In my previous blog, I offered some suggestions for fruitful personal worship. I cited the Westminster Confession of Faith to highlight that the Bible gives us three primary ways that we should worship God. The first is personal private worship. The second is family worship. The third is corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. In this blog, I will offer some suggestions for fruitful worship with your family.
“Those families wherein this service of God [family worship] is performed, are as it were little churches, yea, even a kind of Paradise upon earth.” -William Perkins
As mentioned in the previous post, the elements of worship include the reading of Scripture (Acts 15:21, Rev 1:3). The preaching of Scripture (2 Tim 4:2). The singing of songs, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19, Col 3:16, James 5:13). Praying (1 John 5:13, Acts 2:42). Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Matt 28:19, Acts 2:42, 1 Cor 11:23-29).
Preaching, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper belong properly to the corporate worship of the church on the Lord’s Day. They require a Pastor and a congregation to be properly carried out. This, like personal worship, leaves reading, praying, and singing. Let me offer you some suggestions that may be helpful in family worship.
Reading
Reading in family worship differs slightly from personal worship. The Scriptures should be read aloud to the family followed by a brief teaching on the passage. Fathers, as spiritual leaders in the home should be the primary leader in reading and teaching.
Keeping with the theme of the last post, the goal is to keep it simple. This is even more crucial with family worship because you are ministering primarily to children with shorter attention spans. The total time of family worship should be 10-15 minutes. The reading portion should be brief and to the point with a simple, age-appropriate explanation.
The first suggestion I have for this portion of family worship is a teaching aid. It is not uncommon to feel nervous about teaching your family about God. Just remember we’re not looking for seminary courses. We are aiming for short discussions that regularly plant the word of God into our children’s hearts. To assist you in this, I recommend the “Family Worship Bible Guide”. This offers devotional questions on every chapter of the Bible. These will give you a starting point to explore the passage with your family.
Another helpful practice is to use a catechism. These lists of questions and answers will help you as you teach your children the truth of the bible. Traditionally the Westminster Shorter Catechism has been used. That is a good choice. For a simpler option, we have used “A Catechism for Boys and Girls.” Whichever you choose, your children will benefit from putting biblical truths to memory. It will help them to understand your teaching when you instruct them in family worship.
“Brethren, you are ordained of God to rule your own houses in his true fear, and according to his word. Within your houses, I say, in some cases, you are bishops and kings; your wife, children, servants, and family are your bishopric and charge. Of you it shall be required how carefully and diligently you have instructed them in God’s true knowledge…” -John Knox
Praying
Praying in family worship should not be different from how you would typically pray. Praising God for who is and what He has done. Asking His blessing upon the time of worship. Asking for forgiveness of sins. Asking for the needs of the family and loved ones. It is a blessed time to sit with your family and pray together. Family worship can often be noisy, hectic, and chaotic. However, there is a sense of peace and unity when you gather together and pray as a family.
The only suggestion I would offer you is to purposefully instruct your children in prayer during family worship. The truth is that our children learn to pray by hearing us pray. We do not get to decide if we teach them to pray. We do, however, get to decide what we are teaching them.
We can do this in two ways. The first is to make sure we ourselves are praying in a way that is worth imitating. They hear us and they will pray like us. The second is to give them positive instruction on how to pray and letting them pray during family worship. We typically alternate which child prays at the end. However you decide to go about it, use this time to intentionally teach your children how to pray. This is my suggestion.
“Prayer delights God’s ear; it melts His heart; and opens His hand. God cannot deny a praying soul.” -Thomas Watson
Singing
Psalm 118:15 says, “Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.” Singing in family worship should be marked by two things. The first is biblically sound lyrics. They should be songs of salvation. The second is a gladness in our expression. We have been saved by grace! And not only that but given the blessing of a family to worship with. These truths should fuel a glad expression when we sing together.
My first suggestion for singing in family worship is to choose songs that are filled with biblical truth. In our singing to God, the lyrics are the most important. The sound of the song comes secondarily. Consider that the most quoted passage in the New Testament is Psalm 110. The most drawn upon passage for New Testament teaching and theology comes from a song. When we sing in worship, we are teaching ourselves and those around us things about God. So, let the songs we sing teach us accurately.
My second suggestion is to stick with one song until all of the family can sing along together. It takes time to put things to memory. The repetition of a single song before moving on to another will help your family to learn songs more easily. After a while, you will have several songs you can start to rotate.
The last suggestion is to save your singing until the very end. The order we follow is pray, read/teach, pray, then sing. The reason for singing last is to leave the melody resounding in everyone’s mind. I cannot tell you how often our family will leave our time of worship and someone will be humming the melody or singing the song a few minutes later. That doesn’t mean singing at other points won’t have the same effect. However, saving it for last may give it a little extra freshness in the mind.
“Every well minded family by singing can make themselves a little church. And every church make themselves a little heaven.” -Nathaniel Holmes
In conclusion, my prayer for you is that you would enjoy the blessedness that comes with regular family worship. Lord willing, some of these suggestions will be helpful to you. If you have your own suggestions to add, feel free to leave a comment below!
Grace and Peace to you and your family!
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[…] my previous two blogs, I offered some suggestions for fruitful personal and family worship. Following this pattern, I will now offer some suggestions for fruitful corporate worship, […]