Divorce and the church

Yesterday I preached about the how the church responds to divorce.  In the sermon I shared some statistics about divorce, some brief teachings about how the Bible addresses divorce, and then some ways local congregations can support marriages and people who have had to experience divorce.  View the sermon at:  http://blip.tv/chain-of-lakes-church/community-issues-responding-to-divorce-6196323

Divorce is an issue that fits into the current polarization in the church and the wider culture.  Some people believe that divorce is immoral and shouldn’t happen; others hardly are bothered when people get divorced.  

Because our culture is fighting about gay marriage right now, the urgency of supporting of supporting heterosexual marriage is less.        

I feel like I hardly scratched the surface in the sermon—and it was 26 minutes long!  This sermon easily could have been a six week sermon series. 

My hope is that the church can find common ground regarding this painful issue.  In the sermon I shared three commong ground statements that I think could bring people together.  They are: 1) God wants the church to take marriage very seriously; 2) God wants marriages to succeed; 3) Divorce is painful. 

I know that these are simple statements, but imagine what would happen if every congregation committed themselves to designing ministries based on these three common ground statements.