Tag Archives: fun

Christian Marriage (and Sexuality) as a Sign and Wonder: Part 2

We lead out of our marriages as leaders. The center of this marriage is a passionate sexual atmosphere that serves as the power source for the relationship. Since Geri and I started our emotionally healthy spirituality journey in 1996, we had a deep sense that our sexuality and spirituality were deeply connected. We have spent almost eighteen years unpacking that truth. At a New Life Fellowship retreat this past weekend, Ron and Kathy Ferrer, founders of Living in Love, shared 4 wrong attitudes that lower the sexual atmosphere of couples. 1. Sex is Fun. Most people have the attitude that you work before you play. And since sex is play, all your work must get done first (leaving little energy, if any, to cultivate a great sex life). This is very different from seeing sex as a serious responsibility for each spouse to reveal God’s love to one another and the world. 2. Sex is Something We Do. Lovemaking. Read more.

Christian Marriage (and Sexuality) as a Sign and Wonder: Part 2

I Will Quit Dying to the Wrong Things

I won’t put things most important, like self-care, at the mercy of things least important, like always putting others before myself. I will actively pursue a day of rest and what is fun for me. I will make time for those things that are a delight to my unique soul.

Parties, Dancing, Laughter and the Contemplative Life

A hermit saw someone laughing , and said to him, “We have to render an account of our whole life before heaven and earth, and you can laugh?” Sayings of the Desert Fathers This coming, at New Life, we will bring in New Year’s Eve, starting at 6 p.m. with food, a couple of dance lessons, games, a brief time of worship around midnight and then dancing till 2 a.m. We have done this for the last nine years. Each year I struggle with the few nasty e-mails we receive (this year they are national). A voice in my head argues, “Every other church in NYC is praying and you are leading your people to a party!, you worldly compromiser! What are you mad?” Geri is the one who patiently encouraged me to break from the pack years ago and “allow” an intergenerational, pleasureable, clean, fun event as part of our spiritual formation/discipleship here at NLF. Most of us leaders are “pleasure/delight deficient”,. Read more.

Skim

When I was in high school and elementary school, I did what most of my friends did — I skimmed for tests. Learning the material was not important. What was important was to get a good grade, to survive, to get through it. Most Christian leaders/pastors skim today. We skim on ourselves, our self-care. We have so much to do, so many demands that we figure we can catch up on our sleep some other time. The space we need for Sabbath-keeping, replenishing our soil, reading, relaxing, etc. can happen later, some some other time. We lie to ourselves that all is okay. We skim on our relationship with God. There are sermons to prepare, calls to return, people to visit, e mails to read. So our devotional lives are weak and we carry a general cloud of guilt. We skim on our marriages and children. Our families rarely demand us out of a crisis so we. Read more.

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Tag Archives: fun

Christian Marriage (and Sexuality) as a Sign and Wonder: Part 2

Christian Marriage (and Sexuality) as a Sign and Wonder: Part 2

I Will Quit Dying to the Wrong Things

Parties, Dancing, Laughter and the Contemplative Life

Skim

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