Head of Household Archives
FAMILY WORSHIP in the Bible, in History and in your Home
By Donald S. Whitney ISBN 0-9785238-0-6
Study Guides/Supplemental Notes to be used alongside Whitney’s book:
Introduction: read pages 5-9
“Family Worship in the Bible, in History and in Your Home”
By Donald S. Whitney 10-14-07
Perspectives from the Wise
God commanded “Heads of Household.”
He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children… Psalm 78:5-6
John Bunyan author of Pilgrim’s Progress wrote, “A Godly head must ensure that Christian harmony exists under you.”
Billy Graham admitted in his autobiography, “that his success as an evangelist was often purchased with his failure as a father.” Baucham, p.152.
What Is Family Worship?
Family Worship is the intentional activity of the daily worshipping
God in the context of our home.
To be defined in upcoming months!
The Need for Family Worship
Read p. 5, paragraph 3.
This family started family worship after a diagnosis of cancer.
Read p. 6, paragraph 1.
This family reflects on a life style of family worship.
The Latest Figures from Southern Baptist
88% church youth in the US leave the church once they finish high school. Whitney, p. 6.
Charles Spurgeon, “The Prince of Preachers”, one spoke these words:
Brethren, I wish it were more common, I wish it were universal, with all Christians to have family prayer. We sometimes hear of children of Christian parents who do not grow up in the fear of God, and we are asked how it is that they turn out so badly. In many, very many cases, I fear there is such a neglect of family worship that it’s not probable that the children are at all impressed by any piety supposed to be possessed by their parents.
Whitney, p. 7
Some thoughts on the relationship between Sunday Worship and Family Worship:
• Family Worship (parental training as a life style) is the primary “Christian Education Department” for children found in the Bible. All other Christian Education is supplemental. (Deut 6, Psalms 78, Proverbs, Eph 6:4)
Christian education is likely to be an exercise in futility if it does not prepare our young people to confront and survive the worldview challenges that they will surely meet as soon as they leave the security of the Christian home, and probably even while they are still living at home due to the pervasive influence of the media and internet. For example, a youngster may be taught very fine Christian principles, but he or she may also grow up understanding that these principles fit into a specialized category called “religious belief”… sooner or later, that youngster will find out that secular college professors, and sometimes even ‘Christian’ professors, proceed from an implicit assumption that religious beliefs are the kind of thing one is supposed to set aside when learning how the world really works, and that it is usually praiseworthy to ‘grow’ gradually away from those beliefs as a part of the normal process of maturing.” —Phillip E. Johnson
• Family Worship is an opportune time for children to learn to sit, focus and concentrate. This can translate into a healthy worship experience along side parents and other godly adults.
• Because the church struggles with Family Worship we will struggle with Sunday Worship. The American family knows little about being together. For example: Should children be in the Worship Service?
Make a list of road blocks that get in the way of your Family Worship:
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