Leading Family Worship

The more we talk about family worship, the more I am convicted about how poor a job I am doing leading my own family, and the more I realize how little people understand what family worship is. I found some helpful instruction in Bauchum’s chapter, Mark the Home as God’s Territory. In it, he gives us Seven Steps to begin faithful family worship and then Seven Blessings resulting from faithful family worship. First, I would like to give my own definition of family worship just so we are all clear what I am talking about. Family Worship is the regular gathering of the family for the purpose of reading Scripture, singing and praying together.
Seven Steps:
Family Worship Must Be Born of Conviction. You must be convicted that this is something God is calling you to as a parent (Ephesians 6:4). If you are not convicted of this truth, you will not follow through.
Family Worship Begins with the Head of the Household. As the head of the household, family worship will usually rise and fall with me.
Family Worship Must Be Scheduled. If we do not plan for family worship, we will skip it. We must prove it to be a priority by our schedules.
Family Worship Must Be Simple. What a relief! All you need is a commitment to gather together and the Word of God. Read the Bible, sing a hymn or chorus, and pray.
Family Worship Must Be Natural. This is a big deal for me. I hate contrived things. “Just be you. Remember, God sent your children home with you, so He must want you to be the one to lead them.”
Family Worship Must Be Mandatory. No rogue family members get to skip out. Take a stand in your own home! Family worship is not an option. They may act like they hate it, but they will respect you for it.
Family Worship Must Be Participatory. Family worship is not performance. Get your family involved and engaged in the process. It can even touch the heart of a resistant teen.
Seven Blessings:
Family Worship Honors God. God is always honored when His people bless His name.
Family Worship Draws Your Family Closer to God. God will honor the family that honors Him.
Family Worship Draws Your Family Closer to One Another. Nothing draws a family together like prayer.
Family Worship Lays a Foundation for Multi-generational Faithfulness. Family traditions are powerful. “God ordains both the ends and the means of salvation, and we must do everything in our power to move our children toward faith in God.”
Family Worship Exposes Spiritual Weakness in Your Home. Many see this as a reason not to engage. However, family worship will force you to recognize unruly, ungodly, disrespectful and rebellious attitudes and hearts.
Family Worship Serves as a Training Ground for Smaller Children. It teaches young children the conduct and value of worship and allows them to participate in corporate worship at church.
Family Worship Makes Corporate Worship More Meaningful. Family worship causes your corporate worship to be an overflow of the worship of Almighty God from the sanctuary of your home.

Leading in Revival

Over the past year, Legacy has undergone a shift in focus brought on by the realization that so much of what we have been doing in student ministry over the past generation just is not working. We have talked about the failure of our churches to disciple students for years. However, new research reveals that things are worse than we thought.
Fortunately, a new day is dawning. We have been part of a movement that has not only seen the handwriting on the wall, but has set out to find the most biblical response to the problem. Instead of depending on our own creativity to find new or better ways to do youth ministry, it turns out that both the Youth and Family Ministry Model and the Family Integrated Model have both turned to some of the oldest existing instructions on how to disciple children, found in Deuteronomy 6:4-12.
The return to this ancient plan for generational faithfulness has sparked what Voddie Baucham calls a “modern revival on the American landscape.” He says in his book, Family Driven Faith that what this passage, along with Ephesians 6, calls for is more than a shift in thinking or a new, family-friendly youth program, but a complete shift in lifestyle, worldview and ministry model. Both Bauchum and Steve Wright agree that the Bible calls us to return to more biblical definitions of the roles of both the church and the family. At the heart of the matter is that parents are called by God to be the primary disciplers of their children and that “the church is to aid and not hinder families in this process.”
The call is two fold. First, for families to engage in their biblical calling to be institutions for the promotion of generational faithfulness by practicing family worship, family discipleship and family evangelism. Second, for churches to engage in their biblical calling to equip the saints for every good work by promoting biblical and family-friendly worship, training and equipping parents to disciple their children, lead them in worship at home and evangelize their community through the family.
Bauchum says by not doing so we are not only loosing another generation of believers, but we are also missing out on a tremendous revival. Following is a quote form his book that illustrates why he believes God is using this movement to spark a true revival among the churches and families of America.
“My favorite definition of revival came from the pen of Alvin L. Reid and Malcolm McDow in their book, Firefall. According to Reid and McDow, ’Revival is God’s invasion into the lives of one or more of His people in order to awaken them spiritually for kingdom ministry.’ it is on the basis of this definition that I believe that the recent rise in parental awareness, desperation over the failure of our families, churches and communities, the home school movement, and the family-integrated church movement constitutes a modern revival on the American landscape. All across this country men and women have been ’awakened spiritually’ to the ’kingdom ministry’ of total commitment to the education and discipleship of their children and their children’s children.”
I pray that you will continue to pray for and support the work of Legacy Ministries as we continue to go forth as God guides and directs us to promote this spiritual awakening, and teach leaders about the Strategic Youth and Family Ministry Model. Thank you!