Why Presbyterians Have Family Worship
and You Should Too
Everywhere you look today you will find someone who invariably states that we need revival. That is true. We need revival. Often times the discussion stops there and how revival comes about is not mentioned.
Someone may answer the Holy Spirit visits us by the means of grace, prayer, the Scriptures, and the sacraments, which causes revival. Yes, that is true. The conclusion for most is that we just need need to get back to church. Once again, there is truth in this, but is that enough?
Is weekly church attendance enough to produce love and repentance in the hearts of listeners? Will this alone cause revival? It may. The Spirit may go wherever He pleases. He has used church attendance to save many and He will continue to do so.
What about the rest of the week? Can you go about your business as usual after you have heard Gospel preaching? Can this sustain you until the next Sunday? The answer is clear. It cannot. Grace, like manna, is enough for the day you are in; it cannot be stored up.
Family worship is what is needed. It is the biblical model of families worshipping together during the week in both the morning and the evening through songs of praise, the reading of the Scriptures, and the offering up of prayer.
For us to see the revival we want, we must establish consistent, daily family worship, where the Psalms are sung, the Scriptures are read and expounded, and prayers are given, twice a day. By this widespread devotion, the Church will be strengthened and increased as a consequence of pious believers who shall restore righteous living in the world and become peacemakers.
The Model
To most this topic may be obscure, and it will be asked and many may wonder where this doctrine can be found in scripture. In the beginning, when there was only one family on the earth, there was a dispute concerning how God ought to be worshipped. Abel offered the firstborn of his flock and Cain offered only a common portion of his yield. When Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s was not, Cain murdered his brother. Because of this Cain was excommunicated from the family. Thomas Manton (1620-1677), one of the clerks of the Westminster Assembly, notes that the Scriptures say that “when Cain went out from Adam’s family, he is said to go out from the face of the Lord (Genesis 4:16).”1
With Abraham the model of family worship continued as the Lord said, “For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice…” (Genesis 18:19). Most famously, Abraham and Isaac worshipped together when they ascended Mount Moriah in Genesis 22 to give a burnt offering.
As the Israelites settled in the land of Canaan, Joshua gathered the tribes together in order that they might renew their covenant with the Lord. It is here that we have the most famous declaration of family worship when he says, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).
David and his household served the Lord. When the ark of the covenant returned from the hand of the Philistines, there were great praises and rejoicings from the people. In 2 Samuel 6, David made public offerings to the Lord before the nation, then he “returned to bless his household.”
Job offered burnt offerings to the Lord and consecrated his children every morning. It says in Job 1:5, “thus Job did continually.”
In the New Testament, Cornelius and his family prayed together (Acts 10) and Timothy was instructed in the Scriptures since childhood (2 Timothy 3:14-15).
To put it simply, the family has been the cradle of the Church. In Exodus 20:8, God commands the Sabbath to be observed by the entire household. In Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the whole church of God is commanded that the Word be taught in every house, to every member, every day. And believers in every age have sung the words of Psalm 78:5-7 which commands that the Word of the Lord be taught to children and to every passing generation so “that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.”
How Presbyterians Hold Family Worship
Since it is a time of worship outside of public worship on Sunday, how is it conducted?
For this, look to none other than the Southern Presbyterians. Their writings are extensive on the topic. James Waddel Alexander (1804-1859) wrote on the subject in Thoughts on Family-Worship (1847). He outlays three basic principles for it:
Morning and Evening - As the Psalmist says in Psalm 55:17, “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” Here the pattern for morning and evening worship for families is set.
Set Time - Regular routines help set a pattern that the family may hold onto.
Time That Is Fitting - Find a time that makes sense and it fits into the natural flow of family life during the day. In the morning, set a time after the entire family has woken up, and in the evening, after supper is finished would be fitting.
Now with these principles in mind, here is what you do in family worship.
Prayer
In the Directory of Family Worship (1647), prayer is listed first. There is nothing in Scripture that states that prayer must come first, however it does prepare your heart for worship. Without prayer, family worship would be lifeless and void.
On prayer in family worship, Alexander says, “here we have the fountain of domestic worship.”2
Praise
The Psalmist writes in Psalm 92:1, “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night”.
We are commanded in Scripture to “offer a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips” (Hebrews 13:15). Families must sing to God. It is their duty.
James Waddel Alexander says that “domestic psalmody is promotive of devotion”.3 When families sing the Psalms together, holiness is encouraged and grows amongst its members.
Scripture Reading
And last but not least, the Scriptures must be read. The Directory for Family Worship (1647), states that the Scriptures must be read and explained in families, so that when they are read in public worship they would be better understood and produce greater results.
Alexander makes this assertion on Scripture reading:
“If a man had no other information of God’s will then that which was conveyed by hearing a portion read, twice a day, all his life, he might nevertheless acquire, not merely the sum of saving truth, for his own soul’s welfare, but a body of invaluable Christian instruction.”4
The Impact of Family Worship
The consistent, daily efforts of family worship, lasting just a few minutes at a time, gradually provides great fruits. The slow plodding through the Psalter, the Scriptures, and prayer provides the desired impact of revival.
On the Church
Let’s say the average church in the United States has 64 members, 4 members per family, making 8 families, each with two parents and two children.
Now what if they each had family worship consistently until the kids were grown up? What kind of church would that be? Unrealistic, I know, so imagine half of the families having worship. A quarter? A tenth? It is certainly better than what we have now, where virtually no family in the average church today worships together throughout the week.
But imagine a church where a large chunk of the families did worship together. Wouldn’t knowledge of the Bible increase? Wouldn’t an increased hunger and thirst for righteousness occur? What would the communion of saints be like? How encouraging would it be? How loving would it be?
Now what if these families then prayed for their pastor and for the preaching to take root? This is what Cornelius and his family did in Acts 10. Cornelius faithfully led his family in worship and in prayer; his and his family’s prayers were answered, Peter came to his house to preach, and then the Holy Spirit came. It was because of the worship of a household that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first Gentiles.
On the World
With a transformed Church comes a transformed world. As long as the Church maintains its saltiness, the world is still preserved. But the desired outcome may seem impossible to accomplish. That’s where perspective is needed.
The impact will be more local than regional or national. This may be disheartening, but the fruits of any effort are seen and experienced more locally than regionally or nationally. It impacts people on the sidewalk.
What if your mayor grew up in a worshipping family and did the same with his? What would he be like? What if your city council members worshipped with their families daily in spirit and in truth? Would their policies be less self-serving? What if the local business owners prayed with their families? What if your average person knew the catechisms? Would the spiritual texture of your town be different? Maybe more vanities than one would go away. Folly would be a distant memory.
Slowly over time, as these patterns are set and as families grow, the impact is felt and the change is seen. Out of the family would come righteous and peaceful living and into the world. The taking up of family worship is not wishful thinking for better days; it is the fulfilling of the Great Commission.
As the Southern Presbyterian, Benjamin Morgan Palmer (1818-1902) said:
“If the Family holds the knowledge of God amongst men in the instruction it affords, much more is it the depository of His worship. Each pious household is a separate fibre of those roots by which the Church of the living God takes hold upon the earth, and preserves its existence in a sinful world.”5
Thoughts on Family-Worship. Chapter I, The Nature, Warrant, and History of Family-Worship. Read HERE
Ibid. Chapter XVI, Psalmody, As a Part of Family-Worship.
Ibid. Chapter XV, The Reading of Scripture, As a Part of Family-Worship.