Review: The Family at Church

Joel Beeke. The Family at Church.  Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, August 26, 2012. 80 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Westminster | Amazon

Are you looking for a book that helps you to think about a Christian family in relations to the Church?  This book might be for you.  It is authored by Joel Beeke who is a minister and president of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary.  I enjoy Beeke’s pastoral heart with his writings in the past and also how he writes practically while also have a high view of God and worshipful spirit.  This book was no different and I was edified.  The book for some might seem to be rather short (coming in at 80 pages) nevertheless I thought it was helpful than some longer books on Christian family that I read.

The book is divided into two parts with each part consisting of several chapters.  Part One is on Listening to Sermons and part two is on Attending Prayer Meetings.  For part one there are four chapters with the first on the importance of preaching, chapter two is on preparing to hear the Word of God preached on the Lord’s Day, chapter three on receiving the Word and chapter four on practicing the Word of God.  Part two begins with a chapter on the need for prayer meeting then a chapter on biblical warrant for prayer meeting.  This is followed by chapter seven on the history of prayer meeting then a chapter on the purposes of prayer meeting.  Chapter one is on implementing prayer meeting and chapter ten is on the importance of prayer meeting.

I wished the book could have covered other aspects of being a Christian family at church. Nevertheless I appreciated what Beeke has to say about listening to the preaching and also attending prayer meetings.  Of the two portion in the book the part I most enjoyed was the part on prayer.  I thought the chapter I learned the most was the chapter on the history of prayer meeting.  Here its church history that’s presented but with the goal towards Christian piety.  I learned a lot of how throughout history the Lord has used prayer meetings to spark revivals and work powerfully through the Church.  I thought the book was worth purchasing for this chapter alone!  I plan in the future to teach a lesson to my church on prayer meeting and this will definitely be a source along with the footnotes to other sources that I do want to track down and read from for myself.  There’s also a helpful chapter on implementing prayer meeting and I enjoyed reading what was given as a template and suggestions.  For me while I do enjoy church service on Sunday I nevertheless as a pastor enjoy prayer meeting actually more than preaching since I get to hear the prayers and words of God’s people in the congregation during prayer meeting.  So I’m always thinking of ways to tinker and improve our prayer meeting but also change how we do prayer meeting from time to time so that members don’t see it as just a routine.  So with this as my outlook I enjoyed reading the chapter on how prayer meeting is implemented.  Such a wonderful help and after I finished the book I was thinking how there’s not many helpful books out there on corporate church prayer meeting and practical pointers on it.  But that might also be due to the fact that I am personally ignorant of what resources are out there.  Still this book was helpful.  I recommend this!