As mentioned earlier, the role of ministers are to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Eph 4:12). We do expect our parents to lead their families in worship, but we partner with them by providing family worship guides to equip the parents for this endeavor. Many approaches exist for how to equip families for time spent at the family altar. Like many other churches, we provide parents with information concerning what their children have learned in church programming they have attended. In addition, we provide weekly family worship guides that correspond with what we are focusing on together as a church body.
On Thursdays, I post a family worship guide that any family, regardless of size or context, can utilize before Sunday morning’s services in order to worship together. Some families do it on Saturday nights. Some families gather around the breakfast table on Sunday morning. Others go out to the park on an afternoon. It is a simple guide that is adaptable to different family situations.
The content is focused on preparing the hearts of individual families to gather together with their church family. Psalm 100:4 states, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” Did you catch that? We are not supposed to enter the gates of our church buildings and then start the worship. We are supposed to enter in with worship! That distinction makes a huge difference! We are not supposed to arrive in a befuddled state hoping the pastor will get our attention and lead us to worship. We are supposed to gather together with praise already pouring from our lips!
My goal in providing family worship guides is for families to quiet their hearts before God before ever arriving on the church campus. Imagine what your next worship service could be like if everyone entered in worship rather than rushing in the last moment trying to find a seat? What would happen if families were not running around trying to get everyone dressed and presentable for a program and instead focused upon the receptiveness of their hearts? Change would begin to happen!
Excerpt is from Don’t Drop Your Kids Off at Church. You can get your copy here.
You can also get North Side’s weekly worship guides by joining the City.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
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