Matt on Dating
Well, I got through it, my message on dating ended up going 50 minutes, which was 20 minutes too long.
I hate having no idea how it came out. Most of the time all you hear is the positive feedback, but for a message on this topic, you never really hear negative feedback. Those who have it tend to take off and just gossip with their other friends about it ;).
If anyone is interested in reading what I meant to say you can take a look at that too.
Thanks for all your input and support. This next week I will be zooming out on this topic and unpacking Christ’s statement that people “will know we are my disciples by your love for one another.” And as far as I can tell right now, will be going through 1 Corinthians 13, though I have one other idea too, we’ll see how that pans out. Any suggestions?
Hey… I just read through your outline (haven’t listened to the MP3… in honesty probably won’t)… and I found it to be quite in-sync with the beliefs you’ve chosen to follow… and it is very brave to admit past mistakes (which reminds me, when did you cheat, if I may ask? I didn’t hear about that one).
As you know, I don’t share all of your beliefs, and this message on dating is not one of the ones I do share… tho I think it seems well thought out (from the Speech Com perspective) and very well suited to you audience…
That being said… you KNOW the part I like about feedback is constructive criticism… so let’s get onto that…
In all of this… the one word you didn’t use nearly enough was LOVE. It is true (like the book says) that marriage takes more than love (particularly in the environmant and lifestyle the Rock and Stonebrook preaches), but love… is still the most important ingreedient in marriage.
Example: A quick search through your outline reveals 7 uses of the word love, one to “loving that song” and another to “loving feedback”… one is a witty refernce to V-day (somthing about love being in the air)… one is a bible quote… the last 3 are spread out over two sentances on pages 2 and 5…
If you are talking about “pro-unity” in the same grouping as “marriage” you need to talk about the importance of Love… those who don’t love eachother need to find another kind of unity… a different kind of partnership… in or out of the rock, this holds true, and I think you’d agree.
And, finally… the phraise “…I think dating is a bad idea…” and “…I’m not anti-dating…” should probably not be contained in the same message… the idea you were trying to get across is pretty clear… but still… my speech com TA would have torn that one apart :-P
Grade: A- (well Above average… but room for improvement)
Dave, definitely appreciate the feedback, and thanks for the high grade ;)
I guess one question I would pose to you is “what is love?”
It is such a nebulous and misunderstood concept (much like dating…), that it is hard to use that word to define anything. In fact the title of my message was “Love” :)
This week I will be talking about Love itself, what does it mean? What does it look like? WHY is that a key ingredient in marriage? Indeed it is a key ingredient in ALL of our relationships
I look forward to reading that outline…
:-D