The Church Planter's Marriage

Without a strong marriage the church plant fails, right?! I got a call from a church planter today and he was concerned about the health of his marriage. I remember the difficult times that my wife and I had when we were planting the church in Cicero. God's people really know how to stress a relationship. Learning to manage this is part of the spiritual disciplines necessary for success (see stetzers article on not losing your soul)

I remember people hating on my wife for trying to get me home from service before 11 on Wednesdays, or cutting short my "fellowship time" after a Saturday morning meeting at church. I regret that she had to bear the brunt of that abuse. (add to that that she didn't preach , play piano, or work with youth!)

I also remember that I was (am) hot headed and then I was young (no longer) and foolish (jury is out) and we often got ourselves in some great arguments. I recall throwing a Christian vinyl album out the window of my apartment... what a testimony! (It was Phil Keaggy!)We toughed it out and have a great marriage and 3 kids serving Jesus.

What have you done to guarantee a healthy marriage in your church planting experience? And have you noticed CDs don't fly into the street near as well as vinyl did?