The Importance of Family Worship

[B.L.]

Good Evening Friends,

Lately the conversations many of us have had in our homes, with members of our congregations, and no doubt here on the PB has revolved around worship, specifically how COVID-19 has impacted our ability to gather for corporate worship. For the fortunate few who are in smaller congregations perhaps the worship services have continued on unabated; however, for the overwhelming majority of us we have been navigating through uncharted territory and haven't had the ability to gather corporately for over a month. The loss of the blessing that comes from gathering with others for corporate worship is real.

However, for those of us who have spouses and/or children living with us I would like to encourage everyone to regularly gather together for family worship. Though I haven't seen it expressly communicated here on PB, I think a fairly common belief is that family worship is of lesser importance than corporate worship. If not revealed by our words it is proven by our actions each week when it is neglected.

We might not be able to control when we gather again for corporate worship, but for families that are adhering to stay-at-home orders there has never been a better time to strengthen or perhaps start for the first time a daily routine of family worship. To that end I wanted to draw attention to an article written by William Boekestein titled Family Worship 101 that posted to Ligonier last month. It's a good read that I hope will be edifying to everyone.

If you have any resources to share or perhaps a story of how your household has engaged in family worship during this COVID-19 pandemic please share for everyone's edification and encouragement.

Blessings to you all!

 

[KMK]

We might not be able to control when we gather again for corporate worship, but for families that are adhering to stay-at-home orders there has never been a better time to strengthen or perhaps start for the first time a daily routine of family worship.

Hmmm.... I wonder if this is part of the Lord's plan.

 

[Stephen L Smith]

Good Evening Friends,

I guess for you it is evening April 17. Here is is early evening April 18.

Reformation Heritage Books has an amazing range of materials for family worship

Search

www.heritagebooks.org

 

[Kinghezy]

As of yet, our family worship hasn't changed because of coronavirus. We already had something established and I have been slowly building up the elements in it.

What has changed, is our church has an abbreviated litugry with the livestream so I have been doing a family devotion that has some of elements in the worship service. I have been able to tweak that to fit what I prefer my church to do: longer scripture reading and systematic reading of shorter catechism. I anticipate keeping a longer scripture reading on Sundays AFTER we are back to a worship service. I may also add a quick shorter catechism read into family worship, to not lose that.

 

[Jack K]

Having older kids, we have enjoyed more consistent family worship during this time. Normally, things are somewhat haphazard because of the various commitments each of us has outside the home.

I have wondered if churches have missed an opportunity in this crisis. It seems the knee-jerk reaction for most churches is to try to keep their various programs and classes going as much as possible by figuring out how to move them online. But perhaps we should be thinking less about keeping church programs going and more about encouraging and equipping families to do their own spiritual formation.

 

[Jo_Was]

Before quarantine, I started facilitating middle schoolers in my church through a study on the Heidelberg Catechism, and have found this material that the Protestant Reformed Churches in America (PRCA) has made to be quite profitable: http://www.prca.org/resources/catechism-material

They have some particular PRCA-isms, and I tied in our Scottish confessional documents and emphasis in the ARP into the lessons that I used, but overall it is very good and I and my students have profited greatly from it. For perspective of audience, I have done it with a group of majority 6th graders. It has been good to challenge them a bit further in their growth and they have enjoyed discussing the hard questions and doing "Big T" theology as we say in the class. It also does a good balance of being more like a journal/workbook with different methods and formats for discussing the topics. It also challenged me as the teacher to really think through each lesson. It was a blessing to see how it helped the students. The kids were so excited to get to learning about God's Deliverance before we came into quarantine. We talked a lot about suffering and difficulty in this life, sin and our misery, and the nature of God, and I believe it providential to the times that we were able to have those conversations before things "got real." But I digress...

I love the Heidelberg Catechism in general as a great catechism to do with children (and even newer believers or people unfamiliar with catechisms), because it's very pastoral/devotional in nature...and it's nice that it's pre-formatted for each Lord's Day as far as planning is concerned

I would recommend it to others to use and/or adapt for their purposes. I have not looked at the other materials on this page, but it does look like they have some other materials as well and for different age groups.

 

[1689theologychick]

I have wondered if churches have missed an opportunity in this crisis. It seems the knee-jerk reaction for most churches is to try to keep their various programs and classes going as much as possible by figuring out how to move them online. But perhaps we should be thinking less about keeping church programs going and more about encouraging and equipping families to do their own spiritual formation.

I have had the exact same thoughts! This is a time for the church to do exactly what you're saying. We are not able to "have church" as it's "supposed to be" right now. And trying to manufacture a status quo service online is not helpful. What we're doing isn't "church" as we know it, it's family worship at home. I feel if you can't administer the sacraments, it's not really a church gathering. And that can't be done virtually.

It would be incredible for churches to use their virtual training for equipping classes on how to implement better family worship and training at home for those who've either never done so, or feel they are doing it poorly and would like to grow in that area. I had a brief conversation about this with my pastor at the beginning of the stay-at-home orders. Maybe we need to FaceTime with him again to offer any help in this area. My hubby does the media and I am the de facto Zoom "expert" right now because I have an account and I already knew how to use the platform.