Social Distancing is currently one of the greatest responses our nation has in the face of the COVID-19, Coronavirus pandemic. The nation seems to be shut down as schools close, sport seasons end, concerts are cancelled, travel is restricted, trips are postponed, and churches are unable to meet in large groups. 

Many are working from home, and families suddenly find themselves with unexpected, extra time together. As movie theaters, malls, and restaurants close their doors, families are encountering unprecedented opportunity to spend time together outdoors and, primarily, in the home. 

During this time of quarantine and social distancing, Family Worship could once again move to the center of our hearts and homes. So to encourage us to this end, let me offer 

3 Reasons Why We Need Family Worship During the Coronavirus: 

Family Worship Allows Families to Intentionally Take Advantage of Extra Family Time

Many Christian families see value in praying together as a family, reading the Bible with one another, and allowing praise songs to fill the house, and yet, many Christian families find it challenging to find time for this sort of Family Worship. In the midst of busy calendars and demanding schedules, a natural and consistent rhythm of Family Worship might seem unattainable. 

For this season, though, as our nation’s response to the Coronavirus has created extra time with our families, we can, in this moment, spend these days praying with one another, reading the Word of God together, and enjoying praise songs in our homes. 

Let us not let this change go by. Let us not look back with regret, wishing that we had been more intentional. Instead, let us take advantage of this family time now by practicing Family Worship. 

Family Worship Allows Families to Encourage One Another During Discouraging Days

These are discouraging days in many ways. Today’s headlines will inevitably carry words such as “Coronavirus,” “Infected,” “Pandemic,” and “Death.” As of March 17, 2020, one source reports that the Coronavirus has infected more than 182,000 people living in at least 140 countries. More than 7,000 have died worldwide. These numbers increase daily, while stocks drop, businesses close, and Americans are told to avoid gatherings of more than ten people for the next fifteen days.  

In the face of such discouraging news, how important is it for families to cling to the Good News! 

Family Worship allows spiritual leaders in the home to point their families to Jesus Christ. As families share their hearts, enjoy the Word of God, and pray with and for one another, peace can replace anxiety, comfort fills our hearts rather than depression, and hope flows into the home faster than the nightly news broadcast. 

Your family needs hope right now. They need encouragement. They need peace. They need times of Family Worship. 

The mercies of the Lord are new every morning, and it is this mercy that we need every morning. Like our daily bread, we pray for His daily mercy, and as the Puritan, Matthew Henry, wrote, “Daily bread is received by families together, and we are taught not only to pray for it every day, but to pray together for it.”

Family Worship Allows Families to Embrace a Biblical Worldview of Today’s Events 

How is your family processing the Coronavirus pandemic? How do they view today’s events?  

If we are to filter the headlines through a biblical worldview, then we are going to have to make time to actually read the Bible together as we apply God’s Word to our lives and days.    

Leading in Family Worship allows the members of your household to embrace a biblical worldview. The prayer is that this would center our hearts on the hope of the Lord and the peace of Christ as we trust in the goodness and sovereignty of God, depending upon the One who will never leave us. 

As you find extra hours with your family this, week, I encourage you to take advantage of this time and lead in Family Worship so that you might develop new rhythms that could continue throughout the year, so that you might encourage one another and pray together, and so that you might all embrace a biblical worldview of the Coronavirus pandemic.  

Jonathan Williams, Ph.D. (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the founder of Gospel Family Ministries, the author of Gospel Family: Cultivating Family Discipleship, Family Worship, and Family Missions, and the senior pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston, TX. He lives in Houston with his wife and three children.