Family Worship


The month of February 2020 will be on the theme of Parenting. BUT before all of you single and married without children folks check out, I want you to know that many of the applications found in these articles will not only be useful for you in the future, but for the here and now and I will be putting some applications specifically for you in the last paragraph of each section.
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"Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish…Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." 
Ephesians 5:25-27, 6:4

As much as I would like to say that I grew up in a family that practiced family worship for many generations and that I have the secret formula for how to do it perfectly, I cannot. I grew up like many of you, where the only time you heard about God was when you were at church. I remember that we had tried several times to have a family Bible study, but they never lasted more than 2 sessions. In fact, my only experience comes from "hearsay" of others and from the ones that my wife have been doing. But let's start off with a definition. 

I define family worship as the regular singing, teaching, praying, and fellowship of a family around God's Word, being led by the head of the household. Generally, that head of the household will be the father, but I know that there are many heart breaking situations where the father is not present. Whether he is deployed out to a combat zone, has passed away, or is simply neglecting his duty by physical or emotional absence, this can be difficult for the mother or child to take on this role. Possibly, you do not yet have a family or you may be in a family without any believers, in those cases you would be the head of a single-person family. 

In our home, we practice family worship three times a week (Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and Fridays), in addition to our own personal daily Bible reading, and they may last up to 25 minutes. As Augustine grows up, we will need to reevaluate how we do our family worship, but since he is still a newborn and not actively involved in sports, clubs, or even just walking, we are sticking to our regular schedule. And that is really the key. You want to make this a rhythm and fixed part of your life, while at the same time being flexible when necessary. This should be a joyful time for you all and not a burdensome and bemoaning task. Not only are you using this time to bond as a family and to pray over one another, but you are growing together around God's Word so do it with joy.

How then do you do family worship? There are many ways to do this, but I want to share with you the way that my family conducts family worship. In fact, I will provide you with the "order of worship" that is being used by us tonight (2/5/2020).

Sing: We start off with a song because we are all called to "[address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart" (Eph 5:19). This is not only to be done at the local gathering on the Lord's Day, but should be practiced at all times, even in our homes. Tonight we will be singing "Speak O Lord" by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend.

Catechism: A catechism is essentially a way to teach doctrine through question and answer form. Currently we are on question 98 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: What is prayer? Answer: Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.

We spend some time talking through the question, as well as examining various passages of Scripture on this.

Bible Reading: The scriptures referenced above (Eph 5:25-27 and 6:4) remind fathers that we are to love and teach our wives and children. What better way to fulfill this mandate than through Family Worship where you are delivering, teaching, and instructing your family in the Word of God.

Tonight, Monica, Augustine, and I will be examining just one verse, Acts 19:19; however, some days it can range up to a couple of chapters (for those days, I will cover a specific theme for that portion of Scripture). The basic theme for tonight's teaching time and discussion in Acts will be on how disciples will remove idols from their lives and are willing to make costly sacrifices for the Lord.

Prayer: We will close with prayer thanking God for his mercies and request that our understanding of Him and obedience to Him grows. We may pray over specific personal requests we have as well.

As you can tell, you do not have to have a child or even be married to start the discipline of family worship. You can do that all by yourself or even invite a few friends over to worship God. I would recommend that you make this a regular practice though and that you find a set day and time for when you will do this for your own personal growth and sanctification.

Grace and Peace,
Alex Galvez

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If you would like to join Alex's 2020 Bible in a Year plan, you can download that here: Bible in a Year Plan

Question? Comments? Post in the comments or send me an e-mail: OverflowBlog@outlook.com

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