My family RARELY ever “does church” together…at church. I’m practically gone Saturday and Sunday and seldom do we see each other at church (this pic is a rare occasion). Church is just sort of different when you are a pastor. We try to sit together during at least one worship experience per weekend, but it certainly isn’t the same as taking your family “to” church. If you grew up “going to” church, this is a BIG adjustment. As a pastor/minister/church leader, you have to be super creative in order to build healthy spiritual time outside of “church time” with your family. Here are a few things we do as a family (not all of them, all the time- rather, some sort of combination of several at any given time). I’d love to hear your ideas as well:
1. Try to “worship” together during one worship experience per weekend. To be honest, this rarely happens. Even if this happens, it certainly isn’t the norm and it isn’t the same as “going to” church with the girls. Nonetheless, it is nice every once in a while to sit with my wife and hold her hand while listening to the spoken Word of God. Our best form of family “worship” is serving God by serving people anyway…
2. Church Online. Usually, one or both of us will watch the message at LifeChurch.tv separately and then talk about it at some point during the week. If you’ve never done Church Online, you should check it out!
3. Family Vision Night. Over a year ago, we started a weekly tradition that we call Family Vision Night. Basically, we block out an hour once a week for the following: swapping calendars, sharing with one another, asking for prayers, praying together, talking about our core values, setting goals, encouraging one another, etc.
4. Personal study of Scripture as a family. My wife and I both read scripture daily through YouVersion.com on our mobile phones. We read separately and reflect personally. Sometimes we will share scriptures that we are reading that have stuck with us or impacted us that day or week.
5. Reading the Bible with our kids. We have a cool “God and Me” Bible that we’ve been through with Meg several times. It has a story followed by a game that reinforces that story. Meg is 4 now and totally digs it. Often, she tolerates the story to get to the game, but we are reading scripture nonetheless. As an adult, it is actually a great “sweeping” view of the Bible and its key stories. Plus I always liked pictures…lol.
6. Small group. Another word for this would be “following Christ and sharing our lives with friends.” Our small group is where the rubber meets the road as a faith-professing believer. We pray together, grow together, eat together, laugh together and share lives together. Our small group (at LifeChurch.tv, we call them LifeGroups).
7. Confessing. Seriously, as a guy I mess up a lot. You may read this list and feel overwhelmed. Don’t. I’m a screw-up like most guys, trust me. From time to time, we will confess something to one another, ask for and pray for forgiveness. This is the good stuff.
Church leaders, do you “do church” together as a family? Why or why not? To everyone else, what ideas or comments do you have? We’d love to hear them!
