It is during common everyday activities that Christian families are encouraged to talk about God and His Word and to consider how doctrine applies to various circumstances that arise. Therefore, let us seize those opportunities to explain and apply the wisdom of God’s Word in our families. Dear believer, just as a plant flourishes in the fertile soil of the earth, so a Christian family flourishes in the sound doctrine of the Scriptures.

Every Christian home is meant to be a school of Christ—a place of spiritual nurture, loving discipline, sound doctrine, and biblical piety. This is not a reference to Victorian-era portraits of the Christian family; it is the clear teaching of Scripture and the Reformed tradition. Even so, our hectic schedules, ubiquitous gadgets, and misplaced priorities often make our homes similar to those of our unbelieving neighbors. God becomes an afterthought. Here are three things to remember as we seek to build God-centered homes where sound doctrine is the foundation and our Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.
1. We must be committed to the ministry of the local church.
Every Christian family needs God’s appointed means of grace and the shepherding care of godly elders (Acts 20:28; Heb. 13:17; 1 Tim. 3:1–7). The ministry of the visible church is a nonnegotiable for believers and their children. The first Christian families were “devoted to the apostles’ teaching [doctrine] and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). They were under the loving spiritual oversight of elders—men who were called to “shepherd the flock of God” and “give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9, emphasis added; see 1 Peter 5:2; Titus 2:1). The church was central to their Christian identity. It is inside, not outside, the divinely ordained structure of a biblical church that Christian families are grounded in the gospel. A faithful church is where families mature in their knowledge, understanding, and practice of sound doctrine. Therefore, Christian households are encouraged to submit joyfully to the ministry of a local church body and to learn from pastors who labor “to present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28–29; see Eph. 4:11–16).
2. We must be dedicated to regular times of family worship.
Family worship is a time in which the entire household gathers for singing, prayer, the reading of scripture, and catechesis. A Christian home is a worshiping home.
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To mind the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5) and to possess the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5), we must be vigilant about what enters our minds, absorbs our thoughts, and dominates our conversation. How can Christians set their minds on the things of the Spirit if we are always setting our minds on the things of the flesh? 

It’s astonishing what we often find ourselves thinking and talking about these days. Informal conversations at work, chatter in church hallways, and discussions around the dinner table explore subjects that, in former days, made people blush with embarrassment or recoil with shock. The moral revolution in the West, coupled with the modern media’s publication of one salacious headline after another, has profoundly affected our dialogue. It doesn’t help that many are addicted to twenty-four-hour news outlets, entertainment channels, and social media apps. The result is a growing desensitization to the degeneracy of our culture. Moreover, minds and conversations are cluttered with endless news stories of the wickedness and perversion of our time; what the Apostle Paul calls “the things of the flesh” (Rom. 8:5).
The latest headlines portray the essence of human depravity. News stories from this week include the grizzly murder of four University of Idaho students, Balenciaga’s deviant ad campaign exploiting small children, a gender-fluid (male) Biden Cabinet Member charged with a felony for stealing a woman’s suitcase, mass protests in China over oppressive totalitarian laws, seven thousand convicted sex offenders set free from prison in California, two children and three adults found dead in their home in an affluent Chicago suburb, and an NCAA division one college quarterback arrested for child porn.
These distressing headlines are just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of stories posted and discussed daily (ad nauseam) on endless platforms. The news articles (which very often don’t qualify as real news!) range from repulsive to agonizing to ridiculous, and yet we continue to give them our undivided attention. We continue to take the clickbait. We continue to make the world’s deeds of darkness the center of our thoughts and conversation. Why is that?
Could it be that many of us have unwittingly allowed the outrageous headlines of the world to capture our primary focus and attention? Could it be that the glow of our screens and the news from our feeds have diverted us from things above, where Christ is, and drawn our hearts to the things of the earth (Col. 3:1-2)?
Shouldn’t We Stay Informed?
At this point, someone might ask: “But isn’t it important for Christians to stay informed?” The answer is a resounding YES. This isn’t a veiled appeal for a new monastic movement. We mustn’t bury our heads in the sand or ignore the moral drift of our culture. Loving one’s neighbor does not mean retreating from the world, but being salt and light in the world. Like the Sons of Issachar, it’s vital that we “understand the times” so that we can boldly and accurately apply God’s Word to our generation, not least to our covenant children (I Chron. 12:32).
Even so, being informed doesn’t require us to be news junkies who are forever refreshing our browsers for the next hit of salacious headlines. When we give ourselves primarily to the “news” of the world, we will inevitably give scant attention to the “things of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1-11). And we must admit, it’s easy to fall into this trap. We want to stay informed, but not foolishly or obsessively so. Most of us know when we’ve crossed that line, and when it has negatively impacted our walk with God and our witness. We will be chiefly shaped by that which we give our attention to the most.
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Like every pilgrim traveling the narrow road from suffering to glory, you need (we all need) the loving fellowship and accountability of the church. Therefore, may we all joyfully express with the psalmist, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” 

Is gathered (in-person) worship optional for Christians? The question is a profoundly relevant one, especially in our day of endless online services and superficial views of public worship. The Bible’s answer is unmistakably clear: No, gathered worship is not optional. In fact, it’s a divine requirement for every follower of Christ. Indeed, unless providentially hindered by legitimate impediments such as illness or perilous weather, believers are commanded to assemble for worship in the context of a biblically constituted church (Heb. 10:24–25)—that is, a local body of believers who are under the loving shepherding care and discipline of qualified elders. These elders oversee the souls of Christ’s flock and faithfully execute the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, and the public prayers (Acts 2:42; 14:23; Eph. 4:11–16; 1 Tim. 3:1-13). Gathered worship in a biblical church is, therefore, a nonnegotiable—an essential mark and means of Christian piety, discipleship, and witness. The church is certainly more than the sacred assembling of believers on the Lord’s Day, but it is never less than that.
During the month of December, church attendance generally swells. Advent hymns, festive decorations, nativity sermons, and family traditions add incentive to assemble with the people of God for worship. But what about the rest of the year? What about the other forty-eight Lord’s Days? Why is gathered (in-person) worship so vital for Christian believers?
Reasons for Not Assembling?
Before answering these important questions, perhaps it would be helpful to consider a couple of the typical reasons that many of today’s believers choose not to assemble for worship. We will touch on two of them—individualistic spirituality and negative church experiences.
The first reason that professing believers forsake gathered worship is the growing trend of individualistic spirituality. Rather than identify with Christ through committed church membership and gathered worship on the Lord’s Day, many have untethered themselves from the ministry and mission of the visible church. Instead, they prefer to cobble together a highly personalized spirituality from websites, books, podcasts, and informal fellowship. Many have grown partial to online worship instead of in-person, for reasons of convenience and autonomy. They envision Christianity on their own terms, without accountability, discipline, or shepherding care. The glaring problem with this approach is that nowhere in Scripture do we see this kind of privatized faith. It’s utterly foreign to biblical Christianity. Jesus requires His redeemed children to be active members of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12–26; Eph. 4:15–16), living in joyful submission to qualified leaders who are charged to “[keep] watch over your souls” (Heb. 13:17). A Christian without a church is like a lone sheep in the wilderness, exposed to countless dangers.
A second reason that Christians choose to forsake gathered worship is that they’ve had a negative church experience. More than a few believers have been traumatized by abusive leadership, toxic relationships, and false teaching in the church. For some, the memories are raw. The scars are real. Even so, all churches should not be judged on the basis of negative experiences in some churches. Christ understands the pain caused by bad leaders and unfaithful churches. He also knows best what His blood-bought followers need most—that is, gathered worship, constituted of the means of grace, in the context of a healthy church.
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