Family Worship II: Still Waters

This week, we’re continuing our short 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 for a short time, 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.

The goal of family worship is not to have some picturesque order of worship with your family—to be admired by any chance onlookers. That’s not the point. You need to be okay with the messes, the chaos, the noise, or whatever unexpected circumstances that may come. Family worship is about glorifying God and showing your family day-by-day who He is, His faithfulness, His goodness, and His greatness.

You may be surprised how much your children are taking in during family worship.

The order of A Guide to Family Worship:

Scripture Reading
Memory Verse
Catechism
1689 Confession
Prayer
Singing Hymns

Most conversations may happen around the confession. There may be words they don’t understand or concepts that need to be further brought down.

This daily exercise helps us all to be consistent in looking at Scripture, studying the Word, using the catechism to engrain these truths into your head and heart.

The Puritan prayers have been updated, but are so rich and warm.

Why hymns? They are songs that lead you back to the still waters of the gospel. Many old hymns restate and express the gospel in such forceful, clear ways that they transcend time. They are just as relevant and powerful today as when they were written hundreds of years ago. Give your kids songs that they can grow into.

O great eternal Original, and Author of all created being and happiness!
I adore You, who has made man a creature capable of religion and taught us to say, “Where is God our Maker?”
We lament that degeneracy has spread over the whole human race, which has turned our glory into shame, and has rendered the forgetfulness of God, unnatural as it is, so common and so universal a disease.
Holy Father, we know it is Your presence, and Your teaching alone, that can reclaim Your wandering children and impress a sense of divine things on the heart. Amen.

—Philip Doddridge, A Guide to Family Worship