In the previous three articles, I have sought to persuade readers that the family is the foundation block of any society, that cultural change will come through the family, and that family worship is a critical practice to that end. I grounded this in Deuteronomy 6 and then provided several additional examples throughout Scripture that commend this practice to us today. But I think it is also worth looking at family worship in church history. By making a case historically, it must be stated that it does not carry the same weight as from the Bible. The Bible is the authoritative Word of God. That being said, we are not the first Christians who have walked on the planet! We stand on the shoulders of faithful men and women who have loved God, trusted in Jesus, were filled with the Spirit, and read their Bible. There is something to be said about how those who have gone before us understood their Bible and lived out its commands. If Christians before us did family worship, it would be solid evidence that what I have mentioned above is not a novel idea but one that has been seen in Scripture. And the reason I can make a strong historical case for family worship is because history is filled with such examples!¹

Early Church

One scholar says this of the early church:

“At an early hour in the morning the family was assembled and a portion of Scripture was read from the OT, which was followed by a hymn and a prayer, in which thanks were offered up to the Almighty for preserving them during the silent watches of the night, and for His goodness in permitting them to meet in health of body and soundness of mind…In the evening, before retiring to rest, the family again assembled, the same form of worship was observed as in the morning, with this difference, that the service was considerably protracted [that is, extended]…”²

John Chrysostom (C. 349-407)

Chrysostom is considered one of the greatest preachers in the church. He was the archbishop of Constantinople. One historian says he “urged that every house should be a church, and every head of a family a spiritual shepherd, remembering the account he must give even for his children.”³

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Luther was a monk who turned on the Catholic understanding of marriage being a sacrament and got married to a runaway nun named Katharina von Bora. They had six children and adopted four more from relatives. Although he wrote dozens of books and preached regularly, he was also a busy father and husband. He says, “The best thing in married life, for the sake of which everything ought to be suffered and done, is the fact that God gives children and commands us to bring them up to serve him. To do this is the noblest and most precious work on earth, because nothing may be done which pleases God more than saving souls.”

John Knox (1514-1572)

This was a man of whom the Roman Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, reportedly said, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.” He says of family worship, “Brethren, ye are ordained of God to rule your own houses in his true fear, and according to his word…And therefore, I say ye must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house use once a day at least.”

Seventeenth Century Confessions 

The Westminster Confession of Faith and Second London Baptist Confession both say (emphasis added): 

Neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship, is now under the gospel, tied unto, or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed, or towards which it is directed; but God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth; as in private families daily, and in secret each one by himself; so more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly nor wilfully to be neglected or forsaken, when God by his word or providence calleth thereunto.

Did you catch that? In the list of where God is to be worshipped in spirit and truth, they mention “as in private families daily” and then list the ones we would expect of privately and publicly!

The Directory Of Family Worship (1647)

The idea of family worship was so important that the Church of Scotland adopted an additional document called The Directory of Family Worship. It talks about:

• What is to be done in family worship
• Who is to lead it
• That nobody is to skip this time
• How to pray
• Exhort pastors to introduce family worship to others

It has fourteen points, but the most intriguing one is in the opening paragraph. It starts by saying that all ministers and elders are to take special care that these directions be observed and followed. It closes with this statement for those families who neglect to have family worship after several warnings: “He is to be gravely and sadly reproved by the elders; after which reproof; if he be found still to neglect family worship, let him be, for his obstinacy in such an offence, suspended and debarred from the Lord’s Supper, as being justly esteemed unworthy to communicate therein, till he amend.”

That is, to neglect leading in family worship was considered a sin worthy of church discipline!

Richard Baxter (1615-1651)

Baxter was a pastor at Kidderminster, England. He wrote 43 pages dedicated to why families should have family worship. He said, “Solemn prayer and praises of God in and by Christian families is of divine appointment…Family prayer and praises are a duty owned by the teaching and sanctifying work of the Spirit; therefore they are of God.”

Matthew Henry (1662-1714)

Henry is known for his commentary on the whole Bible. He is quoted to say, “Turn your families into little churches.” He also says, “If therefore our houses be houses of the Lord, we shall for that reason love home, reckoning our daily devotion the sweetest of our daily delights; and our family worship the most valuable of our family comforts…A church in the house will be a good legacy, nay, it will be a good inheritance, to be left to your children after you.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)

Would it be said of husbands as Bethan Lloyd-Jones said of hers, “Family prayer marked the close of every day, and after his death Bethan was to say that it was here that she experienced her greatest loss.”

Conclusion

Many more examples could be given, but this gives a good taste of how family worship has been understood and practiced throughout the history of the church. These, like the examples in the Bible, are worthy of our imitation (Phi 3:17). 

I trust, if you have not already been convinced, that these four articles have persuaded you to make family worship a practice in your home. In the next article, we will transition to more of the practical application. If family worship is not a practice in your home already, these articles will help you get started with the ‘how’ and ‘what.’ 

1 - I owe the following examples to Donald S. Whitney in Family Worship and Josh Mulvihill in Family Ministry.

2 - The Antiquities of the Christian Church, Lyman Coleman, 2nd edition, p. 375.

3 - Philip Schaff and David Schley Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 3 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910), 545.