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The family that works together, eats together, and prays together, stays together. – Amish Proverb “Family worship isn’t a full-on church service every day; instead it’s a brief time of devotion before the Lord. The elements are singing, Scripture reading, and prayer. That’s it! You sing together, pray together, and read the Scriptures together. Giving fifteen to twenty minutes a day to these simple practices will transform your family.” —Voddie Baucham Jr Amish Family ~ Sarah’s Country Kitchen [PHOTO SOURCE: https://ca.pinterest.com/pin/amish-family-sarahs-country-kitchen--412853490835064682/ … …. https://images.app.goo.gl/8tVWbUpRXLnwRZ6X7] https://mommyish.com/the-big-family-backlash-is-having-a-dozen-kids-selfish-717/ https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/07/john-troyer-memorial-award.html |
I will post an article by the late Voddie Baucham Jr on family worship and also a video of a conversation with two of my Favorite ministers – Joel Beeke and Paul Washer. Do understand, that I as a Reformed Christian (Protestant) who has Anabaptist friends, also do family worship and we learn from each other.
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[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Be2qkMtA1/] |
7 Steps to Family Worship
September 21, 2011 by: Voddie Baucham Jr.
Jesus likely owns your Sundays, but does he own your home? Making worship a part of the family routine is an essential part of having a spiritually vibrant household. If we don't get into the Word daily as a family, children can learn to view church (and the Lord) as simply a nice, weekly excursion. Faith can become more of a show than a deep-seeded lifestyle. Having regular family devotionals is a way to make faith a daily, integral part of life, rather than a Sunday habit. Voddie Baucham Jr. offers seven steps to implement family worship in your home.
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Like the Puritans, live in terms of the settled judgement that the joy of heaven will make amends of any losses and crosses, strains and pains that we must endure on earth if we are going to follow Christ faithfully. Regard preparedness to die as the first step in learning to live. - Joel Beeke
Life inside a Puritan
community in early America was shaped by faith, discipline, and a deep sense of
responsibility toward both God and neighbor. These settlers believed they were
building a society that would reflect Christian values in every part of daily
life. Church was not simply a place of worship—it was the heart of the town.
Long sermons, serious reflection, and shared prayer created a culture where
religion guided how people spoke, worked, raised families, and treated one
another. To the Puritans, a strong community meant living with humility,
honesty, and a constant awareness of moral duty. [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWCMK3ZkjbU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/04/konferenz-fur-gemeindegrundung-2026.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-four-core-values-of-anabaptist.html |
1. Family worship must be born of conviction. As parents, you must be convinced that this is something you need. Without this conviction, follow through will be next to impossible.
The church does not meet
as often as the home. Thus, if Christ is to be worshipped daily, it is
incumbent upon the home to play an important spiritual role. Consequently,
fathers, as heads of households, are thrust into a pastoral role. – Voddie
Baucham He Must Practice the
Four P’s by Voddie Baucham taken from What He Must Be by Voddie Baucham,
copyright 2009, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton
Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 155. [PHOTO
SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C1WE91UtT/
… https://gracequotes.org/author-quote/voddie-baucham/] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/06/7-steps-to-family-worship-by-voddie.html
2. Family worship begins with the head of the household. Wives, don't demand that your husband start family worship. It needs to come from him.
“Your home is to be a
little church, a little seminary, in which you are to serve as an instructing
prophet, teaching God’s precious truth to your wife and children – addressing the
mind, the conscience and the heart, and the will of each of your family members.”
- Joel Beeke [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JfZDT9EY9/] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/06/7-steps-to-family-worship-by-voddie.html
3. Family worship must be scheduled. If we don't plan a time to worship, we'll skip it. It takes about 30 days to form a habit, so forming a worship schedule will help ingrain it into the family pattern.
“He
who does not find the gift and perfect wisdom of God in His wonderful works of
music, is truly a clod, and is not worthy to be considered a man.” – Martin
Luther Morning hymn at
Sebastian Bachs' (Toby Edward Rosenthal, 1870) https://interlude.hk/bach-babies-in-music-christian-gottlieb-bach-1725-1728/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach_family https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/12/weihnachtsoratorium-jauchzet-frohlocket.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/06/7-steps-to-family-worship-by-voddie.html
4. Family worship must be simple. It doesn't need to be a big production. No power points necessary. All you need is commitment to gather together with the Word of God. Keeping it simple makes it easy to spice up or simplify when you want to.
"His common
salutation of his family or friends, on the Lord's day in the morning, was that
of the primitive Christians; — '๐โ๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐; โ๐
๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐;' making it his chief
business on that day to celebrate the memory of Christ's resurrection; and he
would say, sometimes, — ๐ธ๐ฃ๐๐๐ฆ ๐ฟ๐๐๐'๐
๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐ ๐ก๐๐ข๐ ๐ถโ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐'๐
๐ธ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ ๐๐๐ฆ." — ๐๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ฐ ๐๐๐ง๐ซ๐ฒ, ๐โ๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐. ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐๐ฆ in ๐๐๐๐๐ 2:650 [pictured: ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐๐ฆ'๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ก ๐ต๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐] [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122179322720679444&set=a.122094655994679444] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/04/easter-prayers.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/06/7-steps-to-family-worship-by-voddie.html
5. Family worship must be natural. Don't try to be something you aren't. This is not the time to pretend or be extravagant. Choose songs that your family loves to sing and study materials that fit your situation in life. Your children can detect a lack of authenticity.
But he was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our
peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed – Isaiah 53:5 (KJV) Let me now therefore,
once more, before I finally cease to speak to this congregation, repeat, and
earnestly press the counsel which I have often urged on the heads of families,
while I was their pastor, to great painfulness in teaching, warning, and directing
their children; bringing them up in the training and admonition of the Lord;
beginning early, where there is yet opportunity, and maintaining constant
diligence in all labors of this kind. … Every Christian family ought to be as
it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and
governed by His rules. And family education and order are some of the chief
means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove
ineffectual.” – Jonathan Edwards [PHOTO
SOURCE: https://www.timothypauljones.com/family-ministry-as-it-were-a-little-church-the-puritan-model-for-family-discipleship/] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/06/7-steps-to-family-worship-by-voddie.html
6. Family worship must be mandatory. Nobody gets to skip out, including sulky teenagers. Rebellion and family worship belong in different realms and require separate attention.
"We and our
families stand in need of blessings in a domestic capacity, therefore in that
capacity we should pray for them; in that capacity too we receive many
blessings; therefore in that capacity we should return thanks for them; and
singing of psalms is the most proper method of thanksgiving." — ๐๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฌ, "The Necessity
and Excellence of Family Religion" in ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ก ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ , Vol. 2 (1849 ed.), p.
47 [pictured: Jennie A. Brownscombe, ๐โ๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ก ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐กโ (1914)] [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=509582272104703&set=a.107210572341877] https://offgridsurvival.com/puritan-living/ https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/06/7-steps-to-family-worship-by-voddie.html
7. Family worship must be participatory. It is not a performance by one gifted member of the family that is simply observed by everyone else. Invite your children to join in singing, choosing songs, reading Scripture, praying, discussing issues, etc. Participation will help your children grow, and can even touch the heart of the rebellious teen.
Learn more about surrendering your home to God in Family Driven Faith.
Voddie Baucham Jr. (DMin, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the late dean of the seminary at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia. The author of a number of books, including Family Driven Faith, The Ever-Loving Truth, and Joseph and the Gospel of Many Colors, Baucham was also a pastor, church planter, and conference speaker.
https://www.crossway.org/articles/7-steps-to-family-worship/
“Where
the heart is rightly disposed, it doth not demand any uncommon abilities to
discharge family worship in a decent and edifying manner.” – George Whitefield 6 And these words
that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them
diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. – Deuteronomy
6:6-7 (ESV) PHOTO CAPTION: The
Martin family gathers at their table in Halfway, as a neighbor child (on the
left) also joins them. The Mennonite family is devoted to their Christian
faith, and avoids worldly influences that would distract them from God. Shanna Sissom/Plainview
Herald [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.myplainview.com/news/article/Mennonite-family-has-life-filled-with-devotion-8421237.php] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html
Adoption Improved the Perfect Little Family – Voddie & Bridget Baucham
1.12M subscribers
86,898 views Sep 16, 2015
Young and recently married with a girl and a boy, everyone told the Bauchams that they had the perfect little family. But God had other plans that involved seven more children through adoption. Today the Bauchams are approaching 50 and their youngest is two-years-old. Hear how their adoption journey began and what God has been teaching them. https://www.desiringgod.org/authors/voddie-baucham
VIDEO SOURCE: https://youtu.be/D6xmqneiSpY?si=JIHg2H5-dha6hYcK
VIDEO OF A CONVERSATION BETWEEN PAUL WASHER AND JOEL BEEKE:
Being the Man God Calls You to Be | An Interview with Paul Washer and Joel Beeke
Reformation Heritage Books and HeartCry Missionary Society
107,957 views Premiered Jan 20, 2026
Being a godly husband and father isn’t about one big heroic moment—it’s about showing up every day. You need a simple, biblical plan to help you stay faithful in the daily grind of leading your family: https://heritagebooks.org/categories/how-to-lead-your-family.html
This short, practical guide unpacks how Jesus’ ministry should shape our leadership at home. With Christ-centered encouragement and no-nonsense wisdom, Joel Beeke challenges us to step up to God’s calling—while reminding us to rest in the finished work of Christ alone.
Straightforward and full of real-world lessons, How to Lead Your Family: A Guide for Men Wanting to be More sets high standards. But it also gives us the biblical foundation, encouragement, and practical advice we need to pursue those standards. Read it, and prayerfully lift your entire family through steady, loving leadership.
VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PawgmNfNIE&t=9s
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The Real Reason They
Want You Weak & Divided [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1337100898551781&set=a.574451541483391] |
PHOTOS OF LARGE PROTESTANTS AND ANABAPTIST FAMILIES:
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14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:14-15 (ESV) Stanley Knepp along with his wife, Shannon, and their children — Bryant, 12, Cody, 11, Darius, 10, Tyler, 8, Zachary, 5, and Andrea, 3 — sang “Be Present at Our Table” as a song of grace before eating dinner in their Loogootee home Dec. 30. Stanley, who described his family’s beliefs as on the more conservative side of the Mennonite faith, said the family will sometimes sing a “grace song” before a meal, as opposed to a nonmusical prayer. He said his family will always dismiss from the table with a song. [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.jacobwiegand.com/simply-believers] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html |
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Paul Jantzi mit Ehefrau (Bildmitte) mit seinen Kindern und Kindeskinder. Foto Jantzi Family English Translation: Paul Jantzi with wife (center of picture) with his children and children's children. Photo Jantzi Family [PHOTO SOURCE: https://faszination-kanada.com/blog/gesellschaft-politik/die-mennoniten-und-die-amishen/#google_vignette] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/03/tauferische-mutterschaft-god-who-sees.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/06/7-steps-to-family-worship-by-voddie.html |
RELATED LINKS:
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/04/good-friday-prayers.html
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/04/easter-prayers.html
https://www.apuritansmind.com/the-christian-walk/the-christian-family/family-worship-by-a-w-pink/
Family Worship:
1a. “Teach your children that worshipping God is the greatest calling in our lives. Teach them that they were created to glorify God.” — Joel R. Beeke
PHOTO: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=959425863131154&set=pb.100071912463252.-2207520000&type=3
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html
1b. "We and our families stand in need of
blessings in a domestic capacity, therefore in that capacity we should pray for
them; in that capacity too we receive many blessings; therefore in that
capacity we should return thanks for them; and singing of psalms is the most
proper method of thanksgiving." — ๐๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฌ, "The Necessity
and Excellence of Family Religion" in ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ก ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ , Vol. 2 (1849 ed.), p.
47 [pictured: Jennie A. Brownscombe, ๐โ๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ก ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐กโ (1914)]
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=509582272104703&set=a.107210572341877]
PHOTO: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=939231141817293&set=pb.100071912463252.-2207520000&type=3
1c. “Let family worship be short, savory,
simple, tender, heavenly.” – Richard Cecil
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall
teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in
your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you
rise. – Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (ESV)
PHOTO CAPTION: Amish family praying together before dinner
PHOTO: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=881721957568212&set=a.747880644285678
“Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by His rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual.” – Jonathan Edwards
1d. "We and our families stand in need of blessings in a domestic capacity, therefore in that capacity we should pray for them; in that capacity too we receive many blessings; therefore in that capacity we should return thanks for them; and singing of psalms is the most proper method of thanksgiving." — ๐๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฌ, "The Necessity and Excellence of Family Religion" in ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ก ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ , Vol. 2 (1849 ed.), p. 47 [pictured: Jennie A. Brownscombe, ๐โ๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ก ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐กโ (1914)]
This blog post is Part 2 of a Sermon by Joel Beeke about Leading Family Worship. Please see Part 1 before reading this.
