Family Worship: Discipleship of Children

“What good are your arrows if they are not straight, fletched, and sharp?”

-Coty Black

This is a call to those with children to disciple them daily in the area of family worship.  A call to action if you will.  Please hear me, that what is said in this article is not an end all for family discipleship style nor will it be perfect.  It is not a way to steal glory from God as to say, “Hey look at us perfect people”.  What it will be is a urging to begin a family worship time daily in your home.  It is to help our brothers and sisters in Christ to see this as vital. Why? Because we are set apart to God, that’s why. We are to be a holy people because God is a thrice holy God. Hardly should a thing be so important than the eternal destination of our children and our attention to it.

Children are Blessings

Those of us with children have a vast burden to bear that is a burden of blessing.  Children in culture today are viewed as a burden with even some being shunned in the church, but that is for another article.  No, here we will focus on the unseen discipleship that should take place daily with our children.  Blessed is the one who fills the quiver with the arrows of blessing from our God! Reference Psalm 127. We need not take the raising of them lightly nor take the spiritual discipleship of them as suggestive.  It is essential.  It is an area that I personally fail at miserably, and I pray that by some providence that you can glean from me what I have seen to be the greatest ministry in my family’s  life.

Christ the Foundation

Psalm 127 begins with opening the eyes of the reader to the understanding that the building of a home is useless unless God builds it.  Unless the Lord looks over it and sustains it, it will fail.  It will fall.  Fall to what?  Fall to the depths of despond of the culture it is built in.  If the foundation is wrong, great will be the fall of that house. Reference Matthew 7:24-27. Build your house upon the rock that is Jesus Christ.  Christ should be primary in your home.  Give glory to His name by making Him the head of your life so that by Him and through Him you can lead your household.

Family Worship

Let us transition now to the focus of family worship as a means to disciple your children.  I have been influenced by the likes of Paul Washer, Joel Beeke, and Voddie Baucham.  All of whom have great resources and sermons pertaining to the subject.  Gleaning what I have from them, my family and I have began family worship in our own home.  Both my wife and I have seen the absolute need for this worship time together. We have not been on this journey long I will admit, but for the last months we have made every effort to implement it daily.  Does that always happen? No.  Is it easy to get the kids who are not yet in school to sit still and listen? No.  Do they always interact and want to sing? Nope.  Have we seen the fruits of it? YES!

My children are small at the ages two and four. They love to climb the walls after jumping off of various amounts of furniture.   But they now look forward to worship time together.  As afore mentioned it is not always easy, but we make it happen.  Its that important to me.  Just to think that one day the Gospel maybe proclaimed from their lips is motivation enough for my wife and I. That they would love the Lord and follow Him all the days of their lives is our hope to for them. As the man of the house I lead the worship time.  Biblically  it is the role of the Father and Husband to be the spiritual leader of the home. I do not take that lightly and nether should you.

The Outline

Here is a brief outline of what we do:

1. We begin with prayer.
   1. At first I primarily would pray, but now my son says a prayer to open.  One of those fruits I spoke about.
2. I read from the Scriptures.
   1. Our family is going through the Gospel of John which I find to be a great introduction to Christ and His finished work for His people.  I ask about the story form the night before to introduce the next verses we read that night.  Reinforcing the main idea of the text.  We go verse by verse.
   2. Most nights all members of the family hold their own Bible. (My kids cannot read).
3. We do Catechism
   1. I ask questions about the scripture we just read through. Simple ones like “How many people did Jesus feed? How many loaves of bread and how many fish?” To more in depth ones, “How many gods are there? How many persons of God? Who are the persons of God? What are the three persons of God called?” They remember and it reinforces.
   2. I have focused on the first five questions of The Westminster Larger Catechism.  I fashion the questions in such a way that my children can understand.  It is amazing what children comprehend.
4. We Sing
   1. We as of now only do two songs, “Jesus Loves Me” and  “The Doxology”.
5. I Close in prayer

Call to Action

This simple little outline is exactly that, simple. Our worship time goes fifteen minutes, but if the questions from my wife or children begin to spark conversation, we go as long as it takes.  I feel as if this simple outline can be implemented in a family with children of all ages.  The best time we find to do our worship is right before bed after all have been bathed and teeth brushed.  Begin where and when you can, but begin. Simply put, family worship has become one of the most thrilling ministries of my life and one that has become my primary.  It is the focus of my day.  We love it and we hope that you too will sharpen your arrows, make them straight, and let them fly in the truth of our great God!