Though family worship may have fallen on hard times in our day, it has been practiced for centuries by families who love the Savior (Discussion of the second chapter of Don Whitney’s book, Family Worship).
Intro
The “Gospel Shaped Home Podcast” is a family discipleship resource from Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. It aims to equip you and your family, to be on mission with God, to the end of the street and the ends of the earth.
Andy Owens
Hello, Providence families. Thank you for listening again to this family discipleship podcast. I’m Andy Owens, Pastor of Family Discipleship, and once again, I am joined by our very own Daniel Savage. Daniel, welcome.
Daniel Savage
Yeah. Thank you very much, Andy. It’s good to be here.
Andy
So today, we are looking at chapter two of Don Whitney’s little book called Family Worship, right? Over the last few weeks, we’ve been encouraging folks in the church to set aside time, regular time to read the Bible together, to pray together, and to sing together, right? And this chapter is really answering the question, is this a new thing? So Daniel, is this a new thing? Family worship.
Daniel
This is not a new thing. In the first chapter, Dr. Whitney goes back and traces through Old Testament, New Testament, the practice of family worship, the responsibility of fathers, parents to pass on the faith. And he moves in this chapter through early church history, and then through the reformation all the way up to modern-day people, leaders in the church who have encouraged people to have regular family worship.
Andy
Okay. So, on page 30 near the beginning of the chapter, he’s talking about John Chrysostom, who was considered one of the greatest preachers in the history of the church. And he, this is a quote, urged that, “Every house should be church. And every head of a family, a spiritual shepherd, remembering the account he must give even for his children.” So Daniel, do you think that’s true? Our dads, our single moms, the heads of spiritual shepherds of their homes.
Daniel
Yes. I think that is true. I think that’s the way God has designed the family, as having a head of the home or someone who’s responsible for the direction of the home and the spiritual care within the home. So yes, I think each home has a spiritual leader or shepherd, and that that is the father or a single mom in some cases. But yes, someone is in charge and will be held responsible. As I think about that, though, Andy, what do you think that entails? What is it like to be the spiritual shepherd of a home?
Andy
Well. Yeah, I think it definitely means that you take responsibility for the care of those entrusted to you. I mean, shepherds know they’re sheep. They know where they’re at, they know what influences are coming into their lives. They feed their sheep. Spiritual shepherds feed their flock the words of God. They protect their sheep from danger. So, really it really is like the work of a pastor. I think it’s interesting that in 1st Timothy 3, when Paul is talking about the requirements for a man to become an elder, an overseer, or a pastor in the church, he says, “He must manage his own household well.” And the logic is that if a man isn’t shepherding in his own home, how can he shepherd the household of God, the church? So any other thoughts you have on what it looks like for to be a spiritual leader in your home?
Daniel
Well, I think what you said is a good summary. It’s just a sense of responsibility for caring for the people in your home. And not just in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense that you are their caregiver. Which means you have to know what care they need and be intentional about applying it.
Andy
Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. That’s good. So over on page 32, near the bottom, he’s actually talked about Presbyterians and Baptists in England and some of their confessions of faith and how they viewed family worship as so important. They actually mentioned it in their confessions of faith as something that leaders in homes should do. And he says that “They thought family worship so essential for the spiritual health of their families, and so indispensable for the souls of their children, that any man who dared abandon his family spiritually, in this way was to receive church discipline.” What do you think about that quote, Daniel?
Daniel
Well, I’m glad that we don’t practice spiritual discipline over this issue. At this point that’s…
Andy
We would have a lot of people out of our churches, I think.
Daniel
…I might’ve been in trouble a few times.
Andy
My son as well.
Daniel
But I think what they’re saying, and the emphasis is right. I mean it is indispensable and…
Andy
Essential.
Daniel
…essential. And I think it goes back to what we were thinking about last week, where you’re thinking about the regular deposits of truth and the gospel. And just thinking about the way that children need to be trained and admonished, that it has to take place in small doses over a long time. And so it just requires this sort of regular training and a commitment to it.
Andy
That’s right. And I think it also, it’s essential and indispensable in a sense because God is so consequential, right? If our spiritual lives as a family only consists of two to three hours a week of church attendance, and then our kids don’t see anything else from us throughout the week that says, “God is great. God is worth your life and your affections and your devotion.” Then we’re actually, we’re communicating false things about who God is and how important He is in our lives.
And so it’s, I think that’s another reason that this is essential is, our kids can’t see the greatness and worth of God from us if we don’t lead them to the center. If we don’t lead our families and center ourselves around God and his worth. Does that make sense?
Daniel
It does. And I would add to that that kids are remarkably perceptive. And they are learning more from us than we can probably imagine or want to imagine. And so, what we’re devoting our time to in our conversations and the things that we talk about, it is all teaching them about what we prioritize and what we think is important.
Andy
True.
Daniel
And they are watching for and picking up on inconsistencies, which we all have. And there’s grace for that. But there are also a major themes in our lives that we should pay attention to because they are.
Andy
Yeah, that’s very good. We are always discipling and training our children. It’s just the question of are we doing it well or not? So on page 33, when he’s talking about the English Puritans and there’s this sentence in the middle of the page that says, “To this end, he must be willing to take time out to learn the faith that he is charged to teach,” Right? He’s talking about fathers leading, husbands, and fathers leading in their homes. And there’s actually something really important here, in thinking about family worship, right? We do want to say over and over that it can and should be simple. You don’t have to be a pastor, you don’t have to be a theologian to lead your family in family worship. But, leading family worship does push us to grow in our own faith, in our own knowledge of God. Right. Any thoughts or ideas on how you’ve seen this play out or what it might look like in our families here at Providence?
Daniel
Well. Yeah, I think… Thinking back to what we were just talking about with the themes in our lives and the consistency, if we’re going to lead in family worship and talk about God, it’s going to be obvious to our kids whether or not we’re talking about something that we care about or something that we’re growing in love for, and something that we believe in our living. It’s just going to be obvious to them. And so, I think the idea is that we can’t pass on something that we don’t have. So we have to strive to pursue God on our own. And like you said, it doesn’t mean you have to be a pastor or a theologian, but you do have to be someone who is trying to grow in your own love for God, by pursuing him in his word and through prayer and growing in faith on your own so that you have faith to pass on innocence to your kids.
Andy
Yeah, that’s really good. That’s really good. Well, he gives quotes and examples from lots of folks kind of throughout church history in this short little chapter but, under the section about Martin Luther, there’s this great line. So there was a season before the reformation where most Christians didn’t have access to a Bible. And he says, “But when the Bible reentered the house, so did family worship.” And I think it’s just a great picture of, if we love the Bible, if the Bible is prominent in our own hearts, in our own lives, then we’re going to naturally want to help our kids come and listen to God’s word in the scriptures. So, any other thoughts brother from this chapter or anything you want to just say to encourage families of Providence this week?
Daniel
It really is an encouraging chapter just to think about the legacy of family worship and that it isn’t something new. And even though it may be something that many of us didn’t grow up with or aren’t familiar with, it’s not new. It’s something that is essential, and I think it’s worth us pursuing as a church to try to grow in it and to try to encourage one another to do it.
Andy
Amen. Amen. Well, may God be our helper. May he help us to trust him to lead our families to worship him in spirit and in truth. Thanks, brother.
Daniel
Absolutely.
Outro
Thanks for listening to this episode of the “Gospel Shaped Home Podcast”, produced by Providence Baptist Church of Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information and resources from Providence, visit us online at pray.org. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider subscribing and leaving your review on Apple Podcasts.