Family Worship I: Soul Care

This week, we’re beginning a new series on family worship with Ryan Bush. Ryan is the editor of A Guide to Family Worship and the President of International Church Planters | Didache Institutes.

What is family worship? It is when a family comes together under the leadership of the head of the household to worship God using the ordinary means of grace (reading and proclamation of Scripture, prayer, and singing).

Family worship can be hard. But if we can remember that our time on earth is short and we have only been given these souls to care for and shepherd, then we will see family worship as essential. It is a matter of eternity.

How do I nourish these souls God has entrusted to me? Through the simple, ordinary means of grace. Read the Scripture, pray, and sing hymns. Family worship doesn’t have to be complicated.

If you want to start right now, gather your family and explain in simple terms what family worship is. Open with a simple prayer, read a short passage of Scripture, and sing one stanza of a familiar hymn together. This is an excellent way to start on this path of family worship.

Is there a command to do family worship? No. However, we see throughout the Word the principle of caring for your family and their spiritual well-being. It is part of the fabric of Christianity and our Christian heritage. Adam led his family, Noah led his, Abraham, and many, many others. Throughout Christian history, it has been part of what Christian families did. It would be hard to find a more implicit command in Scripture than this one. Who among us would say it isn’t right and good for the head of the household to lead his family in prayer?

One way to look at family worship is letting your family in on your personal time with God.

Jonathan Edwards writes, “Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules.”

A Guide to Family Worship is an order of service, not a how-to guide. It consists of:

Scripture Reading
Memory Verse
Catechism Questions
1689 London Baptist Confession
Puritan Prayer
Hymn

We’ve been closing our podcasts with these Puritan prayers from A Guide to Family Worship.

Come near, our Father, come very near to Your children.
Some of us are very weak in body and faint in heart.
Soon, O God, lay Your right hand upon us and say, “Fear not.”
Come near to kill the influence of the world with Your superior power.
Our Father, come and rest Your children now.
Take the helmet from our brow, remove from us the weight of our heavy armor for awhile, and may we just have peace, perfect peace, and be at rest. Amen.

—Charles Spurgeon