How to Create a Kingdom Culture in Your Home
By Steve DeWitt
Talk about the King (spiritual conversations)
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV)
Talking to our family members happens naturally. Having spiritual content to those conversations doesn’t. God knew this and made it a command in Israel. We can talk about the weather all we want, but bring up something spiritual and you get…crickets. Kingdom culture requires kingdom conversations. Not only is it an opportunity to teach our children, but the conversation itself elevates the culture of the home toward the things of God.
How often do you talk about spiritual things? Talk about what God’s doing in your life or our church? How often did you talk about it this past week?
Use The Deuteronomy Drip Principle. Most of us don’t feel qualified to carry on an hour-long conversation on justification or missions in Africa. What Deuteronomy encourages is the drip principle. Drip. Drip. Drip. Everywhere you go, whenever possible, drip spiritual content into your daily conversations. Pray. Make God and God-talk as easy and normal as Cubs fans talk about the Cubs, and even more. Regularly asking each other questions that get to spiritual conversation is important. Here are some examples:
Has God been teaching you anything new lately?
What is one thing you prayed about today?
What do you hope to do or learn this year?
How did you help someone today, and how did someone help you?
What’s the biggest thing you are trusting God for right now?[1]
What was your takeaway from the Sunday sermon?
Get the ball rolling with each other by asking questions that take everyday conversations into spiritual categories.
Here’s another Old Testament tip: have spiritual mementos around the house and make them legendary. “And he said to the people of Israel, ‘When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’” (Joshua 4:21-22)
Let me give you an example of this. I have had a large, flat, smooth rock in my home office for many years. One day, Kiralee comes in and she says, “What’s this rock for?” I said, “Well, sweetheart, some years ago, Daddy was very, very discouraged and was questioning lots of things in his life. And I was walking along Lake Michigan and I saw this very smooth stone and I picked it up and the thought came to me, how did this stone get so smooth? For thousands of years there were many, many collisions and it made the stone really smooth and I thought, that’s what God is doing in this trial in my life right now. So I kept the rock, sweetheart.”
She loves this rock. In fact, yesterday I said, “Sweetheart, can you go get Daddy’s stone?” (She keeps it in her bedroom now.) And she said, “Maybe when you’re done, I can borrow it again?” She probably asks me every other day, “What does the stone mean?”
So in your home have things around that act as prompters of truth like a picture of you getting baptized or a picture of someone who discipled you on the fridge or things that prompt you to say, “Sweetheart, Daddy was a sinner but he came to Jesus and he is so glad that he did.” You want to make Jesus the central reference point of your home. Does everybody in your home know how you became a Christian? How God has worked in your life and whom he used to do it? Make God’s work in your life legendary. It makes Jesus the hero of your story and home.
[1] Recommended in http://www.focusonthefamily.ca/parenting/mealtime-questions
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
© 2021 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include The Journey (theJourney.fm) or Bethel Church (www.bethelweb.org) website address on the copied resource.
Steve DeWitt is senior pastor of Bethel Church in Northwest Indiana, Founder and Teaching Pastor for the media/radio ministry The Journey, and a Council member of The Gospel Coalition. He is also the author of Eyes Wide Open: Enjoying God in Everything. He and his wife, Jennifer, have two girls.
