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Obstacles to Family Worship: 2. Time Management

Obstacles to Family Worship: 2. Time Management

Obstacles to Family Worship: 2. Time Management

Obstacles to Family Worship

2. Time Management

Obstacles to Family Worship: 2. Time Management

It is one thing to manage your time well when you are single or just married, but throw in a few kids and time seems to be like water in the hands. 

To make time for daily family worship, parents must be strategic with allotting a window of time to accomplish the task. This might mean waking everyone up 15 minutes earlier, which also means getting everyone to bed 15 minutes earlier, as well. 

It is best for parents to analyze the day in the life of their family and choose the most realistic time that they can do family worship, and then make it a daily habit. 

If family worship is not treated as mandatory, it becomes optional. And, in a busy family, the optional becomes completely dismissed.

Analyze your schedule today and make family worship a priority for your family.


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Obstacles to Family Worship: 1. Division of the Family Within Churches

Obstacles to Family Worship: 1. Division of the Family Within Churches

Obstacles to Family Worship: 1. Division of the Family Within Churches

Obstacles to Family Worship

1. Division of the Family Within Churches

Obstacles to Family Worship: 1. Division of the Family Within Churches

In the not so distant past, the “family pew” was the norm. The whole family would attend the same worship service and sit together. Worshipping God and learning about God was done together as a family.

In more recent centuries, churches have increasingly divided the family on Sundays. It is common for a family of 4 to be divided up into 4 different places on Sunday Mornings.  For example, the preschooler can’t be with the 1st grader, the 1st grader can’t be with the 6th grader, and the wife can’t go to her husband’s class, she needs a separate “women’s only” Bible study. 

Once the family is trained to be divided on Sundays to worship God, it is difficult to unify the family for worship on weekdays. Each one has grown accustomed to having the Bible taught to their specific style. 

Efforts should immediately be made to keep the family together for at least the main Worship Service on Sunday. Some churches are even trying to not divide at all on Sundays. Others are at least trying to unify Sunday school curriculum throughout the church. At least this way, if they are divided, they are still being taught the same Biblical subject matter.

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What is family worship? Is it something your family should start practicing?

Family Worship

What is family worship? Is it something your family should start practicing?

What is family worship? Is it something your family should start practicing?
In the context of the modern church, it is bizarre to think that a man could be removed from membership if he did not lead his family in family worship; however, this is the importance that the Directory for Family Worship, written in 1647, placed upon this training time. Any man that continually repeatedly failed at leading his family in Christian education and the worship of God was to be removed from the church. They believed that it was an essential part of being a Christian parent, and called it a “necessary duty.” 1

The Puritans believed that parental neglect of regular Biblical training (catechism) so severe, that the child could even be removed from the house! 2 That might be a little extreme, but it appears today that we have gone to the extreme in the opposite direction. Now it has become the norm to do no spiritual training or family worship within our homes. If we still abided by the Puritans removal of children from homes where family worship was being neglected, I fear that our churches would be composed of childless homes.

What is Family Worship?

Since family worship has become such an archaic term in Christianity, it is important to clarify the definition. What is meant by “family worship” is a distinct and consistent time set aside where the household comes together to worship God and study His Word. The most common ingredients to this time have been: prayer, songs, Bible reading/study, and catechism.

Family worship, as it was once defined, is where the parents take the primary responsibility of their children’s spiritual growth personally. Family worship is where the primary doctrinal beliefs were passed down to the next generation. The home was the primary place of Christian education.

Family worship is not to be confused with a family occasionally praying before a meal, or even having an occasional devotional type verse shared amongst them. It is a structured time of training and worshipping God together as a family.

Family worship was not accomplished only when the parents felt they had a moment to spare. It was done five to six days per week, every month, and every year. This method of spiritual development became the norm. It was common for any serious Christian family in Europe and even the early United States.

The Westminster Confession of Faith emphasized that worship was to be conducted “in private families daily.”1 This was not a new command, but they believed it was a return to a Biblical mandate.

Unfortunately, it has become a forgotten practice. What happened to it and, more importantly, how do we get it back?

There are several obstacles that must be dealt with to regain this critical training ground. Over the next few weeks, I will be breaking down nine of the most common obstacles regarding family worship and what we can do to over come them in our own families.

References
1. Terry L. Johnson, The Family Worship Book: A Resource Book for Family Devotions (Fearn, Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1998), 9.

2. Ibid., 11

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Denton, Texas 76205
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