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Family Worship has been talked about more often in recent days. There has been a desire among some church goers about worshiping God throughout the week, and not on the Lord’s Day alone. What follows does not serve as a “how-to” but more of a “why is this important.” For every family, worship is going to look different. Different books, styles, and formats all take place. One part looks the same, and that is the Word of God, the Bible is at the center of everything. Below are three blessings of doing family worship. The next post will offer three encouragements as you get started in this most rewarding task.

Three Blessings

(1.) Your Wife is seen as a co-laborer in the lives of the children

You may not have seen this coming. However, in our day, the world attempts to bring man and woman together as equal with no distinction. Everything a man can do a woman can and vice versa. The Bible teaches that men and women have different roles and tasks in this life (Genesis 3:16-19, 18:6-9). One way that husbands and wives come together is in family worship. They work together as a team. The Scripture is clear that fathers lead such an endeavor by teaching the Word of God (Ephesians 6:4). This does not mean that wives play no part, or that they are inferior. On occasion (as an exception), the wife may have to step in and teach.

There is great blessing in seeing the husband and wife come together in worship as a family. It shows the children that dad and mom are united in worship, it sets an example for them as to how worship is to be conducted if God were to give them a family, and it gives an openness to come to either dad or mom to answer any questions that the children may have.

Another blessing of worship in the home is that the children see dad and mom sit under the authority of the Bible. If dad is seen as supreme, then the worship is misguided. Dad and mom are to point one another and the children to God. Worship is not for the kids only, but for the parents as well. Worship is truly a group effort, and when it is done in this way, it is a blessed time.

Worshiping together as a family is not a blessing to the children alone, but to the married couple too. The Word of God speaks to the lives of the children being taught, but is not the Word teaching the parents who are leading? Of course it is! So, not only is family worship a blessing to all involved, but everyone is also learning. An example of this is the healing of the royal official’s son in John 4:46-54. After Jesus heals the child, the official heads back home and hears from his slaves that his son has been restored to health. After the hour in which he was healed was revealed to him, the first thing this official did was tell his entire family. How do we know? Because “he himself believed and his whole household” (v.53). The father led the effort, and his family was blessed by it unto their own salvation.

(2.) Children are given a proper view of the family unit

This may be one of the most vital parts of family worship. In our day, it is not a shock that the evil one is fighting vigorously against the family unit. Why? Because it is something that God has put together, and Satan hates God with every fiber of his being. However, when family worship occurs with the man as the lead and the wife as the co-laborer, it brings the family unit into perspective.

The verse that sets this up is a familiar one to many, Deuteronomy 6:4-7. These three verses provide the framework for how worship is to be constructed in the home. Now, this does not provide absolute particulars on how it is to be done. But it does give a starting place. That starting place is the Word of God. For Israel they were to “keep all His statutes and His commandments” (Deuteronomy 6:2). Today we are to keep the same, and we find them in the Word of God. The men would have been the ones to lead the family in worship. This is not because men are better than women, but because God has placed the man over the woman as head of the home (Genesis 3:16, Ephesians 5:23). With worship being carried out by a father and a mother, it shows children the necessity of having a father and a mother and shows them their roles in the family. The family unit is nothing to take for granted, it is a gift given by God to come back to Him and worship Him out of immense gratitude.

(3.) Family Worship parallels Corporate Worship

Family worship always works in tandem with Lord’s Day morning worship. You may have heard question, “Does your Monday-Saturday match your Sunday?” Family worship is a great assistant to make this a reality. Of course, no one is perfect. However, we must realize that no Christian can thrive or survive on a Sunday morning service alone. We need continual communion with God.

Two parallel texts (1 Chronicles 16:11, Psalm 105:4) show our daily need for Christ, “Inquire of Yahweh and His strength; seek His face continually.” How can we “remember His wondrous deeds which He has done, His miracles and the judgments uttered by His mouth” (Psalm 105:5) if we don’t spend time with Him? If we don’t do this, will our children? We demonstrate our daily need for Christ before our children. This culminates in the corporate gathering on the Lord’s Day. What a blessing it is to see the consistency throughout the week. The people of God are not hypocrites as many label us. We are the people of God who seek His face continually and plead with our children to do the same. The greatest of blessings is seeing our children as they age behold and live out their daily need for Christ.

May we worship as the family of God in the individual families in which He has placed us.

*All Scripture texts quoted from the Legacy Standard Bible, (LSB)