Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ!
We have Vegas and Ohio retreat details in this newsletter, but I want to jump right to the teaser question from last month and our exciting new ministry service:
Introducing “Introductions”
Many have asked us “How can I (or my family) meet a Godly man or woman who’s open to plural marriage?”
After much consideration, here’s one answer we’d like to offer for men and families: SERVICE. What do we mean by that? If you search our forums, you’ll find that many of us believe that one of the main groups that God would like to bless through plural marriage is the single mother – mostly abandoned by society, community, and church these days; these are our modern-day “widows and orphans” we were told to provide for. Go out and provide for them, without expecting anything: Ask a pastor at a church (or 10 churches) if there’s a single mom who could use a bag of groceries. Search craigslist.org for a single mom in need and help out. Volunteer at any number of places where you might be able to help a mom. Start attending a church that has a number of single mothers, and start conversations and look for needs to meet, not a wife. You’ll be surprised at how rewarding it is – and how your focus might shift from finding a wife, to helping. It’s entirely possible that it’s at that point that God may say: “Ah, someone who’s ready to be a husband (again)”. When the time is right, search the forums for suggestions on how then to ease the discussion of plural marriage for the first time. If this doesn’t work, seeking His will, and keep helping – what’s the worst that’s happened?: you’ve kept His command to be providing for others.
Now, we understand that won’t work for everyone, and isn’t much help for the single women who may have already discovered the truth about plural marriage but not found a family. We really don’t think much of classified ads, you can read more about that on the Introductions page. So here’s another suggestion: Get some help from someone you trust in meeting someone worthwhile. You might have a friend who’s already plural friendly, and he/she just might know someone who’s open, and worth meeting, and he/she, knowing you both, might be able to offer a non-emotional perspective as the relationship progresses that would be helpful. OK, probably not too many of us have friends like that yet. So, Biblical Families would like to help, and play the role of that friend, in a way that we think could be much more wholesome and helpful than that of “classifieds”.
That’s where Biblical Families ‘Introductions’ comes in. Click thru for full details if you are interested. In short: There are no forms to fill out, and nobody’s information will ever be posted online or made public. Your privacy (beyond those you are introduced to), is assured. You just write us at introductions@biblicalfamilies.org and say you are interested in participating, and let us know about yourself (if single man or woman), and your family (if already married). Details of what you might want to send us are on the Introductions page. We’ll be sending profiles that more or less match to ladies first, and then they will decide who they’d like to be introduced to. We will not introduce ladies without giving them some type of “covering”: this will mostly take the form of a wife from the Biblical Families Ladies Ministries being in contact with them, throughout the Introductions process. Protection for the single ladies participating is very important to us.
Please understand we also want to be able to vouch for the character of the men/families we are introducing ladies to. The best way to do that is through attending a retreat, and getting to know Biblical Families staff and other members. Beyond that, participation via forums, email, phone calls, Biblical Families radio, etc, will be another way we can get to know you.
This service will surely start slowly, but we hope it can be another important way we can serve Biblical families, and help them to grow into all that God has for them. If you have any questions at all before sending a profile, just email them to: introductions@biblicalfamilies.org
Retreat News
2009 Biblical Families West Coast Retreat, Las Vegas, Oct 9-11th, 2009 Respond now!
We let you vote last month on a location for a West Coast Retreat, and you chose Las Vegas. (Though Sacramento wasn’t that far behind - maybe we can get there next year.) So this is the official announcement for the Las Vegas West Coast retreat – we will meet starting at 6pm Friday evening, all day Saturday, and wrap up on Sunday afternoon. (But your welcome to stay longer, of course – some will.) This is just over 2 months away – so look at your calendar now! Airfares have been dropping, so this is a great time to check http://www.kayak.com for cheap Vegas fares. Several of us from the Biblical families Staff and Board expect to be there, and it should be a great time to meet West Coast plural and plural-friendly Christians – and for West to meet up with East coast members. We have found a great location just off the strip (to avoid the worst of the ‘craziness’).
Hotel and meeting info will be emailed to those who wish to attend. Here’s what we need from you in the next few days: drop me an email at nathan@biblicalfamilies.org if you know you want to attend, or if want to attend but aren’t yet certain you can, please drop me a note now to help with our planning.
Many have been blessed at our retreats over the last 2 years, see here if you need more convincing to attend.
Remember there’s never a cost for our retreats beyond travel – an offering will be taken to cover retreat expenses.
Special mid-west local retreat, South-central Ohio, Labor Day, Sep 4-6th, 2009
We love it when our members take the initiative, so we are pleased to announce this gathering, hosted by a family we’ve known for 10 years, and can highly recommend. Here is Joe’s note, contact him for details:
A retreat is planned for Labor Day weekend (Sept. 4-6) in south-central Ohio. This will be a mostly informal get-together with a lot of time to get to know other like-minded believers. Tentative plans include an informal gathering Friday evening for those that can make it. Saturday and Sunday will have worship, discussion times, and food (of course!). And if anyone is able to stay over, we'll have another informal get-together on Monday (Labor Day).
If you are interested in fellowshipping with other supporters of Christian plural marriage, or if you are just interested in learning more about it, you are welcome to come, either for the whole weekend or just part of it. The only cost would be some contribution toward food expenses for shared meals. We will plan on lunch and dinner together on Saturday and Sunday (no pork or shellfish).
The retreat will be in south-central Ohio (just south of Chillicothe), right next to a large state forest with hiking trails (and camping, if anyone's interested). For hotel info, retreat location, or any questions, send us an email letting us know you're interested. Contact Joe at geojoe44@gmail.com.
Once again we find the newsletter longer than we expected, so we’ll wrap up here – and encourage you to check out the forums if you haven’t lately – it’s a great place to learn and support each other, at over 7000 posts and growing.
God bless, and let us know how we can serve you,
Your BiblicalFamilies.org staff
We have Vegas and Ohio retreat details in this newsletter, but I want to jump right to the teaser question from last month and our exciting new ministry service:
Introducing “Introductions”
Many have asked us “How can I (or my family) meet a Godly man or woman who’s open to plural marriage?”
After much consideration, here’s one answer we’d like to offer for men and families: SERVICE. What do we mean by that? If you search our forums, you’ll find that many of us believe that one of the main groups that God would like to bless through plural marriage is the single mother – mostly abandoned by society, community, and church these days; these are our modern-day “widows and orphans” we were told to provide for. Go out and provide for them, without expecting anything: Ask a pastor at a church (or 10 churches) if there’s a single mom who could use a bag of groceries. Search craigslist.org for a single mom in need and help out. Volunteer at any number of places where you might be able to help a mom. Start attending a church that has a number of single mothers, and start conversations and look for needs to meet, not a wife. You’ll be surprised at how rewarding it is – and how your focus might shift from finding a wife, to helping. It’s entirely possible that it’s at that point that God may say: “Ah, someone who’s ready to be a husband (again)”. When the time is right, search the forums for suggestions on how then to ease the discussion of plural marriage for the first time. If this doesn’t work, seeking His will, and keep helping – what’s the worst that’s happened?: you’ve kept His command to be providing for others.
Now, we understand that won’t work for everyone, and isn’t much help for the single women who may have already discovered the truth about plural marriage but not found a family. We really don’t think much of classified ads, you can read more about that on the Introductions page. So here’s another suggestion: Get some help from someone you trust in meeting someone worthwhile. You might have a friend who’s already plural friendly, and he/she just might know someone who’s open, and worth meeting, and he/she, knowing you both, might be able to offer a non-emotional perspective as the relationship progresses that would be helpful. OK, probably not too many of us have friends like that yet. So, Biblical Families would like to help, and play the role of that friend, in a way that we think could be much more wholesome and helpful than that of “classifieds”.
That’s where Biblical Families ‘Introductions’ comes in. Click thru for full details if you are interested. In short: There are no forms to fill out, and nobody’s information will ever be posted online or made public. Your privacy (beyond those you are introduced to), is assured. You just write us at introductions@biblicalfamilies.org and say you are interested in participating, and let us know about yourself (if single man or woman), and your family (if already married). Details of what you might want to send us are on the Introductions page. We’ll be sending profiles that more or less match to ladies first, and then they will decide who they’d like to be introduced to. We will not introduce ladies without giving them some type of “covering”: this will mostly take the form of a wife from the Biblical Families Ladies Ministries being in contact with them, throughout the Introductions process. Protection for the single ladies participating is very important to us.
Please understand we also want to be able to vouch for the character of the men/families we are introducing ladies to. The best way to do that is through attending a retreat, and getting to know Biblical Families staff and other members. Beyond that, participation via forums, email, phone calls, Biblical Families radio, etc, will be another way we can get to know you.
This service will surely start slowly, but we hope it can be another important way we can serve Biblical families, and help them to grow into all that God has for them. If you have any questions at all before sending a profile, just email them to: introductions@biblicalfamilies.org
Retreat News
2009 Biblical Families West Coast Retreat, Las Vegas, Oct 9-11th, 2009 Respond now!
We let you vote last month on a location for a West Coast Retreat, and you chose Las Vegas. (Though Sacramento wasn’t that far behind - maybe we can get there next year.) So this is the official announcement for the Las Vegas West Coast retreat – we will meet starting at 6pm Friday evening, all day Saturday, and wrap up on Sunday afternoon. (But your welcome to stay longer, of course – some will.) This is just over 2 months away – so look at your calendar now! Airfares have been dropping, so this is a great time to check http://www.kayak.com for cheap Vegas fares. Several of us from the Biblical families Staff and Board expect to be there, and it should be a great time to meet West Coast plural and plural-friendly Christians – and for West to meet up with East coast members. We have found a great location just off the strip (to avoid the worst of the ‘craziness’).
Hotel and meeting info will be emailed to those who wish to attend. Here’s what we need from you in the next few days: drop me an email at nathan@biblicalfamilies.org if you know you want to attend, or if want to attend but aren’t yet certain you can, please drop me a note now to help with our planning.
Many have been blessed at our retreats over the last 2 years, see here if you need more convincing to attend.
Remember there’s never a cost for our retreats beyond travel – an offering will be taken to cover retreat expenses.
Special mid-west local retreat, South-central Ohio, Labor Day, Sep 4-6th, 2009
We love it when our members take the initiative, so we are pleased to announce this gathering, hosted by a family we’ve known for 10 years, and can highly recommend. Here is Joe’s note, contact him for details:
A retreat is planned for Labor Day weekend (Sept. 4-6) in south-central Ohio. This will be a mostly informal get-together with a lot of time to get to know other like-minded believers. Tentative plans include an informal gathering Friday evening for those that can make it. Saturday and Sunday will have worship, discussion times, and food (of course!). And if anyone is able to stay over, we'll have another informal get-together on Monday (Labor Day).
If you are interested in fellowshipping with other supporters of Christian plural marriage, or if you are just interested in learning more about it, you are welcome to come, either for the whole weekend or just part of it. The only cost would be some contribution toward food expenses for shared meals. We will plan on lunch and dinner together on Saturday and Sunday (no pork or shellfish).
The retreat will be in south-central Ohio (just south of Chillicothe), right next to a large state forest with hiking trails (and camping, if anyone's interested). For hotel info, retreat location, or any questions, send us an email letting us know you're interested. Contact Joe at geojoe44@gmail.com.
Once again we find the newsletter longer than we expected, so we’ll wrap up here – and encourage you to check out the forums if you haven’t lately – it’s a great place to learn and support each other, at over 7000 posts and growing.
God bless, and let us know how we can serve you,
Your BiblicalFamilies.org staff