Considerations for Family Worship

In my previous posts, I discussed the reasons for family worship along with the substance of family worship. My goal was to explain why a family should worship together and what they should do when they gather. In this post, I want to give some practical advice for ensuring that family worship takes place consistently.

Make it a priority
If family worship is not a priority to the spiritual leader, then it will never take place. The father must first be convinced of its importance and then determined that it should become a regular practice in the life of his family.

Create a plan
One of the best ways to ensure that family worship takes place consistently is by developing a plan. In other words, failing to plan is planning to fail. This does not mean the father needs to prepare a lesson. It means he just needs to know what he is going to do beforehand.

When it comes to reading Scripture, he needs to know what book of the Bible he will read. He should pick out the songs the family will sing, in case no one has any suggestions. He needs to have a memory verse or some catechism answers ready to be reviewed. The bottom line is that the leader must have a general idea of what he is specifically going to do before family worship.

Be consistent
It is difficult to make any habit stick if it is not practiced consistently. So, when leading family worship, make sure it is done at the same time and the same place. Oftentimes, it is helpful to schedule it around another activity that your family does daily (e.g. eating dinner together). This way everyone knows that after dinner the family will worship together.

Sometimes family worship will be inconsistent because of a busy season in the life of the family or neglect of the father. The important thing to remember during this is to persevere! Don’t quit altogether. Instead repent, receive God’s grace, and commit to leading in this capacity.

Keep it simple and concise
Family worship does not need to be a big production. In fact, it shouldn’t be; it should be simple. It also needs to be age-appropriate. The younger the children involved the shorter it will need to be. Five to ten minutes is really all the time required to do family worship.

Make it enjoyable
The benefit of family worship will be negligible if the spiritual leader’s attitude is crotchety. It’s important to worship God with reverence, but it’s also important to worship him with joy. Children are extremely perceptive and if family worship is led with a bad attitude it will inevitable infect the whole family. Family worship should be sweet time that all the members come to love and appreciate. It is the spiritual leader’s responsibility to make this happen.