Two hundred American communities of faith have now committed to reduce their city's divorce and cohabitation rates by making marriage a priority in their congregations. Marriage Savers president Mike McManus told Agape Press this week that a 50 percent drop in the divorce rate in Austin, Texas, and decreases in other cities that began signing commitments in 1986, is proof that the church-based approach is working.

The average drop in divorce is about 17.5 percent over seven years, McManus said. "That's significant," he said, "and it's happened in more than 100 cities."

According to Baptist Press, more than 10,000 pastors in 42 states have signed Community Marriage Policies with the goal of radically reducing the divorce rate in their local churches.

Resources for church leaders are available at www.MarriageSavers.org.

In many of these Marriage Savers communities, civic and church leaders have come together to culturally transform their cities in other ways as well. The Mission America Coalition (MAC) announced this month in a news release that a new ministry framework called Loving our Communities to Christ (LC2C) will begin with a three-year commitment from several cities and their leaders, to pray and work together in a collaborative and wholistic strategy for reaching their city with the Gospel message.

Jim Overholt, executive director of MAC, said LC2C challenges Christians and churches to "be the church" as modeled in the New Testament by re-establishing a foundation of prayer, a lifestyle of care and a willingness to share Jesus Christ in communities. 

The issues of societal transformation and marriage may have motivated the themes of the love and charity in a message delivered this week by Pope Benedict XVI in his first encyclical. Most reports, such as the one in The New York Times, found the Pope’s notably absent discussion of divisive rules and issues a relief and praised him for expressing what is common to all Catholics, to all Christians—love.

The Pope emphasized the selfless nature of true love, especially in marriage, as it grows to reflect God’s love. He also called the Church to charity and to fighting injustice.

A broad and positive message of love is a relief from all the tedium of homosexual marriage, divorce and abortion stories that are as sounding gongs and clanging cymbals, but it is hardly a sigh-breathing injunction to act as Christians should. Love is a hard duty.

Love is patient and kind. It is not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, and not easily angered. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.

The Pope is right. Love makes good policy—whether in a marriage or a metropolis. And the Church has work to do.

Spread the love here: http://rebeccabarnes1.blogspot.com/ 

And check out R. Scott Clark's comment from the Jan. 23 blog about the call of the church. The associate prof from Westminster Seminary says, "If anything the solution is to re-learn how to think and speak like Christians, to worship like Christians ... and then we'll talk about the culture."