Pastor Mark Driscoll shared from the Bible, his heart, and his experience as a pastor on how God is the creator of our bodies and souls and just how messed up our lives can get when we try and figure out sex and marriage on our own.  If we base our lives on the world’s advice, or anything other than Christ and His Word, true fulfillment in relationships and sex will never be ours.  Sex is good, not gross. Sex is pure in the sight of God and encouraged by his very direct words in Song of Solomon: “Drink friends and imbibe deeply.”

Marriage between one woman and one man is greatness, and it takes a lot of work.  A poignant quote from Pastor Mark to the women: “Single ladies, if he will not work to get you, what makes you think he will work to keep you?”

Most men want the ladies to do all the work, or perhaps the man is willing to work to get her, but then he says, “I got her, now it is back to my career.”

The underlying theme throughout the day can be summed up in these two lines: God is the author and creator of life, sexuality and marriage, not the world, so stop looking to others who are just as flawed as we are.

Secondly, in marriage, be a Servant Lover.  Marriage is based upon unselfishness.  Therefore, in sexuality, in money, in raising kids, in all areas, be a servant.  If you will by God’s strength and power set out to be a servant lover, chances are you will be just as fulfilled as your spouse who you have been faithfully loving and serving.

God is with you in your situation no matter what the cirucumstances look like at this very moment.  There is hope and there is redemption for Los Angeles  and the world.

How tough are you? Outside my hotel there was an OUTDOOR concert, a band playing 80’s cover tunes, in that weather. Now, I can tell you that the crowd wasn’t quite Woodstock like, but still, that is what I call hard-core and committed to fun.

On Saturday at the St. Paul River Centre, over 2,000 people came to hear Pastor Mark Driscoll teach about love, marriage, dating and sex. As Mark stated…”in a place where you spend a lot of time indoors, if you are married, or going to get married someday, this is a ‘life skill’ you better get good at, because you are going to have plenty of time.”

The day was amazing, the stories told by attendees were tough, but filled with hope. Our prayer partners prayed with nearly 50-60 people afterward. It was a great conference, it blessed us and we hope it was a blessing to those that attended.

This comment sums it up best and was left on our site just a couple of days ago:

What Mark said about Engedi at the conference in Minneapolis this week really affected us. We have been in a variety of co-sleeping arrangements with our four kids for almost all of our 7 years of marriage. At times it was necessary for us to get any sleep. We have faced huge trials as a couple, most recently surviving cancer (me), losing a baby, and dealing with a life-threatening – and altering – illness in one of our small children. However, Mark’s teaching was the kick in the pants we needed to change our sleep situation. In two days, we have instituted a new sleeping arrangement and routines for everyone in the house, and we have hope – like Doug promised in one of the opening sessions – that God will use our prayerful decision to bless everyone in the house, our kids included.  Thanks for helping us establish Engedi in our home – we already love it!

As a Student Pastor I spent the first ten years giving students the best advice I knew when it came to dating. “The Bible says don’t have sex, so don’t! It mentions fleeing from sexual immorality so I guess that means don’t touch the parts of another’s body that are covered with clothes. Other than that date, kiss and enjoy those great years of junior and senior high relationships!”

Then I eventually saw and had to counsel many of those same students who ended up going too far physically, suffered through broken hearts or lost their own spiritual passion while pursuing their personal romance. Then I discovered the timeless wisdom from the Song of Solomon. It changed my ministry. It changed my parenting. It changed my life!  Who would have ever thought that something written over two thousand years ago could be so relevant for students today?

I love watching the raw scriptures in Song of Solomon challenge students’ thinking and rearrange their perspective when it comes to healthy relationships with the opposite sex. I have used these biblical principles with my own teenage kids.  Although they resisted the ideas at first (my daughter once told her older brother that dad was “trying to brainwash her with that Solomon stuff”), they are realizing God may have a better idea when it comes to dating than their peers do.  Imagine that.

I can’t wait to see you in Tennessee!

Keith Smith
Worth the Wait

The Conference will give you:

• Practical instruction on what to look for in a guy or girl before you date/court and marry
• Help on setting clear standards
• What the difference is between a date and dating
• Practical, Biblical counsel on purity and romance to help you learn and keep God’s best for your love life
• Hope, if you’ve experienced a failure in this area experience God’s grace and some tools to help you make a fresh, healthy start
• Truth to help you learn and live, instead of living and then learning
• Truth that God is for correct, biblical marriage, sex and romance – it was all His idea!

It is practical, relevant, humorous, solid, redemptive—the straight truth. Students, as with adults, don’t change the way they live until they change the way they think.

This material and God’s hand can revolutionize their lives.Please consider exposing your students and families to this all-important message.

We look forward to how God is going to use His Word to influence and shape the lives of students with the Song of Solomon message.

Click Here to view video clips, schedule and pricing information.

They are geared for: Adults 18 years and older, Married Adults, Single Adults and College Students.

Perfect for a small to medium-sized churches to bring a group for a turn key Bible-based relationship conference.

Whether you are newly married, married for years and may think that your marriage can’t get any worse, or better, or perhaps you are a college student
or single and want to have the most fulfilling marriage possible, the Song of Solomon is for you. It is God’s foundational and most intimate writing about how to:

• Attract and become the right kind of a person
• How to Date and then moving towards a serious relationship
• The Gift of Intimacy and Sex, and why and how it can be such a blessing or such a struggle
• * How to fight, because we all do, and how to grow closer through fight, not build a bigger wall between us
• Romancing our spouse after years, fighting boredom and “this is as good as it’s going to get” pitfall
• Commitment and why it is God’s desire and command, and why it is the most satisfying, simple and fulfilling model ever