Home Church, Pt.2

It's official.  I like Home Church.  I like it better than I ever thought possible.

When I was pregnant with Middle One, we visited with a family that home churched with several other families.  It seemed so... weird to me.  How could you church at home?  How could you not have an organist or a congregation or potlucks?  How could you not have a dozen committees wanting your time?

The answer is: rather easily.

I think I love this.

Here's what we do:

Right after breakfast, while I'm cleaning the kitchen, Darling sits down at the piano in the living room and starts playing from the hymnal.  The kids are playing or doing whatever around the house, but they can hear the music.  Darling usually plays a couple songs he likes, but also works in the traditional doxology for me.  He also, God bless that man, plays my favorite song.  I cannot sing this song without crying and someday, when I die, I want it sung at my funeral.  "Here I Am" gives words and music to what's in my heart.  Here's a You Tube video I found for you.  I chose it because it has the lyrics written out.  Darling plays it a little faster (I prefer it a tad faster than in this video), but it gets the family in the worship mood.




After music, we come together and pray.  Then Darling leads us in a reading from one of the kids' Bibles we found on our date night.  We watch the video for the lesson we're learning, then we sing the songs after the video teaching.  It's kind of neat.  I like that it's concise without dumbing down the Bible stories.

What I enjoy the most about home churching is that we have started pulling a Scripture from the lesson to learn and discuss for the week.  We write it on a dry erase board we have in the kitchen and every night at dinner, we make a point of reading and discussing it.  I don't know that the kids are actually memorizing it.  I also don't know that the kids are even thinking deeply about it.

What I do know is that for the first time, we're focusing on Scripture in our home.  Even if the kids aren't remembering the verses verbatim, we are laying the tracks in their hearts.

I wasn't sure how we'd settle into home church.  Some Sundays are better than others.  But, on the whole, right now, it's working.  We may head back to church some day, but that day isn't in the immediate future.

~ G