Evotional.com - Mark Batterson

Just thought I'd "blog out loud" about our upcoming series. We'll finish up our Y: Why We Do What We Do series this Sunday. I'm fired up about handing out our Annual Ministry Report.

It's still in the developmental stages, but we'll begin a new series on 02.12 titled DTR: Define the Relationship.

Our congregation is 73% single twenty-somethings so dating is a hyper-relevant topic. Deciding who to marry is the second most important decision we make so the church ought to be talking about it.

We try to brand every sermon series. We played around with lots of different ideas for this series. I started out thinking about a "school" metaphor. Something like Intro to Relationships on a chalk board with different classes like Dating 101, Sex Ed, and Advanced Marriage. But DTR is one of those catch phrases that got lodged in my brain. So DTR it is. We'll save Sex Ed for another series.

The series will touch on dating and marriage, but I'm also going to talk about defining one's relationship with Christ. The key to healthy horizontal relationships is a healthy vertical relationship with God.

Here's a thought. I spent 12 years in elementary school, Junior High, and High School. I spent 4 years in college. I did two Masters programs and one Doctoral program. I've taken hundreds of classes on dozens of topics. I've studied geometry and meterology. I've studied philosophy and chemistry. I've immunology and ecclesiology. But I've never taken a class on relationships! I don't even remember one being offered.

I'm hoping this series helps NCCers DTR.