Welcome to Marriage Matters' first blog! I thought the best place to start would the beginning, so here we go.
After forty years of pastoring, the Lord made it clear to Shar and I that it was time to transition the leadership of our wonderful church over to the incredible young men and women that He had provided for the church's future. We did that over a period of a year and a half, removing myself from the daily work of pastoring the church in June of 2022. Then came the unavoidable, even frightening question that haunted both of us a bit; "What now?" What were we to do with the rest of our years? We still had a lot in the tank. We still had a deep passion to serve people and to be an encouragement in their relationship with Jesus.
Somewhere in the middle of that year and a half succession process we got the answer to our question. The Lord made it clear to both of us that we were to spend the rest of our ministry days in the fight for marriages...period. Working with marriages had always been a huge part of our ministry lives. Pre-marital work, crisis marriage work, marriage reconciliation work, marriage enrichment work, retreat and event speaking...whatever it took we had always been all in on serving to strengthen marriages and families.
But it wasn't just that we had always had a passion for marriages, the burden was much greater than simply us loving to serve people that way. The real burden came from the sense that marriage and family, it seemed clear to us, had become one of the great battlegrounds of our day.
Think about it. Scripture tells us that the deceiver, the one who holds sway over this world and its collective attitudes and mindsets, "opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped" (2 Thes. 2:4 and 1 Jn. 5:19). That opposition seems to be coming to a boil in these particular days we are in right now. And no arena of life appears to be more "opposed" today than marriage and family.
God's design for family, beginning with a unified and loving set of parents, is revealed to us in incredibly simple language in Gen. 2:24 (a man, a woman, both mature enough to live independently from mom and dad, permanently joined together and experiencing a beautiful unity and intimacy that is reflective of the unity and intimacy God's people enjoy with Him through Christ). Simple right? One might think so, but it seems as though hell itself has unleashed an unprecedented assault on that plan. We can't even define what a man or what a woman is today! And the thought that one man and one woman could be faithful for life to the other is often ridiculed as an oppressive and archaic idea forced upon culture by religious nuts. And have you noticed how difficult it has become to experience real unity and intimacy, even for those who truly love their spouse and together want to glorify God in their marriage? Busyness and over commitment in this ridiculously fast-paced life seem to place deep connection and intimacy out of reach for most of us. The daily tasks of paying bills, raising kids, serving in my church and keeping my lawn mowed all feel like adversaries and time-thief's, keeping us from what we know to be centrally important to our lives experiencing all that our Creator has designed for us in marriage.
Truly, the battle for your marriage is fierce, and we believe it's time to fight! That's what has drawn us to launch Marriage Matters, and our hope is to "tool up" and equip every marriage we can to discover, and rediscover, God's wonderful plan and purpose for their marriage.
Our next post is titled simply, The VOW, and will give us all a great place to get started fighting boldly for our marriage. Until then, stay the course dear ones!
Ken and Shar o
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