About Family Worship

At our house, we have a worship time every night after dinner. Each time this comes up in conversation, the person learning of our nightly ritual is (1) surprised (as noted by the signature lifting of the brows and downturn of the mouth) and, then, (2) curious.

Very curious.

I mean church is that place you go once-a-week, right?  How much sin do you have in your life that you need to go every day? you ask.

We have some very clear reasons for why we do this:

1. Christ died for us, who are of the very unworthy variety. The least we can do is set aside time each day to worship Him.

2. Everyone (whoever’s living/staying/eating in our revolving-door home at the time) understands the importance of regular Bible study and hears the gospel.

3. We “train up our children” by so doing.

4. We continue the traditions of our American forefathers, for whom this was a normality.

5. Each family member develops leadership skills in this process.

6. The discussions are indescribable.

There are other, more Biblical foundations for this; however, the blog’s not long enough for that, and that’s really Big Daddy’s area of expertise. If he wants to write about all those, he can get his own blog.

To be clear, family worship differs from church in that it is a more discussion-based format. During this time, whoever’s in attendance has the opportunity to have questions answered, share observations about the text (of either the scripture or the song/s), etc.

The question we always get is, “What does that look like, in practicality?”

Answer? Whatever works for your family.

After many tries at coming up with a format that works for us, we’ve settled into the following:

We worship together 4 nights a week (Monday – Thursday).

We worship directly before or after dinner, depending on the time constraints.

We open with a prayer, said by moi. I’m a leader of something! Yay, me!

Then a worship song, led by the Diva (aka Jewel) and her guitar. She’s responsible for rehearsing these earlier in the day as a part of her daily guitar practice so that she’s prepared to lead with excellence. We each have our own, homemade song books, originally created by Big Daddy and added to over time, as Jewel had learned more guitar songs. We have guest books, too, because you never know who’s going to be in this house when it’s time for worship.

Next, we have share time. There’s always a reason to share something great God has done for us/in us/through us during the day. Blessings abound. Sometimes the Diva presents her most recent memory verse or a Latin prayer she’s learned, etc. Sometimes I get to tell Big Daddy about how she blessed the Cable Guy. Whatever the blessing of the day is, we share it.

Another worship song. More guitar.

Then, expository Bible teaching. That’s Big Daddy’s part. He’s so good at it. He has handouts and everything! Right now, we’re working our way through Genesis, which is good because we are giving the Diva scripture with which to refute her 5TH GRADE SCIENCE BOOK which is riddled with evolution “facts”. *sigh*

Dog gone John Scopes! Dog gone Charles Darwin!

Big Daddy’s a master teacher. I keep telling him he needs to save up all this stuff and publish a father’s guide to family worship. (Anybody know a good publisher? 😉  He’s patient and well-planned; my two, favorite teaching traits.

Oh, and he’s cute, too, but you already knew that.

When he’s done teaching, and we’re done discussing, Big Daddy prays for us. Then, we stand and sing the Doxology together.

Then, we’re dismissed.

Sometimes Family Worship is over in 20 minutes. Sometimes we’re there for 2 or more hours. It all depends on the discussion. It’s all totally worth it!

Besides breakfast, lunch and dinner, this is one of my favorite times of the day. You should consider yourself warned that, if you come to our house for dinner, family worship is part of the package.  It goes something like, “Fried Chicken with a side of communing with a Holy God.”

And the price is just right.

Y’all come eat!

AinW