From House to House: Articles and Helps for Beginning Elders

By W. Huizinga

Armadale, WA 6992, Australia: The Reformed Guardian, 2004   73 pp. soft cover   Available at Bethel Book, 274 McNaughton Ave. East, Chatham, ON N7L 2G8, Canada   Phone: 519-351-4290

Reviewed by Rev. Jerome Julien.

Every year elders are faced with the task of Family Visiting. It is never an easy task and, because of this, there is always a desire for help. Before this book closes, there are ten different suggested passages for use on visits, with a short explanation of each passage. There are also suggested questions for discussion growing out of these passages. Every elder will find this section of great value for his work. The elders in the church I serve have found them to be very helpful.

Family visiting is a fading practice in many churches for many reasons—none of them good. This little volume will be of help in counteracting the trend. Issues such as the importance of the elder, the background and value of the Reformation practice of Family Visiting, and how it should be conducted are all considered on its pages. Perhaps a thorough study of it will restore this valuable practice to what it is meant to be.

Although the references are made to the “Form for the Ordination of Elders and Deacons” used by the Canadian/American Reformed Churches and by the Article 31 Churches in the Netherlands, we can certainly learn from these chapters—and should!  Any printed material on this subject is valuable for the whole Reformed community. There is precious little available today.

Material from three authors has been brought together to produce this small, practical volume.  Although the subtitle labels the book “for beginning elders,” even seasoned elders will benefit from studying it.