Little churches

"The families of Christians should be little churches."
(Richard Baxter in his Christian Directory, quoted in The Family Worship Book p17)

As I am reading through The Family Worship Book, I find Baxter's claim ringing true. If the family functions as a little church in regular worship, confession, prayer, reading, instruction and catechism, would not the church benefit greatly?

If it would not only benefit the church, but is in fact the responsibility of parents, then what greater service could the Church offer than to equip parents to lead its "little churches"? The Church would be rightly shifting the responsibility for spiritual nurture back to parents and equipping them to fulfill that responsibility.

I see the consequences spiraling:

1. Parents realize the gravity of parenting.
2. Parents pray daily with their children and for their children.
3. Children grow to understand worship as a daily, not weekly, activity.
4. Children daily see their parents confess sin and worship Christ.
   
5. The worship of many families (on Sundays) mirrors and reinforces the worship of the "little churches."
6. Suddenly children's "programs" are not as critical.
   
7. Children participating in Sunday worship (rather than going out to their programs) is more normal, because they are learning to worship every day of the week.

I can't think of a negative consequence!