Rediscover the Joy of Family Worship
We need to bring Family Worship through the front doors of our homes. We need to welcome these natural rhythms and overcome the challenges we face while living in a culture that finds family meals uncommon and family conversations, free of smart phone distractions, just as rare.
Blessings await any family seeking to bring the Gospel into the home through family worship.
Family worship is rewarding. It brings blessings that will find your family sharing your hearts with one another. It will afford you opportunities to hear your children talk about Jesus while growing in their love for the Lord. It will allow you space to speak words of confession, forgiveness, and grace to one another. Family worship opens up the door to prayers for daily bread, prayers of thanksgiving, and prayers for restoration.
Family worship is one of the most powerful ways we can seek to usher the gospel of Christ into our homes, and one of the greatest opportunities to enjoy the transforming power of Christ in our homes.
The joy of these family worship rhythms can be seen in Colossians 3:12-17.
This passage is filled with beautiful "one another" verses. Paul calls believers to bear with one another, forgive each other, teach and admonish one another, sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and to give thanks to God the Father. Can you imagine bringing these "one anothers" into your home? Can you imagine the joy for families who teach one another, give thanks together, forgive each other, bear burdens together through prayer, and sing praises together in their home?
These are the elements of family worship and love, thanksgiving, and worship are just some of the joyful blessings that await any family faithfully cultivating these rhythms in their home. The greatest joy, however, comes when we see family members following after Jesus.
In 3 John 4, we read: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."
When a family engages the Word of God together, shares prayer requests together, or enjoys worship music together, there is a deeper connection as hearts are opened and real life, real concerns, real fears, real hopes, and real needs all begin to trump the ever-busy calendar. Oh, what joy! Let us rediscover this joy in our homes.
We offer this booklet as a short encouragement for families to RENEW their passion for family worship, RECAST a vision for family worship, RESTART these rhythms, and REDISCOVER the joy of Family Worship.
Jonathan Williams, Ph.D. (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the founder and executive director of Gospel Family Ministries. This ministry focuses on strengthening family ministry in the local church and cultivating family worship in the Christian home. Jonathan is the author of “A Practical Theology of Family Worship” and “Gospel Family.” He also teaches as an adjunct professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX, and is the managing editor of the Southwestern D6 Family Ministry Journal. Previously, Jonathan served for 10 years as the senior pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic church of more than 50 nations. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.