Family Worship Guide

Throughout Christian history, families have participated in both the corporate worship services of the church, and in private family worship in their homes. One of the keys to worshipping together as a family is simply to have a plan. We want to encourage you to pick one time a week and designate that as the time when you will gather as a family and spend some time in worship. Remember this doesn’t have to be long or formal but you can simply follow the short guide we have here. This guide requires little to no preparation and is connected to what we are doing together on Sunday mornings.

Each week the guide will contain four main elements: Sing, Read, Teach, and Pray, with the elements in the guide pulled from our corporate worship service that week. There are also some recommended resources included at the bottom of the guide that may be helpful to your family at some point during your time together.

You can do the whole thing in 15 minutes as a family or, if the discussion is going well, feel free to go longer. Remember to give yourself grace and trust that the Lord will supply what you need. It won’t always be smooth and it may sometimes feel like little was accomplished. The key is just to spend regular time together in worship and point each other to Jesus. Think of ways to make this time interactive and engage your kids if you have them.

You aren’t in this alone. The Lord is with you and so are we. Feel free to share with us how your worship together is going. We would love to help you with any struggles you may be facing and celebrate all the victories. Know that we are praying for you each week as we send out this resource. We are so excited to see what the Lord does as he works in and through you and your families.

Click the button below to access a Spotify playlist with the worship songs for this week!

Psalm 94:1–23 (ESV)

1 O Lord, God of vengeance, 
O God of vengeance, shine forth! 
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth; 
repay to the proud what they deserve! 
3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked, 
how long shall the wicked exult? 
4 They pour out their arrogant words; 
all the evildoers boast. 
5 They crush your people, O Lord, 
and afflict your heritage. 
6 They kill the widow and the sojourner, 
and murder the fatherless; 
7 and they say, “The Lord does not see; 
the God of Jacob does not perceive.” 
8 Understand, O dullest of the people! 
Fools, when will you be wise? 
9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear? 
He who formed the eye, does he not see? 
10 He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? 
He who teaches man knowledge— 
11 the Lord—knows the thoughts of man, 
that they are but a breath. 
12 Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, 
and whom you teach out of your law, 
13 to give him rest from days of trouble, 
until a pit is dug for the wicked. 
14 For the Lord will not forsake his people; 
he will not abandon his heritage; 
15 for justice will return to the righteous, 
and all the upright in heart will follow it. 
16 Who rises up for me against the wicked? 
Who stands up for me against evildoers? 
17 If the Lord had not been my help, 
my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. 
18 When I thought, “My foot slips,” 
your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. 
19 When the cares of my heart are many, 
your consolations cheer my soul. 
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you, 
those who frame injustice by statute? 
21 They band together against the life of the righteous 
and condemn the innocent to death. 
22 But the Lord has become my stronghold, 
and my God the rock of my refuge. 
23 He will bring back on them their iniquity 
and wipe them out for their wickedness; 
the Lord our God will wipe them out.

Question 29
Q: How can we be saved?
A: Only by faith in Jesus Christ and in his substitutionary atoning death on the cross.

The Nicene Creed (AD 325/381)

We believe in one God,
the Father All Almighty,
creator of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all time,
Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten not made,
of the same essence as the Father,
by whom all things were made.
Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,
and suffered and was buried and rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures;
He ascended to heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
And his kingdom shall have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy universal and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.