I AM DISMAYED TODAY

A NEW LEARNING
Church is God’s idea.
Church is Christ’s body on earth. The term ‘body’ refers to the collective of believing people who represent Christ and his values on this planet since he has ascended to his father’s side.

The inherent weakness of the identity rests in the limitations of the human creature. A believer is not a perfect creation, but a being undergoing a spiritual makeover which began with a spiritual birth – a conversion.

I have seen that weakness once again today. Oh, of course, some days I myself am the primary exhibitor of human weakness. I admit that. Today however, I have seen the Church in its weakness.

Humans who love Jesus but who are out of harmony with one another for frivolous reasons. And that is what makes me ache today. Christ’s body is ailing. It needs help. Not the entire body of Christ, but a cell of it, a local congregation. It’s not easily diagnosable as swine flu but something bad is happening. It’s just that we wallow in consumerism, wanting the church and its leadership and its services to fit our requirements. When it doesn’t we do not get along with everyone within the body. That’s what hurts me today.

I am not even a pastor any longer. More of an onlooker, a supporter, an advocate. Yet I feel the pain again, as once I did when leading a church. And I am saddened for Christ’s sake that his body will not function as he would have it.

It is time to pray. Nothing short of the intervention of God himself can interrupt this sickness.

SKIPPED CHURCH - BIG MISTAKE

A NEW LEARNING
We didn’t go to church yesterday. It was a gloomy wet day.
I used to tell this joke. A despondent son says to his mother, “I don’t feel like going.” His mother answers with, “No, son you must go to church today.” He counters, “But I don’t want to go to church.” Just as insistently she says, “But you have to go, you’re the pastor.”

How many Sundays are there in thirty-four years of pastoring and six years of national leadership in a denomination? With few exceptions I was at church on Sunday. We didn’t go yesterday. We would read our Bibles and pray on our own was the plan. Christine followed through as usual. I began reading and writing e-letters, writing blogs and other bits. The two of us began a conversation that became the predictable difference of opinion and grew from there. Two first-borns and whatever ingredients go into wiring and rearing numero unos, that’s us. Christine and I are the poster people for Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. And as we made up for the unnecessary escalated disagreement, which was my fault, because that too is invariably the case, not because I have big shoulders, but sloping ones so the liability rolls right off for me to recommit next time.

Back on the right side of each other we took a drive in the MX5 sports car to sit on a windy day and watch the white caps at low tide. The sun peaked out occasionally so we drove 8th Avenue to 216th Street and stopped at Domaine de Chaberton to inquire about their quaint Bacchus Bistro with its marvelous food. But we are seniors and ultimately we drove home, picking up a pizza to reheat and we watched About Schmidt during the evening. We had no idea what we were about to see. That stars Jack Nicholson who has just retired at age 66. He and his wife adjust to living together 24/7 and they have big plans to see America in their brand new Winnebago bus size Adventurer. We learned how both of them had grown to despise each other’s myriad personal habits when the youthfulness of their love was gone yet they were mutually committed to the marriage. Christine and I looked at each other and smiled knowingly. One day he returned from an errand to find her dead on the floor from a blood clot to the brain. He was alone. Soon a daughter got married in a far away state to a man he couldn’t stand and the rest of the movie is a marvelous character study of numerous people in this unblended family whom the scriptwriters understood perfectly with all the reactions, tired clichés and behaviours of ordinary people in ordinary life situations. Nicholson’s character finds an iota of joy in a note from an African Foster child whom he supports with $25 monthly cheques. And that was that. The credits scrolled. An overcast ending to the day I missed church. Oh, we kissed one another goodnight.

"So did you learn a lesson from the day?" "I don't want to learn a lesson! This is my memoir."

Marriage Should be Better

A NEW LEARNING
After being married for forty-one years and after officiating hundreds of marriages over forty years, and after observing the confusion, dysfunction, dissolution and calamity of many marriages I know that marriages should be better. Whether they can be is going to always be a matter for two individuals within a marriage to determine.

Having been around the block a few times I have seen good speakers address the subject. They come around cyclically, different spokespeople in every decade as though adjusting the important value lessons within the culture of the time. Currently one of the best presenters is Mark Gungor who is the senior pastor of Celebration Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a church that is multi-site with three campuses. He is also a motivational speaker, author, musician, producer and CEO of Laugh Your Way America. He has been married to Debbie for 34 years and has two married children and three grandchildren. Mark has developed seminars in which he teaches in a comedic manner principles that empower marriages. I am sure that his approach could become clichéd and tiresome as all these tutorials can, but Mark is an effective communicator even on video.

The very fact that you can draw a husband and wife to the same venue to listen together is a breakthrough in some marriages. Humour and truth are a good blend for effecting learning. I could consume 30 minutes of your time right now if you watch all the links I am going to list for you. These are on YouTube

1. Men’s Brains and Women’s Brains – 10:28 minutes
2. Men's Sex Drive – 3:54 minutes
3. Ask More Than Once – 5:21 minutes
4. Rainbow – 2:36 minutes
5. Song of Solomon Girl - 4:06 minutes

Mark’s popular seminar, Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage® is available for purchase as a DVD and has now as a book. It can be a helpful personal or group study. Bailing on a marriage is a pretty common solution for people these days. In these formats, then content explores numerous subjects such as the myth of a "soul mate," the different ways men and women think, the conflicting levels of libido, and the necessity to forgive. Gungor asserts what many of us have heard before that the key to marital bliss is not romance but work and skill. Couples must work at maintaining their relationship and developing the skills to make it succeed.

Mark has been featured on Focus on the Family, TBN and ABC News. His daily radio program, The Better Marriage Minute, is heard on 250 radio stations. In the fall of 2008, his new radio talk show, The Mark Gungor Radio Show, debuted, broadcasting live over the Internet weekly. He is also the creator of a new television series, Love, Marriage, and Stinking Thinking.