Family worship gathers the household daily or weekly to read Scripture, sing, and pray together at home.
Tagged: Community Prayer Scripture
How It Is Practiced
The head of the household — in modern practice often the parents together — gathers the family at a set time, commonly after a meal or before bed. A passage of Scripture is read aloud, sometimes with a short explanation and questions for the children; a psalm or hymn is sung; and prayer follows for the family, the church, and named needs. Sessions are kept short for small children and grow with them. The Westminster tradition calls this, with private prayer, one of the ordinary means of grace.
Purpose and Meaning
Family worship makes the home a little church: children learn the faith by daily participation rather than by instruction alone, and the household's life is regularly placed under the same word. Historically it was the backbone of Protestant devotion, expected by church directories alongside attendance at public worship and catechizing in the home.
References
- Family Worship — Wikipedia Free / open access
Related Practices
- The Quiet Time — The quiet time is a daily period alone with Scripture and prayer, usually in the morning, kept by evangelical Christians around the world.
- Devotional Reading Plans — Reading plans lead the reader through the whole Bible, or a book of it, in daily portions across a year or a season.
- The Three Daily Prayers — Jewish devotion is structured by three daily services — morning, afternoon, and evening — built around the Shema and the Amidah.
Related Across the Site
- Processions Devotion — A procession is the Church at prayer on the move, carrying an image, a cross, or the Eucharist through public streets.
- The Akathist Devotion — An akathist is a long hymn of praise to Christ, the Mother of God, or a saint, sung standing.
- The Quiet Time Devotion — The quiet time is a daily period alone with Scripture and prayer, usually in the morning, kept by evangelical Christians around the world.
- The Rosary Devotion — The Rosary is a meditative prayer that moves through the life of Christ and Mary on a circle of beads.
- Al-Fatiha Prayer or Creed — The opening chapter of the Qur'an, recited in every unit of the ritual prayer.
- Metta Sutta Prayer or Creed — The Buddha's discourse on loving-kindness, chanted as a blessing and a protection.
- Nitnem Prayer or Creed — The daily banis (hymns) prescribed for Sikh devotion: morning, evening, and night prayers from the Sikh scriptures.
- The Lord's Prayer (Our Father) Prayer or Creed — The prayer Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, shared by Christians of every tradition.