Tuesday, 18 November 2008

Marriage, Sex and Ministry 3

It is my belief that the strength of our marriage will have a direct impact on the effectiveness and potential of our ministry. For this reason, if no other, we should make a commitment to invest in our marriages.

It takes time to build a great marriage, and far too often other ministry priorities take precedence. However, I believe that one of the greatest limiting factors in ministry progress is that the marriage and home environment are not strong enough to carry the pressures that come as ministry grows. In our experience so far, every time we have seen ministry breakthrough, our marriage has had to strengthen correspondingly. This has involved a commitment to talking openly about the challenges involved and being clear about what it means to continue to show love to each other.

Christian psychologist Kevin Leman has this advice for couples wishing to improve the quality of their marriages:

‘ I spend a lot of time trying to help women get more active in the bedroom and trying to help men get active everywhere else’

I don’t believe we will go far wrong if we apply this principle to our marriages.