{"id":302194,"date":"2011-01-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/%series%\/the-art-of-marriage-update\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T18:08:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T22:08:01","slug":"the-art-of-marriage-update","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/the-art-of-marriage-update\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Marriage Update"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s coming!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":294104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"https:\/\/web.familylifetoday.com\/fl2011-01-14.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"00:","filesize":"25.08M","filesize_raw":"26301187","date_recorded":"2011-01-14 12:00:00","explicit":"","block":""},"categories":[2821],"tags":[4126],"podcast_series":[],"cwp_profile":[3142,3048],"series":[2101],"class_list":["post-302194","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reaching-out","tag-ministry","cwp_profile-bob-lepine","cwp_profile-dennis-rainey","series-familylife-today"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg?w=508","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2023\/02\/image-scaled.jpg","download_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-download\/302194\/the-art-of-marriage-update","player_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-player\/302194\/the-art-of-marriage-update","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/familylife-today\/id212174303?mt=2&app=podcast","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0j5UaKdQOHQCuo1bt0ebEm","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/feed\/podcast\/familylife-today","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"TU9Fi2JhOF\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/the-art-of-marriage-update\/\">The Art of Marriage Update<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/the-art-of-marriage-update\/embed\/#?secret=TU9Fi2JhOF\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;The Art of Marriage Update&#8221; &#8212; FamilyLife\u00ae - A Cru Ministry\" data-secret=\"TU9Fi2JhOF\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var 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look at the condition of too many marriages and families in our culture today, \u201cI wish somebody would do something.\u201d\u00a0 Dennis Rainey thinks the somebody who needs to be doing something is all of us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Grassroots Christians are the most powerful force in America today that has yet to be reckoned with.\u00a0 They are standing up and saying, \u201cYou know what?\u00a0 I\u2019m tired of saying nothing.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to do something and I\u2019m going to go down swinging.\u00a0 But I am going to swing, and I\u2019m going to go for the fences, to knock it out of the park.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 This is <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> for Friday, January 14<sup>th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Our host is the President of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I\u2019m Bob Lepine.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to talk on today\u2019s program about some fresh, creative ways that you can reach out and have an impact on the marriages and families in your community.<\/p>\n<p>And welcome to <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>.\u00a0 Thanks for joining us on the Friday edition.\u00a0 I would guess that this is a universal phenomenon \u2013 that everybody who is listening has had the experience that I remember.\u00a0 I think I remember this was the first time it happened for us:\u00a0 I came home from work, and Mary Ann, almost the first thing she said to me was, \u201cI have to tell you what is going on with our friends.\u201d\u00a0 And I said, \u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0 She told me about a husband who had come home that day, packed his stuff,<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 . . . and said, \u201cI can\u2019t be any good for you and for the kids if I\u2019m not good for myself.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not, so I\u2019m moving out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Probably go to church with them, right?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yeah, we were in the same church.\u00a0 I was stunned.\u00a0 I said, \u201cMoving out?\u00a0 What\u2019s he thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, he\u2019s not thinking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 He was on his way out, and in fact that marriage ended in divorce, and I\u2019ll tell you.\u00a0 When something like that happens \u2013 and I\u2019m guessing everybody\u2019s had it happen in a family situation . . .<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Sure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 -- or with somebody at church or a neighbor, and you think to yourself, \u201cMan, I wish there was some way to help this couple get refocused.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Bob, I wonder if we could do some kind of longitudinal study, a research project, on couples who end up getting a divorce like this, and you could find out how many of them acted way too quickly out of the circumstances and the pain they were involved in, in a very compressed period of time, and just walked out of the relationship rather than taking a step back and saying \u201cHow are we going to address this?\u00a0 How are we going to keep our marriage promise and provide the security and the stability for our children and for one another?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 You know, you don\u2019t get married to bring hurt and harm on another person, and yet because it is the most intimate of all human relationships, you will disappoint one another.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 If you disappoint one another enough times, then you get hurt.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t handle that hurt in an appropriate way, you both can begin to retreat away from one another or set up a war with one another, and that marriage can hang in the balance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 If we were to go back 35 years, that would be 1976, that\u2019s the year FamilyLife got started, you and the other couples who helped start this ministry started it with the conviction that if you can point people to what the Bible has to say about marriage and you can point them to a relationship with Christ and help them understand what it means to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then give them some practical, biblical instruction on marriage and you could divert a lot of the marriage crises that we see happening all around us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 I don\u2019t think there is a relationship that is entered into with less training than marriage.\u00a0 You think about it.\u00a0 We do not spend the needed time as a couple when we\u2019re engaged to go through some boot camp training to say, \u201cHow are we going to build this thing called a Christian Marriage?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Psalm 27:1 doesn\u2019t have a chance of becoming a reality.\u00a0 That verse reads, \u201cUnless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.\u201d\u00a0 We see a lot of vain building today, because Jesus Christ isn\u2019t building those homes.\u00a0 Their makers and builders are themselves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 And yet the Christian community has the biblical blueprints to equip a couple to know how to put a proper foundation in place, how to build the walls that protect that marriage relationship and put a roof over it, so that it can withstand the storms that every marriage relationship goes through.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Over the years, everything we have done as a ministry has been to try to provide helpful ways to communicate these biblical principles to couples, not just here in America, but all around the world, starting with the <em>Weekend to Remember\u00ae <\/em>marriage getaways that we started doing back in 1976, the <em>HomeBuilders<\/em> couples studies that were put together back in the late \u201880s and continue to be used all around the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 This radio program, our website, FamilyLife.com \u2013 everything we have developed throughout the years has been with the desire to communicate these transformational truths around relationships, marriage and family, for folks who are struggling living those relationships out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 You were a part of a series of meetings five years ago.\u00a0 You and I and the Chairman of the Board of FamilyLife and a couple of other leaders here from FamilyLife got together, and we just started praying and talking and saying, \u201cLook what\u2019s happening to marriage and family today.\u00a0 It needs help and it needs help at a whole new level than what we\u2019re providing for it with our conferences, radio, internet and small group Bible studies\u201d that you mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>So we took a step back and we said, \u201cWhat would it take to grow the impact of <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> and its related ministries 10X in the next ten years?\u201d\u00a0 And we said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we think about creating tools that we could put in the hands of individuals, of couples, of people who go to church and who care about what\u2019s happening to marriages and families, but may not feel qualified to be able to make a difference?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fact, we took a step back and we took a look at what was taking place at the <em>Weekend to Remember <\/em>marriage getaways<em>. <\/em>\u00a0 You know, at the Getaway we have a meeting, I think it\u2019s on \u2013 used to be on Sunday \u2013 where we would invite couples in attendance who would be interested in joining with us at FamilyLife as a full-time job.\u00a0 Over a period of ten years we had 20,000 people come to that breakout session.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 They wanted to find out more about what would be involved in being a part of our staff.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 And over those same ten years, we recruited probably 100, 150 of them.\u00a0 Well, the question is, what were the other 19,900 saying?\u00a0 I think they were saying, \u201cWe want to make a difference.\u00a0 We want to make an impact, but we may not be called right now to move to Little Rock, Arkansas where the headquarters is, and raise our own support,\u201d as I do to work here.\u00a0 So they took a step back and said, \u201cThat\u2019s just not going to be for us.\u00a0 But we would like to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So we thought, \u201cWhat if we turned the full weight of FamilyLife toward helping create tools to put in the hands of those 19,900 people who believe something must be done about the condition of marriages and families today, and who frankly, are more than likely sick and tired of divorce and how the family is being destroyed and how the culture is morally undermining everything that the Christian family is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You, along with a handful of other leaders here at FamilyLife, stepped forward and said, \u201cI\u2019ll take a portion of this.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to make a difference by creating this resource.\u201d\u00a0 And one of the resources we created was a video experience.\u00a0 It\u2019s a video event that is like the <em>Weekend to Remember <\/em>marriage getaway<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, we took the core messages, the core themes from the <em>Weekend to Remember.<\/em>\u00a0 And keep in mind, the <em>Weekend to Remember <\/em>marriage getaway is a two-and-a-half getaway where couples get together in a great setting, usually at a nice hotel or a resort location, and they hear messages from terrific speakers about communication in marriage, about conflict, about sexual intimacy, about roles, about God\u2019s purpose and design for marriage.<\/p>\n<p>This goes on from Friday night, all day Saturday; we leave Saturday night open for a date night, and then Sunday morning from 9:00 until about 12:30.\u00a0 It really is a great getaway experience for couples.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 In fact, Bob, these conferences \u2013 we\u2019ll have 137 of them this year.\u00a0 About 70,000 people will attend them.\u00a0 These conferences are hosted in nearly all 50 states across the United States by individuals, by couples, lay men and women who are passionate about marriage and family.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things we did was, Barbara and I went with the Chairman of the Board of FamilyLife to Portland, Maine.\u00a0 The ballroom was full.\u00a0 750 were in attendance there; it was just a delightful crowd to be with.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t speak.\u00a0 Barbara didn\u2019t speak.\u00a0 We just observed and we listened.<\/p>\n<p>As we had lunch with the couples who helped put the conference together up in Portland, one of the things they said was, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you give us something where we can bring this back all over Maine to the smaller communities of Maine who will never be able to have a <em>Weekend to Remember?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 They don\u2019t have a hotel ballroom big enough in their community to host one, or we couldn\u2019t get enough people there to make it cost effective, right?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Exactly.\u00a0 So we said, \u201cWhat if we created a video conference, a video experience that was so powerful, so well done, that it would be maybe even better than, from an entertainment standpoint, the <em>Weekend to Remember <\/em>marriage getaway<em>?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 And so we set about to do that, and that\u2019s what you worked on with <em>The Art of Marriage <\/em>video conference.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 We took, as I said, the key themes from the <em>Weekend to Remember<\/em>, but we started getting feedback right away from folks saying, \u201cIs there a way to make it shorter, so it\u2019s not a full two-and-a-half day experience?<\/p>\n<p>Could we do it on a Friday night and a Saturday?\u00a0 Well, we knew that that would make it different from going to a <em>Weekend to Remember,<\/em> but at the same time we knew it might open the doors to a lot of folks who otherwise wouldn\u2019t come out and spend a full weekend.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Exactly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 They\u2019d give you a Friday night and a Saturday, but they\u2019re not going to do the full weekend.\u00a0 It would be something that a church could use, and in fact, the pastor could preach a marriage message on Sunday morning and you could have a whole marriage weekend at your church.\u00a0 You could invite folks who aren\u2019t a part of your church to come for this video marriage conference.<\/p>\n<p>We also knew, and this was part of the feedback we got from folks as we started to explore this, we knew that if we simply went in and videotaped speakers standing up on a platform presenting their messages,<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 . . . as good as those speakers are, and as compelling as that stuff is . . .<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 . . . that would be challenging for folks in a video environment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, think of what\u2019s on TV and on cable.\u00a0 I mean, fast-moving, it\u2019s using technology that is available today to communicate to folks, and if you\u2019ve just got a talking head up there, they\u2019re not going to be able to compete and hold people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 So our team sat down and we thought, \u201cWell, what if we could do some dramatic pieces \u2013 some little mini-movies that we could put together?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYour problem, the problem with your marriage, is you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYeah, figured that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cBoth of you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What if we got some testimonies from couples with compelling stories about their own marriage, where they are transparent and vulnerable?<\/p>\n<p><em>We are in an argument, and I grabbed her as hard as I could and I threw her down on the bed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He would walk out the door and I would be like, \u201cWait.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>You\u2019re leaving again tonight?\u201d<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>And I\u2019d be like, \u201cWhatever.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>Great.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>You know what?<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>I\u2019ll put the boys to bed by myself again.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>That\u2019s great, honey.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>See ya.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What if we could talk to some of the top biblical thinkers around marriage and family in the country?<\/p>\n<p><em>James chapter four teaches us that the source of all conflict within us is an internal war.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>It\u2019s a question that every married couple asks, and that is, \u201cWhat causes fights and quarrels among you?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So when we have rage and anger come into our lives, it\u2019s going to be coming out of selfishness, it\u2019s going to be coming out of self-centeredness, it\u2019s going to be coming out of a sense of revenge. . .<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 And what if we went out on the street and talked to folks on the street about their thoughts on marriage and family?<\/p>\n<p><em>Uh, when we got married I said, \u201cWell, we\u2019ll give it our best and if it doesn\u2019t work we can go our separate ways.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>And she went, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>She said, \u201cThis is it.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em><em>There is no other one for me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 We just started brainstorming all kinds of different ideas for ways to communicate these biblical principles.\u00a0 Over the last year the team has been involved in filming and editing and testing that material.\u00a0 In fact, we shot most of the film in the first quarter of 2010, then we edited it in the second quarter of 2010.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like a movie in many ways.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, it is.\u00a0 It took a lot of post-production work.\u00a0 We debuted it to a group of our staff and some friends of the ministry back at the end of July of 2010.\u00a0 They gave us some great feedback.\u00a0 We went back and did some changing and some editing and some adjusting to the content.<\/p>\n<p>We then took it to a handful of locations, about a dozen locations around the country this past fall, and we tested it in those locations to continue to get feedback on the event.\u00a0 We established Valentine\u2019s weekend, 2-11-11, as the launch date for <em>The Art of Marriage <\/em>video conference.<\/p>\n<p>So four weeks from today on a Friday night in communities all across the country, there are going to be <em>Art of Marriage <\/em>video events that are going to be hosted by lay couples in churches, in local colleges, in all kinds of different settings, where people are opening the doors, inviting their friends, their neighbors, other folks from their church, people from their community to come out for two sessions on Friday night, four sessions on Saturday, to hear from Dr. Wayne Grudem, Al Mohler, Dennis Rainey, Crawford Loritts, Voddie Baucham, Mary Kassian, Barbara is a part of the series, Dave Harvey, Paul David Tripp and others \u2013 to hear from real life couples, sharing their stories, to hear from folks on a street corner in New Orleans, just talking about their view of marriage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yeah, and the presupposition for all of this is, the most powerful force in America today that has yet to be reckoned with, is grassroots Christians who are standing up and saying, \u201cYou know what?\u00a0 I\u2019m tired of saying nothing.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to do something and I\u2019m going to go down swinging, but I am going to swing.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to go for the fences, to knock it out of the park.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bob, what we\u2019re finding is \u2013 this is really cool \u2013 we\u2019ve got one family who came up to Barbara at a Bible study and she shared how they had rented a retreat center in a southern state for their family, because their family is riddled with divorce, and they are inviting dozens of couples from their extended family to come join them for <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em> at this retreat center that has 35 cabins at it.<\/p>\n<p>I know another business man who has a \u2013 it\u2019s not a retreat center, but it\u2019s a home that has six bedrooms in it \u2013 and it has the capability of showing a video like this with a sound system, so they\u2019re going to invite five other couples and they\u2019re going to have their friends get away and hear God\u2019s truth in a relevant fresh way.<\/p>\n<p>Quite honestly, I\u2019d like to be a bug on a wall in these places and watch it happen because the same life-changing truth, the same truth about Jesus Christ is being presented in <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em> video event, and there\u2019s a manual that each person gets a copy of.\u00a0 There are projects, there are all kinds of materials in that manual that they are going to leave with that will make them better husbands, better wives, moms and dads, and will immediately equip them to apply what they\u2019ve learned at <em>The Art of Marriage.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 You remember when we first started talking about this, I told you honestly I was skeptical about whether there really are enough of these highly motivated laymen and women, folks who live around the country \u2013 that they\u2019d step up and say, \u201cYeah, we\u2019ll host one of these.\u201d\u00a0 Are there really folks who have got a little bit of extra time and will be motivated to do this in their community?\u00a0 We\u2019re finding that there are a lot of folks out there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 There are a ton of them.\u00a0 In fact, this past fall we had a little breakout session during the <em>Weekend to Remember <\/em>marriage getaways.\u00a0 We asked people to join us for thirty minutes after the sexual intimacy talk.\u00a0 Now you\u2019d think people would be leaving the conference at that point, but we had over 7000 people come to those breakout sessions this fall.\u00a0 Of the 7000, over 80 percent are raising their hands saying, \u201cI\u2019m interested in making a difference in marriages and families in my neighborhood, my church, my community.<\/p>\n<p>Personally, folks, I don\u2019t know a better way to do battle today on behalf of marriages and families than to put the tools in your hands and to let you reach out to the people that you already know need this.\u00a0 Their marriages are struggling.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s portable.\u00a0 It\u2019s a conference in a box.\u00a0 And it\u2019s first class.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to be disappointed; you\u2019re going to be greatly encouraged.\u00a0 In fact, what we\u2019re praying for, Bob, is that the premier weekend on 2-11-11 \u2013<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s four weeks from today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Right. \u2013 is going to spawn hundreds of other conferences.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already had some churches hold some of these things and they\u2019ve said, \u201cYou know what?\u00a0 We\u2019re going to hold multiple conferences throughout the year, because marriages and families in our community are in serious trouble, and they look to the church to provide help and hope.\u00a0 This is a way to provide that practical, biblical help and hope and, interestingly, Bob, I also am praying that several thousand people will receive Jesus Christ as their Master and Savior, because the gospel is presented at <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em> weekend event.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Some of our listeners may be thinking to themselves, \u201cYou know.\u00a0 That sounds good.\u00a0 We\u2019d be interested in going to something like that if it was happening in our church or in our community.\u201d\u00a0 You can actually go online at FamilyLifeToday.com, and if you click on <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em> link, you can find out where it\u2019s happening, how close it is to where you live.\u00a0 It may be that within an hour of where you live there is a church or location where <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em> is being hosted.\u00a0 You can sign up and plan to go and join with them and be a part of the experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 After you\u2019ve been through it, maybe you\u2019ll want to take it back to your community, your area, and host one yourselves.\u00a0 Get a handful of couples \u2013 let\u2019s say you only have thirty or forty couples.\u00a0 Let me tell you something \u2013 that\u2019s how we\u2019re going to address the crisis in marriage and family.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got to find ways to reach out to people where they live.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 It may be that you\u2019re saying, \u201cI\u2019m ready to host.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to go to host one.\u00a0 I\u2019m ready to do that.\u00a0 We could do that in our community or in our church.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been looking for something like this to do in our church.<\/p>\n<p>Well, there\u2019s still time to do it on the premier weekend, Valentine\u2019s weekend, February 11<sup>th<\/sup> and 12<sup>th<\/sup>, but if that weekend doesn\u2019t work for you \u2013 if you want to do it in April or May or June or whatever works for you, that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n<p>Go to FamilyLifeToday.com, click on <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em> logo where you can watch a trailer, you can watch a promotional video for <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em>, you can find out more about this event and then make plans to be a part of one of these events, either by hosting it or by attending it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 And Bob, I want to go back to Maine.\u00a0 I want to go back to Portland, Maine to those couples who said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you give us the <em>Weekend to Remember<\/em> in a box, a conference in a box on video that we can take to Kennebunkport, to Presque Isle, Maine, Bar Harbor,<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Caribou.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cCaribou, Maine\u201d \u2013 all these little communities all over Maine.\u00a0 It\u2019s really fun \u2013 If you haven\u2019t been online to look at the map of where these things are signed up for, go there and check it out.\u00a0 It\u2019s really fascinating.\u00a0 There are hundreds of them all across the country, people who\u2019ve signed up and said, \u201cYou know what?\u00a0 We\u2019re going to make a difference in how marriage and family is viewed in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Again, go to FamilyLifeToday.com, click on <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em> link and you can find out more about this event; you can make plans to host one of these events or attend one of these events.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have access to the internet and you want to make a phone call, call 1-800-FL-TODAY and we can answer any questions you have.\u00a0 We can make arrangements to send materials out to you, whatever works for you.<\/p>\n<p>But I hope you\u2019ll start making plans now for Valentine\u2019s weekend to be a part of an <em>Art of Marriage<\/em> event, whether you host it or whether you attend one that\u2019s happening near where you live.\u00a0 That will make it a special Valentine\u2019s weekend for you and your sweetheart.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 I have to tell you what happened with my son-in-law, Michael, who is a doctor, and his wife, Ashley.\u00a0 They have five sons.\u00a0 They are busy.\u00a0 I mean, you can just imagine, five boys twelve and under.\u00a0 They\u2019ve got a lot going on.\u00a0 When he saw <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em> trailer and the quality of content he said, \u201cYou know what?\u00a0 I have to bring this to Russellville, Arkansas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You couldn\u2019t find a couple that are busier than Michael and Ashley, but they found a way to connect with their friends and they are going to make a difference in the lives of a lot of their friends and a lot of people that are going to come out of the woodwork to find out, \u201cHey, what\u2019s this <em>Art of Marriage<\/em> thing all about?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Well, again, go online at FamilyLifeToday.com for more information.\u00a0 Click on the link for <em>The Art of Marriage<\/em> and make plans to be part of one of these events on Valentine\u2019s weekend or to host one of these events, either that weekend or some weekend in the future.\u00a0 And if you have any questions, give us a call at 1-800- \u201cF\u201d as in Family, \u201cL\u201d as in Life, and then the word \u201cTODAY.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And with that we\u2019ve got to wrap things up for today.\u00a0 Hope you have a great weekend.\u00a0 Hope you and your family are able to worship together this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>And I hope you can join us back on Monday when we\u2019re going to talk to some folks who are in a very difficult spot.\u00a0 They\u2019re in marriages where they are spiritually mismatched.\u00a0 What do you do when you and your spouse don\u2019t share common spiritual convictions?\u00a0 We\u2019re going to talk about that Monday.\u00a0 Hope you can tune in.<\/p>\n<p>I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.\u00a0 On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 We will see you back on Monday for another edition of <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas.<\/p>\n<p>Help for today.\u00a0 Hope for tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>We are so happy to provide these transcripts. However, there is a cost to produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider <a href=\"http:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/donate\">donating today<\/a> to help defray the costs?<\/p>\n<p>2011 Copyright \u00a9 FamilyLife. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><strong>www.FamilyLife.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","theme_header_position":"Sticky","post_header_is_sticky":"default","is_header_overlay":"0"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast\/302194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/podcast"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302194"},{"taxonomy":"podcast_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast_series?post=302194"},{"taxonomy":"cwp_profile","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cwp_profile?post=302194"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=302194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}