Editor's Note: This article is number five in a multi-part series on family worship. If you'd like, you can read Part I, II,  III, and IV before continuing.

The last four articles in this series on family worship have built a foundation, which I hope has persuaded you, by God’s Word and the examples throughout church history, to make this a practice in your own home as well. Now, you cannot have a house without a foundation, but you can have a foundation without a house, and the purpose of this article, then, is to build some structure on that foundation; to put some flesh on it. The truth is, unless we start building the house, that is, putting what we have learned into practice, the work we do is in vain. We are called to be doers of the word, and not hearers only (Jam 1:22). Yet, in reality, every home will look different and have various seasons depending on work schedules, age of children, number of children, etc. Family worship is not a one-size-fits-all thing, so we will look at the key elements that make it up and you can adapt them for your family. In some ways, worship in the home should not be much different than worship on a Sunday morning. God has not commanded worship without telling us how, and three central elements to biblical worship can be summed up as: read, sing, pray.

Read

If knowing and loving the One God lies at the heart of worship, then having an open Bible is critical. If we are not being directed from the Scriptures, then we will be found guilty of worshipping a god of our own making. 2 Timothy 3:15 says:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

If being acquainted with the sacred writings (a reference to the Old Testament) can make us wise for salvation, why would we trust anything else? The question we need to ask is: are my children becoming acquainted with the sacred writings? I don’t just mean the regular Bible stories found in cute children’s Bibles (Creation, Noah’s Ark, David and Goliath, Daniel and the Lion’s Den), but the whole counsel of God. A few books that cover a good number of stories are The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones, and The Biggest Story Bible Storybook by Kevin DeYoung. Now, at young ages, there is a place for such books, but as early as possible we should make it our aim to open and read from the Bible itself, even if those books are a supplement. There are great resources that get you to open the Bible and provide summaries and questions to dig deeper. Such books include Long Story Short and Old Story New by Marty Makowski, as well as Beginning, and Wilderness by Joel Beeke and Nick Thompson. Another book by Makowski called The Treasure was the gateway for our family to transition from children’s storybook Bibles to the Scriptures themselves. When children learn to read, get them their own Bible as a special gift and have them open it during times of family worship. Most important though, may our children see that we love the Bible ourselves, and treasure it as the very Word of God (1 Thess 2:13).

Pray

A child can learn to pray long before they learn to read. J.C. Ryle, in his little book called The Duties of Parents, exhorts us in this practice when he says:

Parents, if you love your children, do all that lies in your power to train them up to a habit of prayer. Show them how to begin. Tell them what to say. Encourage them to persevere. Remind them if they become careless and slack about praying. Don’t let it be your fault if they never call on the name of the Lord.

Times of family worship should start and end with prayer. May our children never see us open the Scriptures without humble prayer for understanding and strength to apply it. May our children never see us close God’s Book without responding in prayers of praise, thanksgiving, petitions for help, and/or confession of sin.¹ Ryle warns us, “if you never hear your children pray yourself, you are much to blame.” May this not be so! It is not abnormal in a Christian home that prayer is offered before a meal, but may prayer punctuate every part of our day and so teach our children to look to God in everything. 

Sing

This one might scare most people, but it will pay dividends if integrated into our lives. Memorizing Bible verses tends to be hard work for most, but notice how a song can get stuck in your head without any work at all! This serves to highlight an important truth: we need to be careful what we sing! For the family that has musical talents, bring out that guitar or piano. If there is an inclination to sing well, get a hymn book, if not, there is YouTube (I use Spotify and have developed a list of my favourite worship songs).

That said, even if you don’t sing well, it is better to make a joyful noise unto the Lord and set an example of worshipping from your heart instead of putting on a performance. I know a brother who doesn’t sound very good while singing but belts the words at the top of his lungs and, most importantly, from the depths of his heart. That is far more important than sitting in silence and encouraging your children to do likewise! A few ideas to enhance this time:

1. 1. Pick a new hymn/song each week so that your family becomes familiar with it. 
   2. If you can, find out what songs are being sung in church for that coming Sunday, and integrate them into your family worship time. This will help your children engage more during the worship service as well.
   3. If you are good on your feet or prepare ahead of time, pick a song that fits the Bible story you are reading. This helps us and our children tie the Scriptures to the songs we sing as worship.
   4. Joni Eareckson Tada and Bobbie Wolgemuth have written a variety of books that not only give the lyrics to some of the best hymns but give write-ups as well to dig deeper into that song.²

Matthew Henry summarized these three elements of family worship nicely when he said, “They that pray in the family do well; they that pray and read the Scriptures do better; but they that pray, and read, and sing do best of all.” May we aim for the best of all! There is more, of course, and if one could add Scripture memory, that would be better yet!³ 

There is more to be said for building on this foundation, and we will put up a few more ‘walls’ in the next article to help give direction regarding time expectations, frequency, and other important questions.

1 - See a helpful article by John Piper called How Do I Pray the Bible?

2 - Songs of Suffering and Timeless Hymns are two.

3 - We have benefited greatly from the Charlotte Mason system you can find HERE.