08/06/08

Family Worship

by Eld Tan Nee Keng

Family Worship is a time of bringing the family together to worship God in our homes.  A family, and specifically the father, must see the need for it.  I saw a need for it in my family after I heard about it many years ago at a church camp.

Many questions will arise – such as how to conduct it?  What material should we use? When should we conduct it?  How often should we conduct it?  Where there is a desire, the Lord will help us and accept what we can offer if we seek to do it.(2 Cor 8:11,12)  The elements of worship – praise through songs, reading of His Word and prayer – should be included in it.  For our family, we have used the Children’s Bible, Shorter Catechism, devotional readings, etc. and the songbook “Then Sings My Soul”.  The questions of ‘how often/ when to have it’ and  ‘how long to have it for’ will depend on the time schedules of the various members of the family and perhaps age of the children.  

Other issues, which may need to be resolved, would be perhaps those concerning the individuals of the family.  How are we to cater to young children of different levels of understanding? How are we to make it relevant as the children grow? How do we make time for it? – This is a matter does not only concern fathers who may have to work long hours, and have other commitments as well, but increasingly, is a problem with teenagers. With a demanding academic workload and numerous co-curricular activities, they may inevitably end up dozing off or not concentrating fully during family worship. 

What has kept our family continuing in this practice despite the difficulties is the need we see to gather the family during the course of the week to focus on God in the midst of our busy schedules.  Although each family member should be having their own Quiet Time, yet, because of the heavy demands on our time, we realise that some may rush through it or skip it altogether.  Having the family come together helps to check this problem – it provides an opportunity for individual family members to share what they learnt from their personal devotions during the week - but it is never meant to be a substitute for personal devotion.  

During Family Worship, we have been constantly reminded of God’s commands and instructions to us and continually reminded to live out His Word in our lives.  It has become a testimony of our desire to walk right with the Lord and to serve Him, from each according to his/her abilities (pardon the communist manifesto allusion)