Family Worship

One of the suprises of grace on our sabbatical has been a renewal of family worship in our family life. Let me share that story with you.

When Jacob was about two years old (2006) and Jenny was working as the Resident Director at Western Baptist College (now Corban College), I read a book by the Presbyterian minister, J.W. Alexander titled "Thoughts on Family Worship."

Alexander's book confronted me with the rich tradition of family worship found in the Scriptures and challenged me with the numerous benefits that family worship brought into the life of a Christian family. Most importantly it burned upon my conscience my duty as the head of our family, to lead or family in the worship of God. I became convinced that family worship must not be treated as a "negotiable" but as a non-negotiable part of our family life (like our children eating, attending school, etc.).

So, sometime in 2006/2007 we began to take fumbling steps to worship God as a family. It was very simple: A short song/hymn, the reading of God's word, and prayer. During this time we began to encourage Jacob to worship with us by first, sitting still and listening and then joining us in prayer. And while it took some coaching and discipline, Jacob began to worship with us.

When we moved to Seattle in 2007 worship was firmly fixed as a part of our family rhythm. As each child came along - first Julian, then Judah, and Jackie - we taught them how to sing (play drums, dancing was allowed, etc.), sit still during the reading of God's word (We have read through over 1/2 of the Bible together as a family), and pray (they learned to pray before they could even articulate words).

So entrenched as part of our family life was worship, that the very last thing we did when we left our home in Seattle was worship. Our home was completely empty. The moving truck sat parked in front. Our life was going through a huge upheaval. But we stopped, sat with my brother and sister-in-law, and mom and dad, and worshipped God. We wanted worship to be the last thing we did in our home where we had worshipped so many times before.

We continued to worship as a family, about 3-4 times a week, in Indiana. We would worship in the mornings, before the kids went to school. But when Jacob began to go to Jr. High school this became a challenge. He left before the other kids. Also, as he began to do sports after school, and Julian and Judah as well, it became harder and harder to eat together as a family, let alone worship.

So we made stumbling attempts to worship, and succeeded here and there, but for the most part, for the last three years, we failed to find a regular rhythm for worshipping as family. But, to be honest, the real cause for our faltering family worship lay in my heart - my convictions about the absolute importance and necessity of family worship had been chipped away by other values, other concerns.

Then we went away on Sabbatical. And God used three families to challenge us, to call us back again to the core "non-negotiable" value of family worship. With each family we were invited in (as guests) to their worship as a family.

First, we were invited to worship with Julian and Deborah Hardyman's family in Cambridge, England. I remember sitting around the table on Sunday afternoon. Their was a World Cup Soccer match on but the TV was not on. We lingered around the table visiting. Than Julian got out the Bible and read. I remember being impressed with this thought: that for the Hardyman family, all the other great things (playing with friends after lunch, watching a soccer game, visiting, etc.) were secondary to the highest of all priorities - the reading and hearing of the Word of God as a family, in the home.

Second, we were invited to worship with Matt and Rachel Round's family in Linlithgow, Scotland. They worshipped with their young families in the evening, before bedtime. Their family worship was fun - singing songs that their young children could relate to, reading stories from a children's Bible, and praying together (Matt would lead the prayer). It was so rich to close our night together with the worship of God.

Third, we were invited to worship with the family of John Van Eyck in Tain, Scotland. After dinner the dishes were put away, and John led the family through a reading and discussion of a lengthy passage of Scripture. The discussion was full of questions (asked by John) and answers (from the kids). The questions were not just surface questions; they really dug into the Word of God - the history and teaching of the Bible. Our kids really enjoyed the digging into the Scriptures and the Q and A format.

God used these experience of family worship to do three things:
1. To renew in us a longing and love for family worship.
2. To remind us that family worship can and should be a "non-negotiable" in our family (like going to church, school; eating one's meals, brushing one's teeth).
3. To want to challenge and call our friends and spiritual family in Indy to family worship.

Perhaps a good question to start with would be this: If you had guests staying at your home, would it be natural or unnatural to invite them into the worship of God in your home?