Evaluating the impact of family devotions upon selected families from Zomi Christian Community of Tulsa
"Scope and method study. The purpose of this project was to impact each participant's family devotional life and to show parents with a variety of formats for guiding family devotions. The questions raised by this project are the following: (1) what is the impact of "Family Devotions" on each selected family from the Zomi Community?, (2) what changes were indicated in attitude, knowledge, and behavior?, and (3) what are the responses of the families to the family time with God after guiding their families into regular family devotions for a period of time? The need for this project was indicated by a recognition that parents at Zomi Christian Fellowship were not taking an active role in the spiritual nurturing of children in the home. The problem was identified as a lack of understanding on the part of parents of the importance of having family devotions and spiritual leadership. There was also a lack of motivation to implement what they knew about the leadership role at home, and the uncomfortable feelings in guiding family devotions. These needs were met by offering guidance of family devotions, which address both teachings on the importance of family devotions and various method or formats for leading family worship in more effective ways. The teachings included the biblical, theological, and historical teachings of the importance and practices of family devotions. Finding and conclusions. To accomplish this research, the researcher selected eight families who were representative samples from the whole Zomi Christian Fellowship families. The researcher visited and guided family devotions with these eight families and gave teachings and suggested methods to each family. It took six weeks to complete working with all families because of the difficulty of finding free time together as a whole to have family devotions. During the final visits, the researcher showed a simple format for guiding family devotions by leading each family. Most parents learned that family devotions should be short (maximum 20 minutes), effective, valuable, and enjoyable for the whole family. Father, mother, and mature children must in turn lead and prepare ahead of time for the devotions. It was recommended that guiding family devotions be offered to other Zomi families in Tulsa. In addition, these teachings and guidance helped the participants increase their knowledge, and affected their behavior and attitude toward family devotions in a positive way"--Abstract
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 2007