During the pandemic, a pastor should supervise the believers’ personal worship (personal devotion), public worship (church’s online worship in the pandemic) and urge believers to establish family worship at home, so that they can continue to grow spiritually and stop the spread of the pandemic.
"The altar of family prayer is like a wall, which brings peace to our lives and protects the order of our public worship."
A few days ago, Pastor Liu Guanxiong shared a sermon entitled "Three Kinds of Worship are Promoted or Established by the Church in these Special Times", focused on sharing how to build family worship on the basis of the previous family prayer altar.
He mentioned the two rural churches he served, and he shared in these two churches how they supervised the believers' personal devotions through telephone and web during the pandemic, and regularly carried out public worship, also referred to as joint family worship.
Pastor Liu said: "Family worship is an important link between personal devotions and public worship in the church." He gave an example in the Old Testament: When the Israelites returned after the captivity, the first thing the returnees did was to rebuild the altar. But the enemy repeatedly destroyed the temple and prevented it from being rebuilt. So when Nehemiah returned to the country, the most important thing he did was to rebuild the wall to protect public worship and keep order in the temple.
Pastor Liu explained that family worship was built on the family prayer altar. When a person accepts Jesus and has spiritual life, he wants to live a holy life. He repents and is comforted in the Lord. After repentance, good behavior is first shown in the family. The family is the best and most direct place to practise the Christian life and demonstrate good behavior. Only when there is you practice well in the family, and you can have better behavior in the church. So family worship is also an important and effective guarantee for public worship.
Regarding the important influence of family worship, he quoted the teachings of the Bible: take good care of his family and make his children obedient in all things. How to take care your family? Educate your children according to the teachings of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and rebuild the family according to the principles: the husband loves the wife, the wife submits to the husband, the children submit to the parents in all things and honor the parents.
"Family worship is led by the head of the family who is under Christ, who is mainly the husband. He leads other family members to carry out daily worship in the home, once or twice a day. "
At the same time, Pastor Liu shared three main differences between family worship, personal devotions and church public worship.
1) Family worship cannot replace personal devotions. Personal devotions include learning, singing and praise practiced in private, and in family worship all family members gather together, reading scriptures and singing hymns.
2) You should not completely imitate the form of a Sunday church service in family worship. Otherwise, individuals and family members will feel warmth in family worship, but gradually indifferent to the church's public worship;
3): The sacraments cannot be performed during family worship. You can also obtain the consent of the local church’s pastor to let the wife lead family worship temporarily if the husband is ill or he doesn’t believe in the Lord. But she personally must pray urgently so that her husband believes in the Lord and be the suitable family leader. It is in accordance with the principles of the Bible.
So, how should family worship be practiced? Pastor Liu proposed 4 steps.
1. Worship should be led by the patriarch. The family should pray for the church and the country, especially for Wuhan in the current pandemic, for the compatriots, for the godliness of each family. Pray to God for these things one by one. The most important thing is to pray for that everyone is able to keep watch for the soul. The second thing to pray for is personal matters;
2. Sing hymns after prayer. Choose hymns that praise God with a grateful heart;
3. Read the Bible according to the plan led by the family patriarch, or take turns reading the Bible aloud;
4. Study and recite.
-Translated by Abigail Wu
教会当在非常时期督促信徒建立的“三种敬拜”
作为牧者，在教会适时开展三项工作，督促个人敬拜、公共敬拜和建立家庭敬拜，以配合阻断疫情传播，同时又能帮助到信徒属灵生命的成长。
“家庭祷告的祭坛建立起来，好比城墙，既能给我们的生命带来平安，又能保护我们公共敬拜按次序而行。”
日前在一篇以“非常时期教会适时督促或建立的三种敬拜”为题的证道中，刘冠雄牧师重点分享了当在以往家庭祷告祭坛的基础上建立家庭的敬拜。
他以自己服侍的两个农村教会为例子，分享了如何在疫情下借着电话和网络平台督促信徒的个人的灵修，并定时开展公共敬拜，称为：家庭联合敬拜。
他说：“家庭敬拜是连接着个人灵修和教会公共敬拜的重要环节。”他以旧约当中的例子做了解释：旧约以色列民被掳归回的时候，第一批归回的人做的第一件事就是重修祭坛；而在仇敌屡次破坏导致圣殿无法重建的情况之下，尼希米回国的最重要工作是重建城墙，以用来保护圣殿的公共敬拜的秩序。
刘牧师解释说，家庭敬拜是在家庭祷告祭坛的基础上建立起来的。当一个人有属灵生命之后，就想操练成圣，悔改，并且在主里得安慰。悔改呢，最基础的是先在家人当中首先显出悔改后的好行为，家庭是见证基督徒生命、生活以及好行为的最直接的地方。只有在家庭里面操练好了，在教会当中越发有好行为了，家庭敬拜也是公共敬拜行之有效的重要保障。
关于家庭敬拜的重要的影响，他引用圣经的教导提出警戒：要好好管理自己的家，使儿女凡事端正顺服。如何管理呢？按着旧约新约一致的教导，就是好好教养自己的后代，并且按着信仰的原则重建家庭：丈夫爱妻子，妻子顺服丈夫，儿女在凡事上顺服父母，孝敬父母，这是圣经当中常常教导的。
“家庭敬拜就是指有基督生命的家长带领的，家长主要是指父亲，做丈夫的，有基督生命的家长带领家庭成员，在家里开展每日敬拜，可以有一次，两次，等等。”
同时，刘牧师海分享了家庭敬拜与个人灵修及教会公共敬拜的三点主要区别：
第一：家庭敬拜不能取代个人灵修。家庭敬拜家庭成员聚集在一起的，读经祷告唱诗，而个人灵修，是个人私下里的学习操练，唱诗、赞美，与家庭敬拜有区别；
第二：家庭敬拜中，不要完全仿效教会主日礼拜的形式，完全仿效容易引起个人和家庭成员对家庭的敬拜感到温馨，而渐渐对教会的公共敬拜淡漠；
第三：家庭敬拜不能执行圣礼。 家长（指丈夫）不信主或者因身体原因不能带领家庭敬拜的，也可以取得当地教会牧者同意，妻子暂时带领，而她个人要迫切祷告，让丈夫信主成为合适的家庭带领者，这才是符合圣经的原则。
那么，家庭敬拜当如何开展呢？刘牧师在分享中提出了4个步骤：
第一：祷告，由家长带领，为教会、为国家，尤其是当下的疫情，为武汉、为同胞祷告，为各个家庭的敬虔，一一向神祈求，最重要的祈求时为灵魂来守望，其次是个人的事项；
第二：祷告之后唱诗，心被恩感赞美神，选取诗歌赞美神；
第三：读经，按照有计划的由家长带着读，或者轮流朗读圣经；
第四：学习和背诵
During the pandemic, a pastor should supervise the believers’ personal worship (personal devotion), public worship (church’s online worship in the pandemic) and urge believers to establish family worship at home, so that they can continue to grow spiritually and stop the spread of the pandemic.
"The altar of family prayer is like a wall, which brings peace to our lives and protects the order of our public worship."
A few days ago, Pastor Liu Guanxiong shared a sermon entitled "Three Kinds of Worship are Promoted or Established by the Church in these Special Times", focused on sharing how to build family worship on the basis of the previous family prayer altar.
He mentioned the two rural churches he served, and he shared in these two churches how they supervised the believers' personal devotions through telephone and web during the pandemic, and regularly carried out public worship, also referred to as joint family worship.
Pastor Liu said: "Family worship is an important link between personal devotions and public worship in the church." He gave an example in the Old Testament: When the Israelites returned after the captivity, the first thing the returnees did was to rebuild the altar. But the enemy repeatedly destroyed the temple and prevented it from being rebuilt. So when Nehemiah returned to the country, the most important thing he did was to rebuild the wall to protect public worship and keep order in the temple.
Pastor Liu explained that family worship was built on the family prayer altar. When a person accepts Jesus and has spiritual life, he wants to live a holy life. He repents and is comforted in the Lord. After repentance, good behavior is first shown in the family. The family is the best and most direct place to practise the Christian life and demonstrate good behavior. Only when there is you practice well in the family, and you can have better behavior in the church. So family worship is also an important and effective guarantee for public worship.
Regarding the important influence of family worship, he quoted the teachings of the Bible: take good care of his family and make his children obedient in all things. How to take care your family? Educate your children according to the teachings of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and rebuild the family according to the principles: the husband loves the wife, the wife submits to the husband, the children submit to the parents in all things and honor the parents.
"Family worship is led by the head of the family who is under Christ, who is mainly the husband. He leads other family members to carry out daily worship in the home, once or twice a day. "
At the same time, Pastor Liu shared three main differences between family worship, personal devotions and church public worship.
1) Family worship cannot replace personal devotions. Personal devotions include learning, singing and praise practiced in private, and in family worship all family members gather together, reading scriptures and singing hymns.
2) You should not completely imitate the form of a Sunday church service in family worship. Otherwise, individuals and family members will feel warmth in family worship, but gradually indifferent to the church's public worship;
3): The sacraments cannot be performed during family worship. You can also obtain the consent of the local church’s pastor to let the wife lead family worship temporarily if the husband is ill or he doesn’t believe in the Lord. But she personally must pray urgently so that her husband believes in the Lord and be the suitable family leader. It is in accordance with the principles of the Bible.
So, how should family worship be practiced? Pastor Liu proposed 4 steps.
1. Worship should be led by the patriarch. The family should pray for the church and the country, especially for Wuhan in the current pandemic, for the compatriots, for the godliness of each family. Pray to God for these things one by one. The most important thing is to pray for that everyone is able to keep watch for the soul. The second thing to pray for is personal matters;
2. Sing hymns after prayer. Choose hymns that praise God with a grateful heart;
3. Read the Bible according to the plan led by the family patriarch, or take turns reading the Bible aloud;
4. Study and recite.
-Translated by Abigail Wu
