One of the most important works you will ever do is bringing family worship into your home. Family worship will disciple your children in the faith, give them ownership that this faith belongs to them, and prepare them for the war they will be engaged with in the years ahead.

Christianity’s Helm’s Deep
If you have seen or read the Lord of the Rings, you will remember that the defense of Helm’s Deep was one of the finest battles ever filmed or written. Today, it seems that Christianity in general and Christian families, in particular, have found themselves where the forces of Rohan once stood, outnumbered, outmatched, and in a battle for survival.
Upon the horizon of Western Civilization, the storm is raging, howling like a tempest on the open sea, and threatening to engulf the Kingdom of God and all its soldiers in a torrent of doubt and misery. Under the spell of the Dark Lord’s command, the forces of liberalism, secularism, and moral relativism have been amassing armies for years, bending the education system to their will, employing the entertainment industrial complex as propaganda for their perversions, and strong-arming government to execute their commands. This warfare has been aimed squarely at the home, marriages, sexuality, children, and the faith.
Like the valiant defenders of Helm’s Deep, we are tempted to look around and notice that there are but few upon our walls defending compared to the advancing legions. As a result, many have abandoned the fight, convinced themselves that there is no fight or that the Uruk Hai prefer our niceness. Yet, this small and embattled group, the covenant home, though vastly outnumbered by the forces of darkness that assail them, will likewise triumph. Not because our weapons and defenses are so great but because our God and His promises are greater than the walls of Hornburg.
This means we are not defenseless. On the contrary, God has armed our men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, to wield His weapons, which are as ancient and powerful as the faith we hold dear. The sword of truth cuts through the lies and deceptions of the enemy, illuminating the darkness with a bright and piercing light. The shield of faith protects the heart of the believer, deflecting the fiery arrows of doubt and the blows of temptation. Our banner of love waves high, even above the castle walls, as a symbol of the divine affection that sustains and strengthens us for every battle. And like the men of Helm’s Deep, an abiding conviction to protect our women and children will be how this battle is won.
Today, an all-out war is being waged to snuff out the light of the Gospel and plunge this world into chaos, moral perversion, and ruin. That fight is coming for you, your home, your faith, your children, and you must be vigilant to stand. This post is for our men to wake up, remember that there is a battle, join the ranks, and do everything we can to protect our women and children from the enemy’s encroachment. Our family is our future. The next generation’s church will be filled with our children. And if they take the Kingdom deeper and farther than we did, we will need to prepare them well. To do that, we must recover the ancient discipline of family worship!
What Is Family Worship?
Quite simply, family worship is daily Biblical worship that occurs within our homes. It is the male-led, wife-aided, Spirit-inspired, truth-bound, faithful, and joyful morning and evening adoration of a family unto their God. It is the hymns we sing, the Scriptures we read, the thanksgivings we share, the blessings we heap, the service we render, the prayers that we pray, and the commands we commit to both memory and action that echo from the covenant home and prepare our children for the future battle.
Read More
Related Posts:

As influencers Christians want to infuse grace and truth and life into the lives of others in their spheres of influence, where God has providentially situated them for that purpose. Their influence is spread not by pedantic posturing or virtue signaling but by exhibiting integrity and the courage of faith that knows, trusts, and serves Jesus Christ. 

You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. (Matt. 5:13, 14)
We live in a day when school boards can be encouraged to vet teacher candidates for their Christian faith like they would require a criminal background check lest those candidates bring menace into the school.
The reasoning goes that schools want to maintain an environment for noble ideological indoctrination and that inclusion of a Christian worldview runs counter to that effort. We wouldn’t want to give our children the idea that gender is determined at conception and displayed at birth as some sort of self-evident design by some deity and time-honored designation by scientific observation.
Such school boards are right to be concerned. Christians are definitely cultural influencers, as they have been since the days of the Roman Empire. Respect for all persons as image-bearers of God, love for all people regardless of station, and recognition of God’s design for the well-being of society all had monumental impact on culture.
The Lord Jesus urged His disciples to be salt and light. As such they would be pillars of truth and beacons of light in a world shrouded in the darkness of sin and given over to depravity, dissonance, and dystopian dehumanization.
Read More
Related Posts:

A church generally will follow the example of its pastor. Through their teaching, through their example, pastors play a huge role in setting the culture of the church. Whatever the pastor is passionate about, that will come through, and the congregation usually will follow. As a general rule, the pastor will generally be the most spiritually-minded person in the congregation, because they’re the ones giving themselves to studying and preaching God’s Word. Which means how we live really matters. We want pastors to be men of “eminent piety.”

For Spurgeon, the Pastors’ College, out of all the many institutions of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, was the one that was “dearest to his heart.” Every Friday afternoon, after a long week of study, one of the favorite times of the students was when Spurgeon would lecture on a variety of topics related to pastoral ministry. And out of the many topics that he preached on, the one that he emphasized the most was the importance of the pastor’s “eminent piety,” that is his character.
We live in a day when so many gifted pastors and church leaders with large public ministries go astray in their private lives, in their character. And as a result, all that public ministry comes crashing down. This was no different in the 19th century. Spurgeon understood this well and he placed “eminent piety” as his first qualification for his students who were aspiring to be teachers. All who find themselves in the position of being a teacher of God’s Word should follow Paul’s admonition to Timothy: “Pay close attention to your life and your teaching.” This is what Spurgeon called “the minister’s self-watch.”
But why does a pastor’s character matter?
We Are Our Own Tools
Spurgeon puts it this way:
We are, in a certain sense, our own tools, and therefore must keep ourselves in order. If I want to preach the gospel, I can only use my own voice; therefore I must train my vocal powers. I can only think with my own brains, and feel with my own heart, and therefore I must educate my intellectual and emotional faculties. I can only weep and agonize for souls in my own renewed nature, therefore must I watchfully maintain the tenderness which was in Christ Jesus. It will be in vain for me to stock my library, or organize societies, or project schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself; for books, and agencies, and systems, are only remotely the instruments of my holy calling; my own spirit, soul, and body, are my nearest machinery for sacred service; my spiritual faculties, and my inner life, are my battle ax and weapons of war.
When it comes to the ministry of the Word, we are the tool, the instrument for conveying the gospel. That’s not to say that we ourselves are the Good News. No, we are jars of clay, bearing the treasure of the gospel. But at the same time, it matters how we conduct our lives. I think of Paul’s words to Timothy
2Tim. 2:20       In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21 If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
It is interesting to think about all the other things we think make for an effective minister: the latest laptop, a massive pastoral library, a powerful Bible study software tool, resources to help with sermon illustrations, on and on it goes. There is no shortage of pastoral tools and resources that Lifeway, Crossway, Logos, and everybody else wants to sell you. And in one sense, all those things are fine. But at the end of the day, as a minister of God’s Word, those things are not what carry the gospel. You are the vessel, the instrument of the gospel. As a pastor who owned thousands of books, Spurgeon reminds us that in the end, it’s character and life that matter.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne writing to a minister friend who had gone to study German theology put it like this,
I know you will apply hard to German, but do not forget the culture of the inner man — I mean of the heart.
Read More