The framers of The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1677/89) end their preface by sounding an alarm against the neglect of family worship:
And verily there is one spring and cause of the decay of religion in our day which we cannot but touch upon and earnestly urge a redress of, and that is the neglect of the worship of God in families by those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed. May not the gross ignorance and instability of many, with the profaneness of others, be justly charged upon their parents and masters, who have not trained them up in the way wherein they ought to walk when they were young, but have neglected those frequent and solemn commands which the Lord hath laid upon them, so to catechize and instruct them that their tender years might be seasoned with the knowledge of the truth of God as revealed in the Scriptures; and also by their own omission of prayer and other duties of religion of their families, together with the ill example of their loose conversation, having, inured them first to a neglect and the contempt of all piety and religion? We know this will not excuse the blindness and wickedness of any, but certainly it will fall heavy upon those that have been thus the occasion thereof; they indeed die in their sins, but will not their blood be required of those under whose care they were, who yet permitted them to go on without warning – yea, led them into the paths of destruction? And will not the diligence of Christians with respect to the discharge of these duties in ages past rise up in judgment against and condemn many of those who would be esteemed such now?
The Scriptures command Christian parents to bring their children up “in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4), and the regular discipline of worshiping God as families is a vital part of doing so. Timothy, the protégé of the Apostle Paul, was raised in a home with an unbelieving father. Nevertheless, he had a godly grandmother and mother who taught him the Holy Scriptures when he was a little child, which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:15). We call upon all Christian parents to recover the joyful habit of regularly reading the Scriptures, singing God’s praises, and praying together as families. We believe this greatly strengthens homes and churches and is essential to child evangelism & discipleship. For those who are interested in learning more about family worship we recommend two excellent resources: