Parents, you have been ordained, licensed, and edified as a pastor by COVID-19.
How to win as worship leaders of your homes.
You as parents have a lot on your plate right now, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. You are trying to coordinate schedules in a completely different way than you are used to.
Sure, your kids do not have all of those activities to attend, but certain luxuries that you have taken for granted in the past, have now been placed firmly on your laps.
You as parents are trying to learn new skills each day because you were not trained to be teachers, activity coordinators, and certainly not Pastors!
So, what do you do now?
You were used to dropping your kids off to their respective children's ministry while you went to church yourself.
Maybe, you decided that it was time to check the Church out during the pandemic, and all of these well-meaning pastors want you to do activities at home.
It does not matter if you are someone who has attended church your entire life, just recently started, or have never been before, the pandemic has placed you in charge of the spiritual well-being of your family.
You might be thinking….
The thought of reading scripture aloud is intimidating enough, how do you expect me to lead my family in worship if I have never been trained, you know, like a Pastor?
You can win at home as the spiritual leader of the household, and it does not have to be intimidating or complicated. Still, it does take intentionality on your part as the newly ordained minister of your family.
So, how then do you do it?
There are four steps you can start today to do to lead family worship from your house.
1. It's not rocket science
There are three items to keeping it simple, read, pray, and sing. That is all there is too leading worship at home.
If you are reading scripture, praying together, and singing praise songs collectively, you, my friend as pastor of your household, are winning.
Start with scripture.
No one expects you to teach like you have a theology degree, so keep the commentaries and original Greek text to your pastor, start simple. Open the scripture and read it with your family.
It doesn’t need to be a full chapter, start with a verse or two.
What you read will depend on if you have older or younger kids.
Preschool-aged children respond better to pictures, so you can read from a picture story Bible.
If your kids are older, have them open their Bibles with you. If they can read, have them read aloud with you, to involve the entire family. You can find many free Bibles from your app store on your phone or tablet.
If you don't have either, reach out to your local church, they love to give Bibles away……seriously they do! Most have Bibles sitting on a shelf in the back storage, just waiting for a new home.
Do not know where to start?... Start with Jesus!
In one of the four Gospels. (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) or read the Psalms or Proverbs, these are all great places to start.
If you are connected to a local church, reach out to the pastor and ask him/her where to start reading with your family, I guarantee he/she will be floored to help you out, because pastors do not get that call or email often. They can point you in the direction of what would typically be taught at church for your kids.
Pray Together
As far as reading and praying, this might be the most intimidating aspect of worship for you. Have you ever thought this about praying?
I just don't know what to say…
Do I need to use the right words…
Should my hands be folded…
These are all fair questions to ask, but remember the premise of this section, is to keep it simple.
You don't need fancy words for prayer; stand, kneel, sit, hands folded, arms crossed, holding hands with your family…all ways are acceptable to God, because He is concerned about the heart more than our words. Jesus gives us a definitive answer in His famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Matthew 6.7-8 NLT
It doesn't need to be this big eloquent prayer, but it does need to be meaningful from the heart. It is so essential that your kids see you praying for them and with them; this includes times outside of mealtime and bedtime.
Sing Together
I know what you are saying because trust me, I'm saying the same thing, I can’t sing!
If I were to sing aloud in public, I'm almost certain I would be on the blooper reel of American Idol, you know, the ones that everyone makes fun of. The only difference is I know I can’t sing, I have embraced this part of my life. The fact is, I still sing with my family when we are worshiping God through song.
Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
Psalm 100.1-2 NLT
The Psalmist says to shout, some translations say sing; So, whether you sing or shout, God loves when you worship.
You can do it too.
Just put on a praise song and listen together or sing together; either way, just do it together as a family. Your kids are going to be looking at your example.
2. Champion The To-Do-List
If you have never lead family worship time before, I'm here to tell you, at first, it is going to feel uncomfortable.
The next time that you do it, it will feel a little less awkward.
The next time it will be perfect…well not exactly, truth is it will never be perfect. And that is PERFECT because that is normal. Sometimes our family worship time is a complete disaster! I look at my wife afterward and say, do you think they got anything out of that?
Still, other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!" Then he said, "Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand."
Mark 4.8-9 NLT
The truth is they did get something out of it, even if it does not feel like it. You are planting seeds in them that will last a lifetime, and the yield will be worth the investment. To be intentional means you must put in the time.
Intentional time breeds consistency out of habit.
They will see you leading, and that provides them with an example of a spiritual leader that will last a lifetime. One day if they have kids, they are going to think back to your example on how to lead, not their pastor.
The pastor is disengaged from the household; they are going to be doing the same thing you did as a parent, trying to remember or not remember what your parents did when you were growing up.
3. Is God a boy or a girl?
They are coming, and you should hope they are coming as well. Don't fear the question from your kids, you should embrace the question they ask.
If you kids are asking questions, that means they are engaging with the material. They are thinking about what you are reading, praying, and singing.
This is a GOOD thing…lets have that mindset…Questions are GOOD.
You might be saying right now…
Wait a minute, what about the other part of the questions?
You know the part I don't know, the answers.
This is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for you as a newly anointed pastor, not knowing the answer to a question.
I am going to let you in on a little secret, your pastor doesn’t have all of the answers either; if they tell you they do, it might be time to find a new church.
Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.
Ecclesiastes 11.5 NLT
Part of the faith journey for you and your kids is getting comfortable with not knowing all of the answers. You live in a society that obtains its answers in an instant but understand that God lives outside of the constraints of your understanding of time and space.
Questions are a great time to build trust with your kids.
Saying that you don't know the answer doesn't disqualify you, it makes you human. The trust-building comes from learning and discovering those answers together as a family.
Reach out to your pastor or find a pastor to help you answer the question.
4. Teamwork makes the dreamwork
It is so important to be connected to a local church so they can resource you as the spiritual leader to win. Every pastor wants to equip families to do ministry at home, because that is where you spend most of your time.
Even before COVID-19, the amount of time spent at church and at home are drastically disproportionate.
Think about it, if you were to go to church every Sunday for a month, your family would be at church for 4 hours out of the month. Now let's stop pretending that everyone goes to church every Sunday.
Average attendance is 2 Sundays a month.
There are 730 hours in a month on average, most of your family’s time is spent outside of the church.
You’re already the lead pastor in your family’s life!
Even after we are past COVID-19, and life begins to return to normal, the amount of time you spend with your kids compared to the pastor at the church is not going to change.
Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord, alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 NLT
So, pester your pastor for resources for your family; if that doesn't work demand resources, if that doesn't work, look for a church where kids' discipleship is quintessential.
Because whether you are in quarantine or not, you are the spiritual leader of your family. It doesn’t need to be intimidating or overwhelming, and what better time than now to begin building a family life around worship.
