Households of Faith

Practicing Family in the Kingdom of God

By: Emily Hunter McGowin

Narrated by: Emily Hunter McGowin

A Holistic Vision of Family in God's Kingdom

The Christian world tends to have a blueprint for what families should look like, and these models of the family can be hard to live up to. In some circles, picture-perfect families are idealized and even idolatrized. Many Christians have a gnawing sense that this "traditional family" model is problematic or outdated. But is there an alternative way of understanding family that's neither idolatrous nor revisionist?

Theologian Emily McGowin casts a holistic vision for what family can be in light of God's kingdom. Jesus is our first teacher about families in the kingdom of God, and families rightly understand themselves only in relation to God's kingdom and the church.

In Households of Faith, McGowin

- recovers biblical portraits of households of faith that are not limited to just the biological nuclear family, that can be multigenerational households of married and single, with or without children,

- acknowledges the realities of how sin and trauma damages families and communities, and

- calls Christians to practice family as apprentices to love who discern the times and improvise faithfulness together.

©2025 InterVarsity Press, LLC. (P)2025 Emily Hunter McGowin

Let's Consider Jesus

With Jesus as our guide, we too can "practice family in the Kingdom of God" and be apprentices of love.
Practical Theology at its best.

Thought provoking ideas for sure

I really liked her ideas on dismantling the typical patriarchal Christian family structure. And I appreciated her emphasis on singleness as a valid status and way of serving Christ. However, I wish she would have spent more time in the latter application chapters focusing on single people and how we can create family while living alone. I suppose that’s a whole book in itself!