It’s one of the most basic things that a Christian family does—or should do. And yet there are many Christian parents who’ve just never been taught. They might be new Christians, or perhaps they grew up in a church-going family that was just not very serious about following the Lord. For them especially, I’ve been meaning to write this practical post about how to do family worship. This is about the practical side of it. I’m not going to explain the biblical rationale for it today. Instead, I’ll just assume that we agree that Christian families should worship God together. Moreover, I’m not presenting this as the definitive way to do family worship. Rather, this is the way our family does it. There are other ways to do it. There’s freedom for that.
In our family, we normally do family worship after our evening meal. At the beginning of the meal, I normally lead in prayer and give thanks for the food. During that prayer, I’ll also ask for God’s blessing on our family worship later.
After the meal is over, we’ll begin by reading Scripture. Throughout our married life, my wife and I have just constantly read straight through the Bible in our family worship. For many years, I would just read and everyone else would listen. But in the last few months, everyone has a Bible and everyone takes a turn reading a verse or two from the chapter. Most times we read an entire chapter, but if the chapter is long we might split it up over a couple of days or more. The hard part for a father is trying to make some intelligent comments about what is read, comments that draw out the meaning of the passage, how it points to Christ, and how it applies to our lives. That can even be hard for a father who’s a pastor! This is where you can really benefit from the Reformation Heritage Study Bible (see my review here). Every chapter includes “Thoughts for Personal and Family Worship.” This feature has also been distilled into the Family Worship Bible Guide. Sometimes there are just comments, other times questions to ponder or discuss. It’s really enriched our Bible reading time! Read More»
Wes Bredenhof | “How to do family worship” | December 12, 2023
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