I started writing this as a challenge to the men of WPC, but the more I wrote, the more God convicted me of my failure in this area. So men, this is written as much for me as it is for anyone.

"Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church." - Jonathan Edwards

Dads, have you ever considered your family as a "little church" with you as the preacher/elder/deacon? If not, I challenge you to do so. God has called fathers to be the spiritual leaders of their families. This doesn't mean that you are to make sure your wife has your children in church on Sundays and Wednesday nights. This means you are ultimately responsible for the opening and teaching of Scripture in your home with your family.

Moses teaches the nation of Israel this in Deuteronomy 6:

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Deuteronomy 6:4-7

When you sit in your house. When you walk by the way. When you lie down. When you rise. Teaching your family is not a once-a-week thing; it's an all-of-life thing. It's not a once-you-have-time-for-it after soccer or if-we-can-fit-it-in-our-busy-schedules; it's an all-of-life thing. It's about all of your life being centered around growing your family's relationships with Jesus.

We are further instructed in Psalm 78:

5"He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments." Psalm 78:5-7

Clearly, family is central in passing along the faith.

In summary, family worship in the Bible is rooted in the idea of responsibility. Parents, especially fathers, are primarily responsible for the spiritual instruction and vitality of their families. The task is great and weighty, but God's grace is greater and the eternal rewards are beyond anything this world can offer.