An Open Letter to Our Readers: Love Isn’t Enough

Dear Readers, My name is Karis Murray. I’m the Creative Director at Family Matters, and my parents, Dr. Tim and Darcy Kimmel founded this ministry in 1983. At Family Matters, we’ve always been message-bearers. Everything we do… books, conferences, speaking engagements, radio, blogging and social media is for one purpose:

To carry the message of grace to parents and grandparents everywhere so that they will be transformed into agents of restoration and reformation in their families.

When Tim and Darcy started out in ministry, no one was talking about parenting from a posture of grace. As far as they knew, no one had defined the theology of parenting as “parenting our kids the way God parents His kids-us-with grace.” Instead, the climate of Christian parenting was one of fear, rules, and behavior modification. The idea that parents should start with grace, like God does with us, well, it just wasn’t said. We were the first voice for grace based parenting, and we remain a faithful voice for grace in the Christian parenting movement. Up to this point, Family Matters has had one channel…parenting. But, we’ve known for a long time that this message is transforming more than just parents’ relationships with their children.  It’s also transforming marriages. Grace filled marriages lead to grace based families. For years, people who attend our conferences, read our books or use our parenting studies in their church have asked us to produce marriage materials as well. Yet, we stayed focused on parenting because we knew that there were many wonderful, effective voices for marriage in the Church. For many years we felt it wasn’t the right time for Family Matters to begin a marriage ministry, but little by little we’ve seen that grace is often missing in the conversation.

We’re tired of seeing love fail. It’s time for grace to save the day!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDJDIMWyAzM&w=600] Help us save marriages! It’s time for us to raise our voice. It’s time for our ministry to intentionally reach marriages with the message of grace. Dr. Kimmel’s book, “Grace Filled Marriage” was the first step, and now we are launching marriage conferences and are filming the Grace Filled Marriage video study on August 13, 2014. These new ventures cost money, ($50,000 modestly,) and we’re asking our community to join us. We’ve chosen to raise funds through the crowdfunding site, GoFundMe.

• Please visit our GoFundMe page and help us save marriages! We’re asking you to think of a couple whose marriage has inspired you…Donate a dollar for every year that couple has been married. Honor that marriage by helping us save more. We’re offering The Help Save Marriage Gift Pack as a gift to those who give a donation of any amount.
• Please help us spread the word by sharing  OUR CAMPAIGN with your friends and family by email and social media.

Jesus Christ is the most tangible gift of grace that our Heavenly Father has given to us, His children. Jesus…Grace Himself, came to “proclaim freedom for the captives.” (Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4:18) We want to do the same. Please join us!

Love, Karis