Is family/household worship a category for you? I recently came across this article on The Gospel Coalition website: Someone Will Catechize Your Kids in 2021. Don’t Outsource It, and thought that it would be helpful to share more broadly. It is particularly geared to families with kids but the ideas could be transferred to married couples, and even single households.

Note: Catechize means “to teach or instruct” and overtime has come to mean more formally , “to teach/instruct a student in the Christian faith through formalised statement/creed/confessions”. This has often been done through a rigorous memorisation question and answer format (e.g. Heidelberg Catechism, Westminster Catechism: Question 1: “What is the chief end of man? Answer: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.)

This may all be very new to you, as it is to me, but for all of church history there has been an emphasis on rigorous education of children and new believers in the faith, and perhaps we are missing a trick by not learning from our forebears. (For some resources: https://reformers.com.au/blogs/reformers-blog/reformers-recommends-a-guide-to-catechisms-for-family-worship)

It begins:

Catechesis is not just an option you can take or leave. Because someone will catechize your children. Maybe it will be your church. But how much time does your child spend there each week? Maybe it will be their school. You know public schools want to shape your children into a certain kind of person. No matter how hard you may try to shield your children, the world will attempt to catechize them. Children’s books teaching the values of expressive individualism will end up in your house, and you won’t even know how they got there. You won’t be able to block out every Disney movie and every top 40 song. Even if you could, you’d probably have an easier time keeping outside air out of your house than thinking your children won’t be catechized by the world.

Someone will catechize your children. So don’t outsource it in 2021.

When you realize your duty to catechize your children, you’ll soon learn the delight of this privilege. The joy doesn’t come in guaranteeing your children will walk in all the ways of the Lord. It comes in knowing you’ve helped to lay a foundation of biblical truth that will support your family’s faith no matter what may come.

Some questions to consider:

1) What type of Christian man or woman do I want my child(ren) to become?

2) Is our current teaching/lifestyle going to achieve that?

3) What might we need to change in our family worship?

“We deeply want a revival of domestic religion. . . . The Christian family was the bulwark of godliness in the days of the Puritans, but in these evil times hundreds of families of so-called Christians have no family worship . . . and no wholesome instruction or discipline. . . . How can we hope to see the kingdom of our Lord advance when his own disciples do not teach his gospel to their own sons and daughters?” —Charles Spurgeon