Family Worship
4″Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Somehow I missed it. The necessity of championing family worship in our church. The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) has been the center of Jewish thought for centuries. It was so important to Jesus that he quoted it as the most important commandment given to man. (Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27) Chances are you have heard the Shema quoted many times, both within the church and outside as well. However, there is a stunning fragmentation of context between the end of verse 6, and the beginning of verse 7.
In moving from the ideology of the Shema to it’s implications on how we live it out can easily be missed if we stop short of verse 7. The way the text bears weight on our lives is wrapped up in the commission to teach them “diligently” to our children. Or, in modern day time, to live out the Gospel together as a family and to practice spiritual disciplines together. This diligence implies both an educational impartation and a tangible expression of what it means to walk out loving God with al our hearts, souls and might. Could this often overlooked piece of Christianity in the modern church be the spiritual practice that sustains healthy marriages, strong families, and Gospel-saturated churches? As a worship pastor, I confess I have not done my part in calling men, in calling families to the importance of family worship.
However, I cannot ignore or articulate the possible impact it may have on the life of Christian families. Matthew Henry, the beloved commentator wrote of family worship, “If therefore our houses be houses of the Lord, we shall for that reason love home, reckoning our daily devotion the sweetest of our daily delights; and our family-worship the most valuable of our family-comforts… A church in the house will be a good legacy, nay, it will be a good inheritance, to be left to your children after you.” In practicing family worship we are walking in obedience to God, by teaching our children what it means to walk in communion with God.
Though since before Jamie and I were married we had begun to read the Scripture together, it never dawned on me to call other men to do the same with their families. I simply overlooked what I believe to be an invaluable tool for the Kingdom. Donald Whitney encourages us to practice three things in family worship: read, pray, sing. In this first post, we will look at beginning family worship with a simple spiritual discipline: reading the scriptures as a family. I will give three ways to incorporate the scripture into your family worship experience to try and give some resource to those who struggle with the idea of reading together as a family.
Read the Scripture
The life stage of your family is important to take into consideration when it comes to reading the Scriptures. In our house, with three kids under four years old, we have picture bibles we use that outline narratives from the text. When half of your kids vocabulary is animal sounds, the more four legged creatures, the better. If there’s a lion, a camel, a donkey, a whale, or a snake involved – my kids are in. The important thing at this age is simple starting the practice of family worship, even if it’s messy and chaotic. The thing I’ve learned from this is to not expect more from my kids than they can handle. I want them to love the word of God, but parsing Greek verbs at this stage would kill any attempt of them growing to love the Scriptures. So, contextualizing the Bible to your kids age is necessary.
There are numerous resources available online and at your local book store for age-appropriate devotional books. As soon as they are of age, Donald Whitney prescribes, “As the Children get older, set a goal of a complete reading of the New Testament, and later of the entire Bible. Read enthusiastically and interpretively. Explain words the children may not understand. Clarify the meaning of key verses.” Psalm 119:97 appeals not merely to our minds in reading, but to our hearts as well, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.” The goal of Scripture reading is not to amass a quantity of information, but to discover the heart of God. In doing so, our lives are continually shaped into the likeness of Christ.
Memorize the Scripture
Scripture memory in the life of a worshiper should be the blood line to knowing God. The scriptures are useful in teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16) They are the very revelation of God. As the people of God, his word should hold a place in our hearts that is reserved for God alone. The words of man will crumble and fail, but the word of the Lord is eternal. (Isaiah 40:6-8)
There are many useful tools to help your family memorize scripture. There are flash cards with short verses that are foundational texts, or scripture in song. You can write them in visible places in your home where everyone will be reminded of them. I think the key here is to be creative in how you learn them. DIscover your family members learning styles (kinesthetic, visual, auditory, tactual). If you learn visually but your spouse learns kinesthetically, your family worship will have to entail some flexibility.
Scripture memory enables us to hide the word of God in our hearts that we may flee from sin (Psalm 119:11). It also builds an arsenal for us to withstand the attacks of the enemy and renew our minds (Romans 12:2)
Sing the Scripture
Singing the scripture in song can be a very exciting and memorable way to champion the scriptures in your family worship time. Whether you choose to sing hymns, or songs your church does regularly, or in my case, Jesus Loves Me a thousand times; we are a singing people. God commands us to sing, and even if singing is not your forte, singing the Scripture is a wonderful way to instill the truths of God deep within you.
In this first post, we have looked at the place of the Scripture in family worship. As we continue to look at the practice of family worship, we will cover the other two disciplines: prayer and singing. Let us together contend to make family worship a staple in our homes as we continue to make our lives living worship. (Romans 12:1)
(to be continued)
Reflections:
What has been your experience of family worship in the past?
Men, how are you doing at leading your family in worship as the pastor of your home? What are you doing well? Where can you improve?
What practices can you put into place today to ensure you are living out the Gospel in your home?
