Puritan Pastor Richard Baxter is well-known for his tireless efforts to reform the culture and practice of pastoral ministry during the late 1600s. In seeking pastor reformation, Baxter recognized the importance of enlisting the leaders of households to co-labor with faithful ministers in the discipleship of their families.
Commenting on the importance of “vital family religion,” Baxter states,
“We must have a special eye upon families, to see that they are well ordered, and the duties of each relation performed… If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all. What are we like to do ourselves to the reforming of a congregation, if all the work be cast on us alone; and maters of families neglect the necessary duty of their own, by which they are bound to help us?
If any good be begun by the ministry in any soul, a careless, prayerless, worldly family is likely to stifle it, or very much hinder it; whereas, if you could get the rulers of families to do their duty, to take up the work where you left it, and help it on, what abundance of good might be done!
I beseech you, therefore, if you desire the reformation and welfare of your people, do all you can to promote family religion… Get information how each family is ordered, that you may know how to proceed in your endeavors for their further good…”
“You are not likely to see any general reformation till you procure family reformation. Some little religion there may be, here and there; but while it is confined to single persons, and is not promoted in families, it will not prosper, nor promise much future increase”
~ Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, pp. 100-102