Nashville

Yesterday I ate breakfast in Nashville, lunch in Louisville, and dinner in Upland, Indiana at Ivanhoes ice cream place, just down the street from Taylor University.  And yes, I ate ice cream for dinner, unaccompanied by any real food.  (I suspect author Brennan Manning would have approved.)

But the night before - Friday night - I joined five other friends in Nashville, for Thai at a place called Koi.  And over dinner I explained to my Nashville friends that Christian Mingle is what prompted me to visit their city twice within the past six months.

I'd like to say there is a guy involved (although, I'm sure there is one responsible); however, my trips to Nashville stemmed from theological discontent, not romance.  For several years now, Christian Mingle's tagline theme verse has irked me greatly.  It gets under my skin that Christian Mingle misuses Scripture by insisting, IF you delight in the Lord, THEN he will grant you the spouse of your dreams.  Psalm 37:4 is not a verse that should be applied to dating or, for those who are already married, the ability to get pregnant.

To do so implies singleness and infertility are the result of an individual's inability to delight in the Lord correctly.  Christian Mingle's advertising is saying men and women who desire to marry, but haven't yet met someone, are single because they are bad Christians.  As Eric Metaxas recently pointed out, in 1970, 84% of 30 to 44 year old citizens born in the US were married.  Today, less than 60% of 30 to 44 years old born in the US are in a marriage relationship.  Singleness is part of the cultural fall out of the world in which we live today - not something that God withholds from single people until they can "get right" with him.

So, last summer, after Christian Mingle's most recent commercials showed up in my Facebook newsfeed, I decided I'd like to submit a theological complaint.  So I went to Christian Mingle's website, hoping to find a customer service e-mail address, but instead, I stumbled upon Christian Mingle's 2012 advisory board, composed of five men and one woman. 

I wasn't at all surprised by the gender imbalance, but I was curious, who was this woman, and how in the world did she make the cut to serve on this advisory board?  After reading Jenni Catron's bio, I stalked her twitter feed to see what else I could learn about this woman from Nashville.  In doing so, I noticed a tweet,  mentioning she had 2 spots left for a women's coaching group, and that applications were due the next day by midnight. 

Curious, I explored the leadership program on Jenni's website.  Rather quickly I decided to forego my Christian Mingle complaint, and started working on my application to participate in Jenni Catron's coaching group.

And so, that's the story of how Christian Mingle brought me to Nashville.