A few hundred years ago, there were members of the Church of England who were called “Puritans”.

They were given that name because they wanted to make the Church of England pure.

They wanted to clean the church by removing every belief, practice and tradition that was not commanded by God in the Bible.

It was just this morning, that I read something about the Puritans that shocked me.

I read that it was common for Puritan pastors to withhold Communion from anyone who did not lead their household in in family worship regularly.

The Puritans expected every head of every household to teaching their family from the Bible, leading them in prayer and singing hymns with them.

Those were the three essentials of family worship in a puritan home.

Imagine me asking, as a pastor, asking any of you before your take Communion: Did you have family worship regularly this week? And if you say, Sorry Pastor, but I was too busy, or sorry pastor but I don’t know what to teach or how to pray. And then I say to you, Well I am not going to allow you to take Communion until you repent and start doing what you are supposed to do, until you start nurturing your family in the Christian faith. Wow, that would cause a lot of controversy at Gordon Baptist Church.

Now I am not going to ask you, but I do want to provoke you and encourage you to take seriously the obligation we have as parents to disciple our children.

And one of the best ways to disciple your family is to use mealtimes as opportunities to have family worship times.

And family worship at mealtimes can happen together at the same time.

In fact, when we are eating and drinking together, we are more open to having real conversations about personal things, even spiritual things of the heart.

The best family worship is not to make it look and sound like a Church of England service, not even a Puritan church service. They look and sound unnatural.

Instead the best family worship is when we are talking about God and with God over a meal and connecting his wisdom and truth with what is happening in our everyday living.

For example, this morning I read Psalm 74 which is a poem about believers in God learning to trust in the power of God and not be cowards.

The poem has lots of dynamic images. And in one line it talks about God crushing the heads of Leviathan an ancient mythological sea monster.

God, like a dragon slayer, conquers this beast and feeds his heads to the creatures of the dessert.

Wow, what an dramatic image that reminds us that faith in God inspires us to have the courage we need to face the monsters and the demons that make us afraid, the people and the things we are so afraid of, the dangers that threaten us.

With God we don’t need to be anxious or afraid, he is a dragon slayer.

Now that’s an exciting story to tell at the dinner table or as bedtime tale but it is not fiction because we Jesus came into our world and conquered the forces of evil and the terror of death, our two biggest enemies, and tells us, “Do not be afraid only believe.”

Now you won’t develop a talent for leading family worship by ignoring or neglecting it, by putting it into the too hard basket. You develop a talent for it by repeatedly doing it and learning from others who are committed to doing it also.

My testimony to you is that one of the best things I ever did as a husband and father, was to regularly turn our mealtimes into family worship times.

And I am not saying that I did it well.

I’m sure that if you were to ask our children they would say, “Dad prayed too long, talked too much, and was sometimes or often boring.”

But, my persistence, my consistency of using dinner times and breakfast times as times to remember God is hear and the life we live we live in his presence so let’s listen to him and respond to him with praise and with prayer – my persistence resulted in children becoming disciples of Christ.

I cannot recall any of our kids ever asking me to have family worship.

In fact, they repeatedly asked me not to do it so they could watch their favourite tv show or do their homework.

But I didn’t need or want their permission to have family worship.

I had a permit from God to lead in family worship – “Fathers, nurture your children in the training and instruction of the Lord.

And I knew that one day I will be reporting to Christ about whether I had fulfilled that obligation that God put on my shoulders as a husband to nourish my wife and as a father to train my children so that they grow to be people of faith, hope and love.

So, next time, you say to yourself, I’m too tired to do family worship or I don’t know how to lead my family in worship, remember the Puritans, even more importantly remember Christ, who tells you to go make disciples, and start doing it in your home.

Because families do not live by bread or any type of food only, but by also feeding on every word that comes from God which gives us the wisdom we need for redeeming and renewing our lives every day.

Thanks for watching and listening.

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Paul's Letter to the Philippians

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