The ABC News headline on December 3 read:
“Sites Match Potential Co-Parents, Skip Love and Marriage”.
Rachel Hope of Los Angeles says she’s ready to be a mother again. She’d like to get pregnant next month. The thing is, she has no idea who the father will be. Hope is one of a growing number of Americans interested in exploding the old 1950s notion of the nuclear family. She’s not looking for love. She wants a co-parent. . . Hope already has two kids from two different fathers: Jesse, 22, whose father was her childhood best friend, and Grace, 4, whose father is her current housemate, Paul Wenner.
Stories like the one above along with others in the last few weeks such as the Phil Robertson (Duck Dynasty) controversy, and of legal challenges to the “Arkansas Defense of Marriage Act” are some of the latest reminders of what we know and feel.
God’s design for marriage is being actively opposed by our culture as never before in our generation.
It’s not just our culture however; we are facing it in our churches. Bill Elliff, Senior Teaching Pastor at The Summit Church, recently wrote:
“Every church and pastor I know is struggling with the devastation of families in their midst. More than any day we’ve seen, our families are under attack. We need to everything possible TOGETHER to help turn the tide. And, it would seem, the very first and best course is to unite together in prayer inviting the Creator of the family to send a mighty revival in the families in Central Arkansas. John Bunyan said, “We can do more than pray after we’ve prayed, but we can do nothing but pray until we’ve prayed.”
It is out of this sense of urgency and need that Family Life Ministries and the Nehemiah Network are inviting Central Arkansas Pastors to a special time of “Prayer for Marriage” on Friday, January 17, 11:30-1:00 at the FamilyLife Headquarters. (Lunch provided)
Let’s unite together to cry out to God for marriages in our churches, community, and our culture.
