Totally Home-Centered Church Survival Guide

Tips, strategies, suggestions, and resources to help your spirituality and conversion soar within your home.

We all recently found that the “Church-supported” portion of our gospel learning is being put on hold for a bit. 

Since I run a huge account and website focused on Come Follow Me Study, I’ve felt this urgency and desire to help out as much as I can.

I asked my followers for questions and concerns they have while making this transition, and I’ve collected them all here! Some answers are from my own experiences as a middle school teacher, avid studier of the Come Follow Me curriculum, and as a young mom to two little kids. Other answers have been crowd-sourced from my followers or from other Come Follow Me resources. 

What are we supposed to do?!

I LOVE this question because I think it has a powerful but simple answer. We do not HAVE to do anything. We are not even SUPPOSED to necessarily do anything. 

Let me ask you a different question: What do you WANT to do? 

What do you want to do now that you have a day of total rest with your family? 

What a cool opportunity to pray to decide what is best. I’ll give you quite a few options and ideas below, but ultimately, you are the authority within your home. You can decide what Sundays are going to look like as you counsel with your spouse if you are married, and with your Heavenly Father. What a blessing!

I do want to add – please do not administer the Sacrament in your home unless you have been given explicit permission by YOUR Bishop. If you have been given permission, please follow your Bishop’s counsel with how to administer the sacred ordinance. 

How do we make Sundays special, especially if work and school are cancelled, so we are home all day every other day, too?

One of my favorite quotes goes something like: “If you don’t do anything differently, how can you expect it to be different?”

So what will you do differently on Sunday morning than a Saturday morning? 

Different shows on the TV? Different meals (eating breakfast together vs. on your own)? Getting ready for the day at a different time? Different music being played? 

My advice? PLAN. PLAN. PLAN. And then expect things to not go according to plan. (That’s one of the first lessons you learn as a teacher. I guarantee any other teacher can attest to that!)

Think about what type of schedule might work well with your family. Set clear expectations beforehand so people, especially kids, know what to expect! Do you have a set start-time for an activity or lesson together? Let people know!

And then be flexible during the day. This is NOT a situation where you need to wrap up on time or else the next ward is waiting out in the foyer for you to finish. Let things go as long or as short as they need. Pay attention to the natural timing and flow. Has an activity run its course in five minutes? Let it be. 

Consider your plans for the ENTIRE day. Late afternoons are usually tough times for everyone, from toddler to teenagers to adults. So will you plan a family walk to get everyone moving? Have everyone take a nap? Watch an uplifting movie together (which probably means Dad is taking a nap)? 

(I’ve got more specific tips for families with YOUNG KIDS and families with TEENAGERS, too!)

What if you or your family haven’t really done Come Follow Me yet? Or haven’t done it in a long time? 

First of all, literally no judgement. You are certainly not alone! 

But, what a nice little tender mercy in the midst of all the chaos, that you now have a little impetus to get you started again!

It might seem awkward or weird (check out point number 4 in my “5 Ways to Make Come Follow Me work for you this year” article). But really, it’s just reading and studying the scriptures! 

And what does it mean to study the scriptures?! Just slow down and think about them a bit. Stop and reflect. Discuss. If you need ideas of questions, check out the current Study Guide HERE (or look back on previous ones, too!). 

Crack open that curriculum manual, turn to today’s date, and start. Let go of any guilt you may feel from “missing” previous weeks. Trust me, you’ll learn exactly what the Spirit needs you to know when you put in some effort. 

What are some ideas for home-centered worship on Sundays?

First of all, the Come Follow Me curriculum is absolutely perfect for this situation. If you haven’t immersed yourself in this curriculum and scripture study yet, now is a great time to start.

Here are some ideas for using the Come Follow Me curriculum on Sundays:

• Give everyone individual time to read the assigned chapters on their own and mark a few verses that stand out to them. Come back together and share what you learned.
• Read through a few of the sections in the manual for the week. Talk about the discussion questions asked in each section. 
• Read through the posts that I made on Instagram @comefollowmestudy for this week and discuss your thoughts. (Or, don’t forget, all my Instagram posts are also posted on my website. You can click on the dates for the week and it will pull up all the posts for that reading!)
• Assign each family member a section of that week’s reading. Give them time to prepare a short lesson, thought, or summary about what they learned from their section. Have each family member share from their portion. 
• Act out or draw portions of the lesson. Hang up the artwork around your home for the following week. 
• Give everyone time to write in their journals about how they can apply the lessons from the Come Follow Me readings to their own lives. Have people share what they wrote if they are comfortable. 
• Watch the Book of Mormon video that corresponds to the assigned reading. Talk about what stood out to you from the video. 

Looking for ideas to specifically keep your little ones engaged? Check out this article!

Do you have teens you are trying to keep involved? Check out these ideas!

Here are other ideas for Sunday that are not related to the Come Follow Me curriculum:

• Prepare for April 2020 General Conference by studying about the Restoration of the Gospel and the First Vision in the Doctrine and Covenants.
• Read, watch, or listen to previous General Conference talks.
• Watch “Music and the Spoken Word” live from the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (broadcast on BYUtv or the Choir’s Facebook page at 9:30 am MDT).
• Assign a “topic” for Sunday that you feel like your family would benefit from. Assign family members to prepare messages or thoughts about the topic. 
• Sing hymns or primary songs. Learn a song that your family might not be familiar with. 
• Do family history work or index names. 
• Keep in touch with distant family members through video calls.
• Keep in touch with ward family members, especially those you are assigned to minister to, through phone calls, texts, or visits (where appropriate). 
• Hold a “Fast Sunday” and have family members bear their testimonies if they are comfortable sharing. 
• Give everyone time to write in journals. 
• Do anything else that you consider “Keeping the Sabbath Holy”

What if I don’t have a picture-perfect “family” situation for Sundays?

If you live alone, this is a beautiful time to slow down and focus on your scripture study habits. How can you dive into the scriptures even more? How can you learn to love them? What good habits would you like to make and keep? You can also reach out to friends and loved ones through technology. Consider forming a study group through a group chat or video call so that you can encourage others to keep themselves emerged in the gospel, too!

If you live with only one other person, this is a great time to connect on a gospel level. Whether you are newlyweds, empty-nesters, or any other situation, take the time to connect with each other about the scriptures. This will also give both of you plenty of time to focus on your individual study. It probably isn’t necessary to be overly “formal” or scheduled with your time together, but commit to making some form of partner study happen. 

If you are the only member living with others who might not be observing the Sabbath day, consider how you can create time to be by yourself for some personal worship. Invite others to participate with you in non-threatening and uplifting ways, if possible. Connect with the people you live with in positive ways while still committing to keep the Sabbath holy. 

Final Thoughts

In Jacob 4:14, we are warned to not look “beyond the mark”. This means over-regulating ourselves, or looking for things that aren’t necessary. 

You don’t have to create a perfect experience for everyone in your home. You don’t need to become the Primary President and the YW leader and the Bishop and the chorister. Keep it simple. Think ahead and plan, but keep it simple. Use the Spirit to be your guide. Your family’s day will probably look different than everyone else’s and that’s totally fine.  

Think of all the emphasis that has been put on “Keeping the Sabbath Holy” over the past 5 years. You know what kinds of things will keep the Spirit and what won’t. Use personal revelation to continue to decide what is appropriate for the Sabbath.

And don’t forget to reach out! We are all in this together, in little homes and apartments throughout the world. Share your successes, your “let’s not try that again” moments, your testimony a-ha’s. Leave them here in the comments on this post, or on my Instagram or Facebook. 

Things might feel a little lonely, but you are certainly not alone. 

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black