Loren D. Marks - Home-Centered Gospel Learning and Living: Seeking Greater Personal Revelation

Published by the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, in cooperation with Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City.
Visit us at rsc.byu.edu.

2022 by Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc.

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Any uses of this material beyond those allowed by the exemptions in US copyright law, such as section 107, Fair Use, and section 108, Library Copying, require the written permission of the publisher, Religious Studies Center, 185 HGB, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of Brigham Young University or the Religious Studies Center.

Cover design by Emily V. Rogers and Alex Socarras. Interior layout by Alex Socarras.
Cover images: Top left, top right, and bottom right photos courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Bottom left photo courtesy of Nathan Dumlao, Unsplash.
Spine image: Courtesy of Nathan Dumlao, Unsplash.

ISBN: 978-1-9503-0432-5 | eISBN 978-1-64933-166-3 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Marks, Loren Dean, author. | Dollahite, David C. (David Curtis), author.

Title: Home-centered gospel learning and living : seeking greater personal revelation / Loren D. Marks, David C. Dollahite.

Description: Provo, Utah : Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University ; Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company, [2022] | Includes index. | Summary: In discussing home-centered worship, this volume explores both individual and family worship and draws from reports from a diverse sample of more than five hundred Latter-day Saints who have shared the challenges and barriers they have faced--and successes they have experienced. Individuals and families can establish and maintain a home-centered religious life and strengthen their conversion to the gospel by using these real-life experiences, quotes, and key findings in the social sciences-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022004589 | ISBN 9781950304325 (hardback)

Subjects: LCSH: Families--Religious life. | Worship. | Mormon Church--Doctrines. | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--Doctrines.

Classification: LCC BV200 .M37 2022 | DDC 249--dc23/eng/20220204

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004589

For our children and grandchildren.

Contents

Acknowledgments

E ach of us is profoundly grateful for our wife (Loren for Sandra and Dave for Mary) and children and their ongoing support of our efforts to discover and share ideas that can bless individuals, couples, and families.

We are deeply grateful to the more than five hundred Latter-day Saints who, amid their very busy lives, have shared their experiences and ideas with us in in-depth interviews and surveys. We appreciate their humility and honesty as they have opened up their lives to us so that we might learn from them. We also appreciate the more than four hundred parents and youth from various faiths who participated in our American Families of Faith Project for sharing their thoughts and experiences about how their religion influences their marriage and family life.

In a time of great societal changes and challenges, we are grateful for the prophet and apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who live in such a way that they can obtain divine revelation to guide and bless all the families of the earth. With grace and patience they and their wives make monumental sacrifices of time so that they might help other families receive the peace and comfort that only ongoing divine guidance can bring.

We are grateful to several institutions at Brigham Young University for generous funding of our research over the decades, including the School of Family Life, Religious Studies Center, Family Studies Center, Eliza R. Snow Fellowship, Wheatley Institution, and College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences. Wed also like to thank Louisiana State University for research funding.

Additionally, we are grateful to the wonderful faculty, staff, and student interns at the BYU Religious Studies Center who helped this book through the publication process, including (alphabetically) Scott Esplin, Abby Knudsen, Abby Larkins, Jared Ludlow, Julie Newman, Brent Nordgren, Joany Pinegar, Emily Rogers, Alex Socarras, and two anonymous reviewers who provided insightful and helpful feedback on an earlier draft.

We appreciate valuable feedback on an early draft from Heather Howell Kelley and Justin Hendricks, as well as editorial assistance from Maddie Wilde.

Author royalties from this book will be used to support students who participate in the American Families of Faith Project.

Preface

T he purpose of this book is to help promote positive individual and family response to President Russell M. Nelsons repeated charges to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to (a) deeply engage in home-centered study, learning, teaching, and worship and (b) seek a greater degree of personal revelation. Integrating responses to these two prophetic calls encourages the Saints to enjoy and share personal and revelatory experiences with loved ones in a home and family setting. This book explores how to integrate these two important and challenging processes in synergistic ways. Religious practices such as personal and family scripture study and personal, couple, and family prayer are personal and relational means to eternal ends such as two-way communion with God and all the eternal spiritual and relational blessings that can come from such revelatory experiences.

We note that leaders of the Church refer to the new initiative they announced in 2018 as a home-centered, Church-supported approach. Both phrases carry great power and meaning for us. If it were only home-centeredbut not Church-supportedthen we would all be left to our own devices and resources. Most of us would likely find that we are not able to establish or maintain healthy, consistent patterns of home gospel living without guidance, encouragement, and support of the Church and our fellow Church members. If it were a Church-centered approach, many of us likely would not obtain the many blessings available to individuals, couples, and families who make concerted efforts to establish and maintain home-centered gospel living and learning. Home-centered, Church-supported gospel living incorporates the wide array of benefits the institutional Church provides globally, such as inspired leadership and guidance from living prophets and committed ward and stake leaders, teachers, and fellow Saintsas well as supportive materials such as Come, Follow Me , videos produced by the Church, instructional meetings, and other resources.

To assist us in discussing home-centered worship, we deeply explore both individual and family worship and draw from reports from a diverse sample of more than five hundred Latter-day Saints who have shared with us the challenges and barriers they have facedand successes they have experienced. These reports include members from stakes inside and outside of Utah. They include people who are single, married, remarried, or divorcedand people with children of varying ages. These individuals also relate encouraging successes, ideas, and counsel. Finally, we present detailed discussion regarding how several specific prophetic promises are being fulfilled in their personal and family lives. Throughout the book, we also share key findings from the social sciences that shed additional light on the practice of uniting in sacred practices in our homes.