The spiritually vibrant home: The power of messy prayers, loud tables, and open doors

Reviewed by:

Ceil Carey, retired public librarian and long-time book discussion

REVIEW INTRODUCTION

Title:

The spiritually vibrant home: The power of messy prayers, loud tables, and open doors

Author:

Don Everts

Publisher:

IVP

Date:

2020

Format:

Hardcover

Length:

196 pages

OVERVIEW

The Lutheran Hour Ministry and the Barna Group collaborated in 2018 to report what research says about spiritually vibrant homes. The author, Don Everts, throughout the book gives readers many concrete ideas of how they can use their homes, despite the size of family or the house itself, to make a greater impact in the world for Christ.  He delves into each idea put forth in the title: messy prayers, loud tables and open doors.

Each chapter is filled, and that means literally filled, with tables, graphs and other statistics proving each point and demonstrating to the reader where their home and family situation fits into the whole of Everts’ project. This is great information which is actually both the plus and minus of the book.  If the reader does not care for statistics, the amount disclosed in The spiritually vibrant home may just be too much! For those who enjoy such data, it adds a great dimension to the rhetoric.

ASSESSMENT

Rating (1 to 5):

4

Suggested Audience:

Christians who would like to increase their impact on others, particularly using their homes and hospitality

Christian Impact:

The author gives many concrete ideas for ways to have a greater influence for Christ.

Other Notes:

Also includes:

-Appendix 1: Research partners

-Appendix 2: Research methodology

-Appendix 3: Definitions