a pastor. In these pages we are reminded of the significant opportunities God has given us as families and churches. Here we find truths made simple and practical—the kind of truths that get behind our excuses, move us to a more careful obedience, and follow us through the week. Here we gather wisdom for guiding our families toward a more biblical and thoughtful participation in the life of the local church. Here the author shows us how the local church, God’s ‘divinely designed ecosystem,’ is the most important entity for the family’s growth in a gospel-oriented joy.”

-Dr. Steven Lawson is President of One Passion Ministries, Teaching Fellow with Ligonier Ministries, Professor of Preaching and Dean of the Doctor of Ministry program at The Masters Seminary, and Executive Editor for “Expositor Magazine.” He is also on the Board of The Masters University and Seminary, Ligonier Ministries, and Reformation Bible College.

“Scott Brown loves the church and the family. It is no surprise, then, that he has written these devotions designed to help parents train their children to treasure the local church. These twenty short chapters cultivate sweet anticipation that in the church we find God’s richest blessing: fellowship with Him through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Thus, by leading their children to participate in the church, parents lead them, by the Spirit’s grace, to the dining room where God the Father feeds them with the bread of life.”

-Dr. Joel R. Beeke is President of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, and pastor at the Heritage Reformed Congregation, Grand Rapids Michigan. He is the author of “Parenting by God’s Promises,” “Reformed Preaching,” “A Puritan Theology,” and much more.

“One of the most important things every Christian parent must do is inculcate in our children a deep and lasting love for the church. Scott Brown’s latest book, The Family at Church shows how to do this—and why it’s a delightful task, not a drudgery. This is one of the best manuals on Christian parenting I have ever studied.”

-Phil Johnson is Executive Director of Grace to You. He has edited most of Pastor John MacArthur’s major books and has founded several popular websites, including The Spurgeon Archive, The Hall of Church History, and the Pyromaniacs blog. He is an elder at Grace Community Church.

“In his extremely practical book entitled ‘The Family at Church - How Parents are Tour Guides for Joy,’ author Scott Brown gives us valuable pastoral advice for helping families with children of all ages to love, enjoy, and benefit from the local church. Having read it, I am compelled to get this excellent new work into the hands of all of my people. I am delighted that this volume is available and believe that if its lessons are implemented, it will do much good for generations to come. May God grant it to be so!”

-Rob Ventura is a pastor at Grace Community Baptist Church, North Providence, Rhode Island and co-author of “A Portrait of Paul” and “Spiritual Warfare.”