The Biggest Story Bible

A while ago I was privileged to attend the D6 Family Ministry Conference.  The event is full of great speakers and breakout sessions covering a variety of topics.  D6 exists to encourage and equip parents to fulfill their role of family discipleship.  The name comes from Deuteronomy 6.  See the text below.

4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

I love the philosophy of what D6 Family Ministries envisions and desires for families.  Discipleship is somethings that starts in the home.  At D6 they have a saying that one hour a week isn’t enough.  And it’s not.  While the church might get one or even two hours to disciple your child, schools, sports, and other activities get even more.  It’s imperative that parents be intentional with the spiritual formation of their children.  After all, Proverbs 22:6 tells us: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Our Story

It wasn’t long ago that I didn’t even fully understand my role as parent.  Sure, I knew that I should be taking my kids to church on Sundays and Wednesdays each week.  I made sure—and still do—they attended all the programming that the church offered.  But COVID forced me to shift my paradigm.

Shutdown churches meant I had to do the work for myself.  At the time, I frequently read article from The Gospel Coalition, and came across an article with book recommendations.  One of these was Family Worship by Donald Whitney.  In the book, Whitney argues that family discipleship is a biblical parenting model and offers parents a pattern for having nightly family worship times in the home.  

We began doing family worship each night.  I asked my parents for their copy of the Baptist Hymnal, we sang a hymn and read a little bit of the Bible together.  We prayed as a family, all while sitting around the dinner table together.  This was a great starting point for us.  

Over time, what we’ve done has shifted.  And let me be clear, we are far from perfect.  We miss nights, but God’s promise is not in the perfection of our execution.  It’s because of his own faithfulness to us.

The Biggest Story

Currently, we use The Biggest Story Bible curriculum to guide our lessons.  It’s great to have a tool that you can use to help you feel prepared to lead your family.  The curriculum has lots of resources and is even set up to be used in home school settings.

First there is the story bible itself.  It includes 104 stories from Scripture written in a story format.  The philosophy of the writers is that each story is a part of the redemptive history of the Bible and shows how the entire Bible looks forward to the coming of Jesus.  

Along with the story bible there is access to coloring pages, crafts and other activities that will engage children in the lesson.  The website has many resources available for you.  If you want—my kids love doing it this way—you can even watch the stories in an animated version on YouTube.

Parent, you don’t have to be a bible expert to lead your family.  You just need to seek to know and help your children know the love of the Father that is theirs.  Help write the story of love and redemption on their hearts so your children can tell their children.