We Gather Together
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

On the one hand it is a dangerous and misleading thing to write our Practicum column on family worship. After all, we don't worship in order to secure some other benefit. We don't worship to be practical. We deny that the function of worship is anything at all, but affirm that worship is properly an end, and in fact is properly the only end for all that we do. Which, on the other hand, makes instruction on how one might worship perhaps more practical than anything else. Giving instruction on how to spank, or how to watch a movie, or how to recognize a man is ultimately impractical and pointless, if it doesn't improve our worship. That's why the Westminster divines began the shorter catechism with this pregnant question and answer, "What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." That's precisely what we are doing when we worship, we are ascribing glory to God, and enjoying the presence of His glory. The good news is that despite the fact that there are critical differences between family worship and corporate or body worship, that we do this daily tells us that everybody is not actually working for the weekend.

As with our discussion of spanking a few issues back I'm not going to waste valuable space trying to convince you that family worship is a good thing to do. Instead I'm going to offer some suggestions about how it might be done. These will be suggestions because if there's one thing the Bible doesn't tell us, at least in a clear and straightforward manner, is how to do family worship. My suggestions merely reflect what we have found fruitful in our own home.

First, we in the Reformed camp have a tendency to reduce worship to teaching. And that's not such a good thing. Worship is so much more than teaching, but not less. As such, we can expect teaching to happen when our families worship. In our home we start worship with our memory work. We recite together five or six memory verses on a given night. The "we" is Denise, Darby, Campbell and me. We're not sure, but Delaney may be reciting with us, but in her own private prayer language. I then ask Campbell his catechism questions. We use for him the Small Childrens' Catechism written by Chris Schlect in an old issue of Credenda/Agenda (the issue of Covenant Masculinity, for those of you who want to find it on the Internet). He does five of these, with a new one added every week or so. He has learned thirty of the fifty questions so far. Darby graduated from that catechism and is now working on the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

How do we teach these things to the kids? It's very complicated. I say, "Daddy says, 'What is the chief end of man?' and you say, 'Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.' " Longer answers get broken down into smaller pieces, and after a night or two, they have it. We began this with Darby when she was two; as soon as your children can speak they are old enough to start memorizing.

Next we recite the Ten Commandments or the Apostle's Creed or the first question to the Heidelberg Catechism, "What is your only comfort in life and in death?". Then I read a small portion of Scripture. Right now we are reading through the Proverbs, having been through Luke and Acts. I give a brief sermon, about thirty seconds or so.

Next I take prayer requests from the family, and I pray. There are other times in our day when the children can pray, but here I am the covenant head of the family bringing the family before the mercy seat of God. After that we sin together three hymns, Darby Campbell and Denise (or a guest when we have company) each choosing one. How did the kids learn hymns? By listening.

Which brings us to the smaller children. We have found it practical to do family worship when the small children are having their last feeding before bed. We get to hold them, and they get to listen. They begin the process of training them, and they get to listen. They begin the process of training then. Within a month or so of Campbell's first words he was reciting things with us in worship, and singing along with the hymns. They learn to want to participate. But how do we keep the bigger one's still? How do we keep their attention? That's another really complicated part. What we do is that we require them to sit still, to pay attention and participate. When they don't they are disciplined. The whole thing takes about twenty minutes, is a nice prelude before bed.

Why do we do it? To worship God. What kind of additional benefits does God coincidentally shower on us as we do this? We get to spend time together as a family. We get to instruct our children and ourselves in righteousness. We get to hide God's word in our hearts. We get to sing together. We have a daily reminder of what our days are all about, worshiping God. We train our children in how to worship. We demonstrate to our children and to ourselves that Sunday is not some odd thing we do, but is the culmination of all that we do the rest of the week. We learn together that we are living all day every day coram Deo, before the face of Gode. And, as we discussed in the Vision column, such does not give, but rather reveals the meaning in our lives.

One last thing. If you family doesn't practice this habit, I think they should. If you used to, or you've tried and fallen out of the habit, here's a complicated answer. Repent to God and to your family, fathers, and get back in the habit. If evenings don't work, try mornings. If neither works, get rid of something in your life.