Family Worship

It seems that the tide of Christianity is going out in our Western nations; these lands which at one point were built upon a biblical worldview have now turned from truth and embraced a lie. The current predicament has generally led to two possible responses from evangelicals. There is one camp that has an end times view which says that everything will get worse, so let’s sit at the rapture bus stop to await our rescue from Heaven. Then there is another camp which argues that we should seek to continue to be salt and light in the world, even though at this present moment things are not looking healthy for the Church. I am firmly in the second camp; I don’t believe that the day is done, nor do I believe that all hope is lost. God has left us here to fight on for His Kingdom, but the question we need to ask is, “Why is there a decline in Christianity and what can be done to fix it?”

For the student of history this decline we are currently seeing won’t come as a surprise, as throughout the history of the Church we have seen the tide go out and then come back in again. It appears that there are times when the Church is strong with the nations being discipled, then in other periods the Church is weak with the nations turning to paganism.

This phenomenon we face in the twenty-first century church is not something that is new for our generation, even though many try to make out that we are now at the lowest ebb of Christianity (we aren’t!). In fact, if we could go back to the mid-17th century, we would discover that the Particular Baptists were wrestling with this question in their day and age. The Baptists, who were persecuted greatly, looked around their nation and saw a land that had experienced revival and reformation, but now a decline was occurring. As these godly men considered the situation, they discovered a cause of decline, and also a solution.

In the preface to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, in a section titled, ‘To the Reader’ the Particular Baptists wrote,

"And verily there is one spring and cause of the decay of religion in our day which we cannot but touch upon and earnestly urge a redress of, and that is the neglect of the worship of God in families by those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed."

As the Baptists surveyed the outgoing tide of Christianity in the 17th century, they discovered that one of the contributing factors was the neglect of family worship, that is, the neglect of families gathering together in their homes to read God’s Word and worship Him. In many ways, the 17th century church was similar to modern evangelicalism in that they had the mindset of going to church on Sunday, but throughout the week doing their own thing. This practice ultimately led to societal decline and a decrease of Christianity in the land.

The solution to this decline was to engage in family worship; there was a need to have regular Bible reading and teaching in every home. This was not some radical new revelation, rather it was a returning to the old paths of Christian thought and practice.

In Deuteronomy 6:6-7 we read,

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

In the Old Testament, God commanded His covenant people to ensure that their families learned the truth of Scripture. Daily God’s Word was to be opened with the family being instructed. What we have described here is a slow form of evangelism; each day the family is exposed to the Word of God, which is what makes people wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15).

If you are a parent, then you have children entrusted into your care from the Lord. Your role is to ensure that your child knows the gospel, and one way to do this is through family worship. All people, including children, are born dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1) and in need of the Saviour, so if we want our children to know Christ, then we must teach them about Him. To fail to teach God’s Word to our family is a severe case of dereliction of duty and is a great sin.

But how are parents daily supposed to teach our children God’s Word? We live in busy times, we are constantly on the go, so how do we effectively communicate God’s truth to our families?

Let me give you a couple of helpful tips:

1) We need to make time for our family. I will be the first to admit that this is hard; my schedule is constantly full, but I need to work at carving out time for my family. My first ministry is to my family, so I must make time to sit and talk to them about Jesus.

2) We need to have some form of plan on how we are going to teach our family. If we don’t plan, then we will fail. Take time to think through how you are going to conduct family worship. Something I would strongly encourage you not to do, is over complicate your family devotional time; it doesn’t need to be long or complex. Each family is different, so find a way that works for your family at this stage of life. As your family ages the dynamics will change, meaning you will be able to add and remove elements of your family worship plan. 

In my family we have tried a variety of different plans for family worship. There were periods when the only time we could get everyone together at once was around the dinner table, so what I would do is read through a Bible story book for children, then we would pray. This often occurred while the kids were still eating their meal. At the moment, we are using the Foundations for Kids books, which is jam-packed full of activities, outlines and guides on how to teach children. My kids love this book so much, that they have been asking to use it each night.

Other aspects of family worship which we have used (or still use), include the use of a catechism, the reciting of the Apostles’ Creed, singing the Twenty-Third Psalm, and praying the Lord’s Prayer.

There isn’t really a set method for how every family is to conduct worship in the home, but the principle is that we do something. Even if you simply read a Bible story book to your children and pray for them, that is miles better than doing nothing.

Our families need the gospel; your children are not born into God’s covenant of grace, so you need to ensure that truth is taught to them. This is slow evangelism, but it is vital evangelism as it will impact your children, their children and also society as a whole.

In your homes – keep making much of Jesus!