By Courtney Chambers

My family loves to travel. We love to experience new things together, but every family trip calls for us to prepare. My kids pick out the toys they want to bring, I pack the clothes, and we prepare together. We ensure we get what we need to have a great time on our trip. If we forget something or wake up late to a flight, the response could be chaos or, worse, missing the trip we had planned for.

In the same way, we must prepare each week for the Sunday gathering with our church body. If we don’t prepare, like on our family vacations, Sunday mornings could become a chaotic mess. We should enter each Sunday to worship God alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ, so preparing helps remove anything that can get in the way. Here are a few ways we can do this.

Prepare your heart for worship.

When we enter a Sunday service, we hear songs, prayers, and a sermon from our local pastor. Before we enter, we must ensure our heart is right, or we can sing songs out of routine or listen to a sermon without applying it to our lives. We can prepare to gather with the body each week simply by opening up the word on our own. My husband shared a statistic with me recently that 45% of Christians open up the Bible at least once a week. That would mean more than half of Christians only open their Bible once a week, and most none at all. Opening up your Bible and reading on your own helps prepare for Sunday mornings. It makes your daily focus and intent on Christ seven days out of the week rather than one day.

We can welcome our children into this by reading the texts to be preached the following Sunday. Our local church provides the text for the next week, so you can take time each week to read and prepare your hearts and your children for what will be heard. We can also prepare by singing and listening to the songs that will be sung on Sunday.

Two of my children cannot read yet, so for them to know the songs sung, they must hear them. We can play them in our living room, have a big dance party, sit on the couch together, listen, or play them in the car. We can intentionally prepare our family’s hearts for the words we sing each Sunday.

Being intentional each week to read and sing the Word helps prepare for Sunday mornings. When we dwell in the Word each day of the week, we can eagerly feast on the Word with our brothers and sisters. When we sing and prepare throughout the week, we can be meaningful as we sing in unity with our local church body.

Prepare to unite with your church family

We are in a spiritual battle each day. Satan would love nothing more than to distract you and your family from the gathering with your local church. He wants nothing more than to discourage your pastors from the work of the ministry. He wants nothing more than to keep your church family in disunity. This is why prayer is so important. Each week, as we prepare for the Sunday gathering, we should pray for our local church and the family members.

We should first pray for the church’s leadership. Pray for your pastors, Sunday school teachers, life group leaders, and children’s leaders. Pray for the Lord to lead them, guide them, and encourage them. As a pastor’s wife, I can attest to the spiritual battle that church leadership faces each week. They need the church body lifting them up each week as they study and prepare for the Word of God to be proclaimed.

Second, we should pray for the other members of our church body. We are a family and should care for those in our church in that manner. We should care for the church’s needs and pray for them, praise God for the mercies and grace he has poured out on others, and pray for the spiritual growth of others in our bodies. Even if there is someone in the church you might not necessarily agree with on everything or have had past quarrels, pray for them and pray for unity. Prayer is simply one way to care for our church family actively.

Lastly, we should pray for our immediate family. Many of us have unbelieving children in our homes. We can intentionally pray for them and the gospel to grip their lives. We can pray that their hearts will be softened when they enter the assembly on Sunday mornings. We can pray for our believing family members that they will apply the Word they hear to their lives. We can pray for chains to be broken and lives to be restored. We can also bring our children into this heart attitude of prayer.

It is also important to add that when we pray for others, we don’t need to keep that to ourselves. Nothing is more encouraging than when someone tells you they have prayed for you. Encourage your pastors, leadership, friends, and family in this way. Doing these things turns our hearts from ourselves to Christ as we prepare to gather on Sundays.

This is something that we can teach our children at a young age. Invite them to pray for their Sunday school teachers or make cards for church members. Teach your children the importance of caring for the church family in this way by displaying it for them to see. Unity is difficult to display when we have a room full of sinners, but unity is achievable when the sinners come together with a heart softened to the gospel. Our hearts can be softened, and we can be ready to humble ourselves when we intentionally pray for our local church family and seek God in every situation.

Prepare practically

Another way that we can get our family ready to gather is by preparing on Saturday. It is much easier to skip Sunday worship if you wake up late, no one can find an outfit to wear, and everyone is running around fighting and yelling. I can attest to missing one child’s shoe as we walked out the door, and all five of us were searching quickly to find it.

We can take time each Saturday night by laying out clothes for everyone to wear, making sure shoes are ready, and having kids take baths. Simplifying your Sunday mornings to focus on Christ helps as you walk into the building each Sunday. One way we simplify Sunday mornings as a family is through breakfast. On Saturday nights, I prepare bread that we will eat for Sunday morning. Doing so has allowed us to sit together on a busy morning and fellowship together.

The temptation to sleep in on Sunday is there as we all probably wake up early the other mornings. I would argue Sunday mornings are one of the most vital days to not skip out on meditating on God’s Word. Creating family rhythms for Sunday mornings can allow you to do this without rushing or feeling like a hot mess each weekend. Being practical on the weekends might mean sacrifices like going to bed early on Saturday nights, but how much sweeter your Sunday mornings will look with restful eyes!

Your family preparedness might look different depending on your family dynamics. The point is to find practical ways to simplify your Sunday mornings. In doing so, you can help your family’s heart as you roll into the church gathering on Sunday. Sunday morning worship should not be a chore for your family each weekend but rather an eagerness and joy to praise God with your church family.

Preparing for Sunday gatherings always starts at the heart of the person. However, we can take time to teach our children what it looks like to prepare and why we prepare. Feasting on the Word of God together each morning is a gift and one we must never take lightly. Because of that, we prepare each week through singing, reading, praying, and practically preparing.

Courtney is a pastor’s wife and mom of three living in northeast Missouri. Courtney has a Bachelor’s in World Missions and a Master’s in Biblical Counseling.  Courtney is passionate about biblical theology and reaching the next generation. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, and baking. You can find her @courtneyrchambers and @thereformedlife

Further Reading:

5 Ways to Combat Half-Hearted Worship on Sunday — Journeywomen Ministries

“I Just Can’t Go”: The Importance of Gathering with the Local Church — Journeywomen Ministries

Worship All Week – The Daily Grace Co.

‍