A Plea for Family Worship

By: Benjamin G. Campbell

The subject of family worship has been a constant buzzword in the American church for the past few decades, particularly the biblical warrant and lack of participation within North America. There were books written, teaching series recorded, sermons preached, and talks given all geared toward encouraging families to disciple their children in the home. Even Free Will Baptist’s own publishing arm, D6 Family Ministries, centers its entire mission around generational discipleship that starts at home and flows from there to the Church and the world.

Why is this reality so important? Why is there a clarion call to family discipleship? What is the importance? What is the nature of this biblically? Why is this necessary?

Several years ago when I was a youth pastor, it seemed that every other book published covered some sort of topic related to this subject. Kenda Creasy Dean’s, Almost Christian, and Brian Cosby’s, Giving Up Gimmicks, were staples in my youth ministry library. And both of these books were alongside Donald Whitney’s book, Family Worship.

I could go on about why these books were written and the precipice upon which there was some merit for their publishing. I could try to politely blame certain generations of parents who bought into the lie of the church being the primary training center for children’s knowledge of God. I could even pass blame on youth ministry in the late 90s and early 2000s for focusing so much on entertainment to draw children in, or churches doing the same to draw families.

But none of those blames really do anything for a blog post on family worship, do they? They just shift blame. Truthfully, we are all to blame for our children leaving in droves once they graduate high school. We are all to blame for neglecting Scripture’s commands to disciple our children in our homes. We are all to blame for the neglect of teaching spiritual disciplines from a young age. We are all to blame for how we’ve replaced biblical teaching with movie nights and lock-ins.

In this short blog post, my aim is not to bash what has not worked, but to simply share some personal experience, give some biblical wisdom, and offer practical advice for anyone and everyone looking for a way forward in raising children whose hearts love and commit to the things of God.

Personal Experience

As much as it might be painful to admit (or read if you’re my parents), my childhood household did not experience a lot of family worship/discipleship intentionally. Again, not to bash my parents and what they did not do, but this was simply the reality. And since then, my parents have both admitted they should have done more. Now, to be fair, it was not missing altogether either, it was just not very frequent. Of course, this “it” is family worship. We would occasionally pray together and read Scripture, but we had no habit of doing it weekly or daily, or anything of the sort.

Fast forward to now, I was not the best at implementing this with my children and tended to neglect it. Did I know I should have done it? Yes. Did I do it? Not really. And this was not because it was infrequently done with me as a child but rather it is because I did not prioritize it. Truth be told, we make time for what we prioritize, don’t we? Show me what someone does and it will show me what they prioritize in life. We must stop making excuses, take responsibility, and pursue what God prioritizes. I have not always made family discipleship the priority I should, yet God has done a work in my life.

Fast forward to 2024 when my wife, Curry, and I got married. We set up some parameters to make sure that we were teaching our children the things of God. After several prayers and conversations together, we felt that the best time for our family is once per week at dinner on Monday nights. We wanted to ensure that if no one else taught our children the Scriptures, they would be taught the Scriptures at home. Now, a quick caveat: my wife is a gem. She truly holds me accountable to this, and now it has become a habit in our home every Monday evening at dinner. It is a non-negotiable in our household – we will talk about the things of God while we have family dinner time.

It might also be helpful to know that we don’t always follow through with it, or sometimes we might miss a week here and there, but we do our absolute best to make this our Monday evening routine. Someone might be sick, or we might even just forget altogether. That can happen too, and it’s important to give yourself grace as parents in this season. Having children comes with more than just the baby sounds or teaching them to walk. It also comes with a lot of decisions, discipline, overstimulation, and inappropriate noises if you have boys like we do.

Nonetheless, we are determined to change this in our parenting. We want to ensure that we not only teach our children what it means to be a godly men,but also model what it means to live a godly life and have a godly marriage. The question, then, becomes, what basis do we have for establishing a long line of godliness in the Campbell family?

Scriptural Warrant for Family Worship

I’ll be the first to admit that family worship or generational discipleship has become a sort of niche in my generation. It seems to be something that sounds really good on paper, but sounds really difficult in real life. The Bible is clear that the godly training of your children is necessary. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 states it clearly: “These words that I am giving to you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children.”

In the Hebrew language, the word heart is lev (לֵב), which conveys more than just the seat of your emotions like we would relate in English; it actually is the seat of a person’s mind, emotions, and will. Jesus relates in the same way by telling us “[our] mouth speaks from the overflow of [our] heart” (Luke 6:45). So, when Moses pens Deuteronomy 6 and commands us to keep God’s words on our heart, he is giving us a command to let these words penetrate to our inner person. But then he follows the command to “repeat” these things to our children. To “repeat” is to teach them diligently, like we would sharpen a knife. It’s a constant need of refinement. The same knife that needs sharpening daily is the same heart that needs to be reminded of God’s faithfulness throughout all generations. Family worship is that whet rock for our family’s sharpening.

Asaph in Psalm 78 tells us that we should teach our children the Law of God so “that a future generation – children yet to be born – might know” (Ps. 78:6). And if we want to take it a step further, it was the fathers which Asaph commanded, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, to teach their children the things of God.

In the New Testament, Paul in Ephesians 6 instructs Fathers to “bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). Spurgeon encouraged the fathers in his congregation in this way: “You must not hold back from this needful task. Do not flatter the child with delusive rubbish about his nature being good and needing to be developed. Tell him he must be born again.”[1] In fact, several verses in Ephesians address family life and God’s expectations for the family. Paul teaches us that one’s status with God directly impacts everything else in life, including parenting and family discipleship. A worthy study for our reader is on the way Timothy was apparently discipled by his mother and grandmother, which prepared a young Timothy to be discipled by Paul. (2 Timothy 1:1-7)

Practical Wisdom for Family Worship

I just want to first admit that neither I nor any contributor have it all together with this endeavor – it’s an element of what my wife and I call “living in the everyday ordinary faithfulness to which God has called us.” And this is not some sort of, “Look at what we’ve done…” post. Instead, this is a passionate plea for our readers to start doing this because the spiritual health of your family depends on it and derives from it. So, here are a few pieces of advice I would recommend:

Start. Just start doing it. If you wait until you have it all figured out, you will never begin. Family worship is messy, especially with young children, so doing something is always a great place to start, even if it is as simple as reading some Scripture at the table or before bed and praying together.
Make it short and simple. My children do not know me as the wannabe theologian that I am. My children know me as their dad. So that’s how family worship goes a lot of times – we cut up, we joke, we laugh, sometimes there’s an angry child, sometimes there’s an overstimulated parent – it happens! So do something that is within your children’s attention span and that can be repeatable for them.
Repetition. One thing my wife is great at is bringing up things we’ve aimed at teaching our children at random times. Truly, she’s a masterful teacher at our house! But the repetition is what keeps our children remembering what they learn. Children are sponges, and we have seen this first hand, so the more you can bring up the things you’re teaching, the better!
Make the Bible your first line of teaching. It should go without saying, but the Scriptures are what form us, not any sort of literature or resource (more on this in #5). God uses His Word to grow His children, and His children’s children. We ought to allow the Bible to be a lamp unto our children’s feet and a light unto our children’s path. If we believe this to be true in our churches, it should most definitely be true in our homes also.
Find good resources. One specific resource we use with our children is Tiny Theologians. Currently, we are working through the alphabet of God’s attributes – we will be on “S” next week! However, they also have some great book resources – like the systematic theology I’m working through with our 11-year-old on Saturday mornings over coffee (and biscuits and gravy, of course). There are so many resources available, and probably even some free ones – take advantage!

Conclusion

Conducting family worship in your home is not an easy feat, but it is a worthwhile endeavor. Take advantage of resources, give your kids the Bible, train up your children in the ways of the Lord, change your family tree! It’s not always pretty, and it is definitely not always glamorous, but it is the mark of faithful parents honoring the Lord in their home.

[1] Spurgeon, Charles Haddon. “Teaching Children Their Need of a Savior.” biblecentre.org, September 22,2026. https://biblecentre.org/content.php?mode=7&item=828.