O give us homes where Christ is Lord and Master,
The Bible read, the precious hymns still sung;
Where prayer comes first in peace or in disaster,
And praise is natural speech to ev’ry tongue;
Where mountains move before a faith that’s vaster,
And Christ sufficient is for old and young.
(From the hymn “A Christian Home” by Barbara B. Hart)
Dear church family,
With the cancellations of in-person school, work, and social activities, our family (like many) are spending more time together. To be honest, it has not been easy for both parents and children in my family. However, we want to lead our children well during this period. In a times like this; it is all the more important that we fix our eyes on Jesus as our steady anchor and eternal hope (Heb 6:19).
I understand how intimidating and overwhelming this sounds. Even though I grew up in a Christian family, I did not have Christ-centered parenting modeled for me. Similarly, some of us may feel unequipped to lead our children. It can be tempting to outsource the role of discipling our children to the church.
However, during this season of Covid-19, while our church is doing the best we can to move our gatherings and Sunday classes online, dads and moms will need to be the ones that step up and lead our families spiritually. In many ways, this is a great opportunity for us to get into a healthy spiritual discipline ourselves and recover the ownership of family discipleship.
What I want to do in this post is walk you through a simple process of how you can lead your family in a regular habit of family worship/ devotions. I am learning with you as well! Whether you have no kids, have toddlers or teenagers, you could use the below guide for your family worship time.
Blessings,
Kristin
Family worship – what, why, how
Watch this 6-minute video where Don Whitney explains the gist of family worship.
Set a time and place
The first, and probably the hardest step, is to actually make time for this. Set aside a time and place where your family could gather with no distractions and all of you are not likely to be tired.
Read
- If you have children younger than 8 years’ old, you may use any children’s Bible and find narrative passages (stories) as young children do not understand abstract concepts yet.
- If you have children older than 8 years’ old, a regular NIV Bible works well.
- Talk about the passage. Ideas on questions to ask yourselves (parents) and your children are below.
- Story questions:
- What do you think this passage is about?
- What does it tell us about God? About us?
- Is there a promise from God to hold on to? Is there a command from God to obey?
This can be tricky with young kids but the idea of learning to respond to God’s Word is probably one of the most important things we can teach people to help them not just accrue intellectual knowledge, but to have their hearts transformed by God’s Word.
- Application questions. Choose any one question below and change it up each time so that you get to ask a variety of questions over time.
- Personal: How am I like X character in the Bible? How does Jesus want me to respond to Him?
- Community: Who do we know at church is like X or in a similar situation? How can we pray for them?
- Mission: Who do we know who is like X, or in a similar situation who doesn’t know Jesus? How can we pray for them?
E.g. Jonah and the big fish.
- Personal: Do you ever say ‘no’ to God like Jonah did? Is there anything you think Jesus wants you to say ‘yes’ to him in today?
- Community: Is anyone in a situation where it might be hard for them to say ‘yes’ to Jesus? Let’s pray for them.
- Mission: Who of your friends doesn’t know Jesus? Shall we pray for opportunities to say ‘yes’ to Jesus this week and to tell him/her about him?
Parents, do share your responses to the above questions with your children, too, to model how to respond to God’s Word.
Pray
Have one prayer point based on what you read in the passage and talked about, so your prayer should flow naturally out of your discussion.
You may also find the A-C-T-S structure helpful.
- Adoration: Praise God for what His attributes shown in the passage.
- Confess: Ask God for forgiveness for the worldly heart attitudes God may show you in the passage, or for anything you did this week or that day.
- Thanksgiving: Thank Him for the things you read in the passage and for the events in your life that week or that day.
- Supplication: Pray for any other things that you have a need for that week or that day.
Sing
You could find a Youtube video to help you with this. If you have kids, have them choose the song from time to time. In choosing a song, try to find those whose lyrics are Biblical and theologically rich.
Duration
This will depend on your family. 10 mins is a minimum but 20-25 minutes may be more realistic if you read, talk, pray and sing.
More resources
Family worship
- A free five-day email course
- We have a copy of Don Whitney’s book “Family Worship” that you can borrow from our Community Center.
Children’s Bibles
- Toddlers: The Beginner’s Bible
- Age 4-6: The Jesus Storybook Bible , The Big Picture Story Bible (for age 4-6)
- Age 6-8: The Gospel Story Bible
- Age 8 and up: A regular NIV or ESV Bible, The Action Bible
If you’re interested in buying the above Bibles, please email kids@watermarkchurch.hk to enquire availability at our Community Center.