From Eden to the new Jerusalem, the story of God’s redemption is told through households. Adam and Eve in the garden. Noah and his family in the ark. Abraham and Sarah called out of Ur. Isaac and Rebekah. Jacob and his sons. Boaz and Ruth. Mary and Joseph and the Christ-child. The household of Cornelius receiving the gospel. The household of Lydia hosting the first European church. And finally, the Bride of Christ Herself — the whole Church — prepared and presented as a household to the Lord at the wedding supper of the Lamb.
Households matter to God. They are not the only thing that matters — the gathered body, the proclaimed gospel, the mission to the nations all matter equally. But households are foundational. The body grows through households. The next generation is formed in households. The gospel is made visible in households. The eldership of every local body is drawn from the households of the body. There is no body of Christ apart from the households that comprise it.
And so the recovery of household governance — marriages walking under the Lord, parents discipling children, courting Saints entering marriage with eyes open, broken patterns redeemed, generational continuity restored — is not just one item on a long list of church priorities. It is among the most consequential things the local body can take up. Where households recover, churches recover. Where churches recover, the gospel goes out with power. And where the gospel goes out with power, the nations come home.
Joshua 24:15
““But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.””
May every household that reads this document say the same. And may the Lord, who began the work of households in Eden, complete what He started, in every household, every body, every generation — until the day He returns.