All Jobs Are ‘in the Ministry’
From the time we are old enough to form sentences, we are asked to articulate our plans for the future. While few people ask us to lay out a step-by-step…
This Church Married 24 Cohabiting Couples for Free at a Mass Wedding
A few weeks ago, Dallas’ Concord Church held its fourth “Grand Wedding.” The idea is simple. If cohabiting couples in the church take part in a 90-day program and go…
6 Ways to Avoid Early Marriage Mistakes
You’re in your first year of marriage. This is the time you imagined, prepared for and were pressured about through your dating life, and likely long before. You recall watching…
Are You in a Toxic Friendship?
In the recent decade, I’ve witnessed tragic instances of broken relationships and detrimental rifts within various communities: schools, churches, neighborhoods, families and the workplace. Many of us are sometimes caught…
How to Grieve With People Who Are Suffering
Have you ever felt unsure of what to do as you watched a friend grieve a loved-one? My wife recently lost a cousin in a tragic car accident. Almost five…
12 Things Every Healthy Dating Relationship Needs
We’re entering the holiday season, which is both good and bad. Good, because we get rockin’ things like pumpkin pie, Christmas lights and carols, Jesus’ birthday, and a fresh start…
God Has a Purpose in Your Disappointment
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” says King Solomon. Proverbs, which Solomon wrote, speak to the human condition, and this one is no exception. We’re all familiar with disappointment. You…
Things It’s OK to Feel When You’re Single
Singles are staying single longer and longer. Advicers are dishing advice quicker and quicker. If there is a favorite pastime among blogs, married people, self-help books and your engaged friend…
5 Things Every Healthy Married Couple Does
It seems like it was just yesterday that I was a sophomore in high school and met Russ for the very first time. My heart fluttered the first time we…
The Secret Enemy in Your Marriage
We had been married just over a year. After another demanding week at work, neither of us wanted to get into it. And with changes going on in our families,…
4 Ways to Help a Hurting Friend
A couple of years ago my life was upended. You probably know the type of thing I’m referring to—a major loss, a game changer. The devastation uprooted me, so it…
11 Things You Need to Know About Dating
I never thought I’d be unmarried for all of my 20s. Like so many of my peers, I was surprised by how hard—and sometimes fruitless—dating had become. Wasn’t it supposed…
Have We Made an Idol Out of Sexual Purity?
I’ll never forget the look on her face as she shared the story of her dark sexual past, with tears welling up in her eyes. But the ironic thing is,…
How to Find the Beauty in a ‘Boring’ Marriage
The first challenge most marriages must endure does not come from trials and tribulation, but ordinary life. A mild disillusionment replaces newlywed euphoria as the echoes of wedding bells give…
The Profound Spiritual Truth of Marriage
When a married couple pursues Christ together does it change the DNA of their marriage? Hopefully, yes. I know many couples with no connection to organized religion who have wonderful,…