What Do I Do With My Sunday Mornings? - Part 3

by Matt Rogers

(Now that we've moved our corporate gatherings to Sunday evenings, what do you do with your Sunday mornings? This is part three in the series.)

ANSWER 3:  FAMILY WORSHIP

Sadly the work of the local church is often at odds with the primary role the family is given in Scripture. 

As evidence consider:

• The degree to which spiritual exhortation is relegated to the ranks of a “professional preacher” rather than permeating the home
• The overwhelming number of spiritually “deadbeat” dads who attend a corporate gathering simply to appease a wife or kids.
• The paltry number of hours families are in a church building compared to the vast number of hours they are in their homes
• The separation inherent in the system of most church structures that plucks children from their parents the moment they arrive at the gathering, only to pick them up again upon leaving
• The entertainment culture so typical of modern church gatherings that spends more time catering to children than instructing children.
• The fact that as soon as many teenagers can drive they leave the local church, many of whom never to return

This reality will wreck havoc on the American church in the coming generations.

In an effort to curb this trend, Sundays provide the family with a prime chance to engage in worship in the home. Whether a husband and wife or a family with children, we have the opportunity to engage in worship with our physical family before we do so with our church family.  

And by worship together, I don’t mean whimsical prayer together before a meal.  I mean to pick a time. Meet together. Pray. Sing. Read Scripture. Talk about the gospel. Share hurts and fears. Grow to love one another and to love Jesus. 

Men, this one is on you!

You initiate and lead. This is not simply the domain of vocational pastors. It is the basic mode of worship for a husband, father, and follower of Jesus. Sadly, most wives and children hear the Word much more frequently from a pastor than they do from their spouse or dad. 

This is tragic. 

And it needs to change. It can change. 

Can you imagine a church made up of family worshippers and not simply corporate gatherers? Can you imagine the magnetism of a Sunday evening corporate gathering filled with families that had already worshipped the Lord together that morning?