34 WITHOUT CHURCH AT HOME, YOUR CHILDREN
WILL BE UNWILLING TO GO OUT TO CHURCH.
“My kids hate going to church,” confessed a mother. “I just don’t know what to do with them.”
That’s always my first clue that the spiritual climate of a home is terrible. Church is not a place; it’s a community. Being the family of God starts at home. If children do not experience God’s presence at home, they will find worshipping with the larger family of God very difficult.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3 and 6 that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. That being the case, worship must happen at home. We are a royal priesthood. As such, we are to minister to the Lord all of the time. But are we?
Parents set the spiritual atmosphere and control the spiritual climate of the home. Their passion for Christ or lack of it sets the thermostat for worship in the home.
How can you have church at home? Consider these possibilities:
• Play spiritual music at home continually.
• Talk about the Lord often in your conversation.
• Give God praise continually even in the little things.
• Pray daily blessing over your children.
• Have a family devotional and sharing time. Let children take leadership in this. Share don’t preach.
• Let the joy of the Lord fill your face and your voice.
• Play Scripture tapes.
• When the TV is on, tune it to Christian music videos or teaching.
• Pray about problems together.
• Pray with your children in the morning, at meals and in the evenings.
• Play Bible games together.
• At church, worship together and find intergenerational settings in which to learn together.
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deut. 6:6–9). Action Steps I/We Need to Take