# Family Worship



## Tyrese (Dec 27, 2012)

What does family worship look like for you and your family?


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Dec 27, 2012)

After we finish dinner and the table is cleared we pray, read scripture, talk about the passage, sing a psalm (usually thee same one every day for a week), and then close in prayer. Takes 15-20 minutes.


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## jwithnell (Dec 27, 2012)

Definitely Bible reading with discussion and prayer. Sometimes hymns. I want to push the latter in the new year.
The key for us was finding the right time ... right as the little guys are getting ready for bed.


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## housta (Dec 27, 2012)

We do a brief scripture reading (daily readings with a theme, from my son's sunday school bookmark), do our children's catechism questions (1-15 for my 4 yr old, 1-30 or so for my 6 yr old), then a chapter from Catherine Vos' Children's bible, then close in prayer. We do this right after dinner.


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## Wayne (Dec 27, 2012)

Tyrese

A less personal response, but here's a resource that looks very helpful:

http://www.chapellibrary.org/files/archive/pdf-english/fworfg.pdf

Monergism has even more:

http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Prayer/Family-Worship-and-Prayer/

(and many of these look more practical, real life)


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## Tyrese (Dec 27, 2012)

We Sing a Psalm or a Hymn, Bible reading, discussion and prayer.


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## Wayne (Dec 27, 2012)

It sounds like you have it covered quite well.


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## Jack K (Dec 27, 2012)

It's at the dinner table, after I'm done eating. As the kids finish their meal, I read the Bible. We work our way through whole books. Then we discuss the passage and pray. We usually end with singing once the kids are done eating. Seldom more than about 15 minutes.

It's a regular part of mealtime. "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word..."


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## Tyrese (Dec 27, 2012)

Wayne said:


> It sounds like you have it covered quite well.



Im surprised to see many of us have a lot in common when it comes to family worship. I cant wait to see other responses.


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## Elizabeth (Dec 27, 2012)

We use the evening prayer office from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, and sometimes compline from the Lutheran Service Book. The two traditions(Anglican and Lutheran) are quite similar in their wording, order, etc. My hubby is an exquisite cantor, so he sings the psalms, while I sorta hum along.


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## irresistible_grace (Dec 27, 2012)

We have three small children so it can be a little chaotic at times but ...

My husband opens with prayer.
Then the children are asked this weeks catechism question followed by that days passage from Starre Meade's Training Hearts Teaching Minds.
Then my Husband reads from the Old Testament pointing out things as he goes. 
Then he reads a Psalm (or portion of a Psalm) 
Then we sing that Psalm from our 1650 version of The Psalms of David in Metre
Then he reads from the New Testament pointing out things as he goes.
Sometimes we sing another Psalm at this point.
Then he reads a chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, a question from the Larger Catechism & a portion of the Directory for the Publick Worship of God.
Then we pray as a family starting with the youngest and ending with Daddy. 

NOTE: Since the youngest cannot speak yet we recite the Lord's Prayer.

Our Children are 13mo., 3yr. & 5yr. of age so we only spend 30 to 40min in Family Worship during the week

On the Lord's Day the only thing that differs is that there isn't a reading in Starre Meade's book so we read a passage of Scripture about the death and resurrection of Christ in the morning family worship & in the evening we discuss the Word that was preached followed by family prayer.

And, on Preparation Day (aka Saturday) we have a second family worship in the evening to practice the Psalms that will be sung on the Lord's Day and to read the passages of Scripture that will be preached on (based upon the bulletin we receive Friday evening via Email).


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## kvanlaan (Dec 27, 2012)

We start with prayer, eat, then end with Scripture reading and Catechism and a closing prayer. I know we should be singing, and the kids would like to as well, but we often end at 9pm or thereabouts and we are starting to lose kids at that point (evening chores combined with my return home at about 6pm make an early meal impossible). Also, we like to ideally read from Proverbs or OT in the morning and something NT in the evening.


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## Tyrese (Dec 29, 2012)

kvanlaan said:


> We start with prayer, eat, then end with Scripture reading and Catechism and a closing prayer. I know we should be singing, and the kids would like to as well, but we often end at 9pm or thereabouts and we are starting to lose kids at that point (evening chores combined with my return home at about 6pm make an early meal impossible). Also, we like to ideally read from Proverbs or OT in the morning and something NT in the evening.



Hopefully my schedule will improve this year so we can also worship as a family in the morning before I leave for work.


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## kodos (Dec 29, 2012)

Basically, we open somewhat formally, "We are gathered for Family Worship in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit" to establish what the time is about, and who it is about.
Then we ask for God's blessing and aid via His Spirit to assist us in our worship.
Then we sing a psalm of the month, and then another psalm either that the kids request or that I choose.
Then we go through our Scripture reading (right now we are going through John).
I will spend some time in half exposition / half asking questions about the passage with the older children.
We then close in prayer, doing corporate pleading for our sins and intercession that the kids and us as parents will bring before the Lord (group prayer).
We sing another psalm (maybe 2). Our youngest daughter (3) often requests Psalm 23A from Book of Psalms for Worship
Then we read a blessing from Scripture and go to bed.

This takes about 15-20 minutes, and can be scaled depending on how the children are doing and how late it is. The kids love it, and it's been very fruitful since we went to a more formal structure like this. The fruit in our lives (not just the kids, but us as parents) has been remarkable as well.


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## Jack K (Dec 29, 2012)

kvanlaan said:


> We start with prayer, eat, then end with Scripture reading and Catechism and a closing prayer. I know we should be singing, and the kids would like to as well, but we often end at 9pm or thereabouts and we are starting to lose kids at that point (evening chores combined with my return home at about 6pm make an early meal impossible). Also, we like to ideally read from Proverbs or OT in the morning and something NT in the evening.



For what it's worth, I don't think you ought to worry about what more you "should" be doing. Rather, it's wise of you to cut things off when you start to lose the kids' attention. Some parents, feeling burdened by all they "should" be doing, try to do more than little ones can realistically take in and appreciate in one sitting.


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## jwithnell (Dec 29, 2012)

OK, this is weird. Somehow a link was added to my post -- Bible Reading -- that I didn't make and can't edit.


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## irresistible_grace (Dec 29, 2012)

Jack K said:


> For what it's worth, I don't think you ought to worry about what more you "should" be doing. Rather, it's wise of you to cut things off when you start to lose the kids' attention. Some parents, feeling burdened by all they "should" be doing, try to do more than little ones can realistically take in and appreciate in one sitting.



I agree & disagree. 
Don't feel burdened by all you "should" be doing. 
However, do NOT cut things off. 

Kevin (aka Kvanlaan),
You may need to change things around if you are losing your children's attention but there is _nothing better_ you could be doing than Family Worship so don't cut anything out of you don't have to. My "little" children have no problem sitting through 3hrs of The Lord of the Rings so I know that 40 minutes of Family Worship is not too much for them nor is it the end of the world. We want several children so we know we will have "little"children for a long time. If we cut things out to accommodate them it will be to the neglect of the others. We are preparing all of our children to be godly Christian adults and this begins in infancy! Worship is a duty and a privilege! Be encouraged. You are doing great!


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## kvanlaan (Dec 31, 2012)

> Kevin (aka Kvanlaan),
> You may need to change things around if you are losing your children's attention but there is nothing better you could be doing than Family Worship so don't cut anything out of you don't have to. My "little" children have no problem sitting through 3hrs of The Lord of the Rings so I know that 40 minutes of Family Worship is not too much for them nor is it the end of the world. We want several children so we know we will have "little"children for a long time. If we cut things out to accommodate them it will be to the neglect of the others. We are preparing all of our children to be godly Christian adults and this begins in infancy! Worship is a duty and a privilege! Be encouraged. You are doing great!



We have the same issue - long movies, no problem. Long discussions (we try to make it interactive if at all possible) and we seem to lose a few (6 yr old, nine year old, one 12 year old). These kids are getting up at 5:30am for morning chores and homeschool all day, so I do understand that they aren't going to be 100% alert after a full meal and 14 hours of daytime activities, but we also want to make this the priority, I would rather skip the meal and still do the devotions!

Thanks for the encouragement!


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## Grant Van Leuven (Jan 3, 2013)

Much of what has been suggested we find helpful in various degrees depending on days and weeks. 

My advice from experience (with three young children) is at that the Westminster Shorter Catechism is very helpful. We have a teaching/memorization time at church after the Sabbath Evening service, which includes endeavoring to memorize the SC and a Scripture for it of the week. So we work on the SC and Scripture leading into each Sabbath and find it very edifying in family worship, and great for continuity and connection to our greater covenant family. The children are encouraged when they are able to memorize, I find it helpful to review (had to memorize for Seminary but you do lose it if you don't use it), and it allows for many meaningful discussions when simply seeking to explain its parts over the week (and the assigned Scripture from memory cards by Dr. Richard Bacon/Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed). We always sing Psalms and pray, and usually we involve other Scripture reading (we often do enjoy taking turns reading Catherine Vos's Bible Stories). But when time is short, having the regular SC and accompanying memory verse with the singing of a Psalm or two can always be managed (can expand/extract per available time and energy), and it is always quite fruitful.

I wanted to share that about a half a year ago, we came into the habit of taking turns around the table sharing about what each of us have been reading in our Bibles that week. Some nugget that stood out to each of us in personal devotions. A young man from our church who is with us each Sabbath participates too. It always makes for great discussions as Dad tries to highlight a thing or two or make a connection to something else. And it helps motivate and give accountability for each us of us reading our Bibles. I had been giving extra attention to the children each reading their Bibles each morning before they do anything else. Knowing we'll chat about what we've been reading each individually after lunch for a Sabbath rest family worship is a great motivator (I don't mean guilt trip -- they generally look forward to it and I don't need to remind them during weekday mornings nearly as much to read their Bible as a result). This has been such a blessing for our family, I wanted to suggest this for Sabbath lunch worship (before a good nap!).

Also, I highly recommend the following little booklet on Family Worship by Donald Whitney: Store - The Center for Biblical Spirituality. I heard him share this booklet in lecture form at an event my seminary held years ago and was deeply moved. It's got just enough, but is manageable to use in teaching other men to begin family worship in their homes. We used it for a Men's Study a year or so ago and it was very well received.


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## extolHIM (Jan 4, 2013)

We used to do it at around 8pm, but started finding that right after dinner...about 6pm works best for us. We have four kids...14, 13, and 9 years, and a little one of 11 mos. We usually start with singing. Most of the time 2 songs. I usually pick out two songs off You Tube and set my Mac Book up in front of us all and we sing along with the song with lyrics on screen. We usually do a mix of hymns and more contemporary praise & worship. Then, what we do after that differs. Right now we are reading through Pilgrim's Progress, which we try to do once a year. During December we went through John Piper's little Advent book that they made available this year. We've read through different books of the Bible. We went through Joel Beeke's Reformation Heroes book. And we often go through Starr Meade's catechism book as well. I like to do different things from time to time so it doesn't just get monotonous. I think the one thing I want to try to do more this year is at least mix in the catechism every night instead of just everyone once in a while. That's something that I want my kids to not just be exposed to, but to learn well and understand. As for how often, we usually try to do it every night except the Sabbath since we are at church in the evenings. If we miss church or if it's cancelled for any reason, then we will do family worship that evening. Anyways...that's pretty much how we do it.


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## Grant Van Leuven (Jan 4, 2013)

This is a topic I'm passionate about, and I thought of two other very meaningful resources for me I'd like to suggest:

First, "Gather the Family", a DVD geared at encouraging families to begin family worship (includes interviews with R.C. Sproul, Jr., and Kevin Swanson). A lot of why I brought family worship in my family was being around it with my RPCNA brethren in their homes. This video also was very well received in our Men's Study on this topic, and I think it proved to be the most motivating of all the resources we used because of the real life examples in the video in people's homes (and discussions of the challenge but importance of making changes to have family worship). Modeling/discipleship made me want family worship for my family, and I think this video takes that approach and does it well. Also, some great special features include concert selections by musician Nathan Clark George: Gather the Family

I've also been impressed that the Westminster Divines devoted a section to this topic right after The Form of Presbyterial Church Government. Be sure to read the Assembly at Edinburugh's 1647 Act accepting the document just before, which is included in this link (they sure took Family Worship seriously!): The Westminster Confession of Faith Subordinate Documents


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## BrettLemke (Jan 4, 2013)

I'm currently developing our Family Worship but right now this is what we've been doing with moderate success (my children are 4 and 2 and a half yrs. old)

1. Call to Worship (I sing Psalm 95, "Come let us worship and bow down...")
2. Prayer
3. Psalm of the Month (Psalm 1 right now!)
4. Scripture Reading (I'm leading my family through the story of redemption so: creation, fall, redemption, consummation. I'm trying to give my family an overview of the whole Bible)
5. Exposition/Questions
6. Catechism (we're using the Kid's catechism right now supplemented with WCF readings appropriate for where we are in redemptive history)
7. Psalm-singing, I try to pick something that ties into our Scripture reading
8. Intercessory Prayer 

So far we're averaging about 15-20 minutes. Our kids are adjusting to it, especially my precocious 2 year old!


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## Christusregnat (Jan 4, 2013)

Brother Jackson (by the way, I love that name; it's my second son's name),

We have two different sessions each day;

1. "Come ye children" (this is just me with the children) 
-Call to worship from Psalm 34:11
-Opening prayer by me
-Recitations of the 10 Commandments and Beatitudes
-Reading a chapter in Proverbs
-Sing a Psalm or two
-I close in prayer
-Benediction

2. Family worship
[take prayer requests before worship begins]
-Call to worship
-Children pray (from oldest to youngest; we use set prayers for all our children, as they're young) [on the Sabbath we all say the Lord's Prayer together, and then my wife and I pray]
-My wife prays
-I close in prayer
-Old Testament reading (with comments and lessons as we read; we're reading straight through the Old Testament)
-New Testament reading (with comments and lessons as we read; just began Matthew 1 on January 1; also reading straight through)
-Westminster Shorter Catechism learning and recitation [this depends on time available]
-Singing of a Psalm or two [this likewise depends on time available]
-Closing prayer by me
-Benediction


This is, of course, an ideal day, with enough time, no sickness, and keeping to our schedule. 

I hope that is helpful. I got the form for this (mainly) from the Westminster Directory for Family Worship.

Cheers,


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## Tyrese (Jan 9, 2013)

Christusregnat said:


> Brother Jackson (by the way, I love that name; it's my second son's name),
> 
> We have two different sessions each day;
> 
> ...



Lord willing my family will be like yours one day.


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