Church in the Home

Church at Home
Did you know that Sunday school was started originally for poor or disadvantaged children who did not have the privilege of Christian instruction in the home? Now we really want it to do most of our teaching of the faith. I think if we are to take Jesus' call to make disciples seriously, it involves reclaiming the central location of the home as a place of Christian prayer, devotion, instruction and virtue.

I'd like to share some reflections about what we do in our house, not so much as a prescription for what you should do, but rather as a launching point for a conversation about what the "church in the home" might look like in your house.

Evening Devotions
Advent seems to be a wonderful time for our family to do evening prayer after dinner. I know it is a crazy time of year and perhaps that is why I love the season so much. It is almost as if these times of prayer are a wonderful oasis in the stormy sea of all the pre-Christmas hullabaloo. We use a very simple and abbreviated service. It amazed me how quickly our children memorized the hymn Phos Hilaron (a hymn to Christ the Light). I'm in the process of adapting this service for use year round as part of prayer booklet for families with small children.

Devotional Resources
Where do I begin? I am a bit restless when it comes to devotional resources. The two I use most regularly are one published by the Fellowship of St. James and a series called For All the Saints. I like both because I'm immersed in the Gospels, the New Testament and the Old Testament every day. I usually use the Service of Morning Prayer in the For All the Saints volume, which is similar to the one in the green Lutheran Book of Worship. For noon or afternoon prayer when I'm in the church building I use the service of Responsive Prayer in the red Evangelical Lutheran Worship book, our new hymnal. For the readings I use the Augsburg Fortress guide Bread for the Day. Cindy and I also find it refreshing to use the service of Compline (night prayer) in For All the Saints (also found in both hymnals). Concordia Publishing House has a great laminated "Daily Prayer Card" for services at morning, noon/afternoon, evening and night.

Meal Prayers
Our meal prayers, because of the ages of our children, tend to be quite active affairs with lots of sign language and singing. One we recently invented to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" goes like this:
Thank you, Jesus, you are bread. By your hand the world is fed.
Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.
Thank you, Jesus, you are bread. By your hand the world is fed.
Perhaps I'll share more of our table prayers in future posts.

May God bless you and your homes that they may be Sanctuaries of the Holy Spirit.