This is a ballroom of chairs waiting for crowds of people who have paid the equivalent of a month's grocery bill to sit still for eight hours and keep quiet.

 

Many of the fees are paid for by businesses. Companies know that increasing productivity and sales is worth the price of sending employees to seminars. The incentive is revenue.

 

I sat in a similar padded chair when I attended the Smart Marriage Conference. It was there that I learned about PREP, Divorce Busting, Imago, Venus and Mars, Prepare/Enrich, How Not to Marry a Jerk, Mastering the Mysteries of Love, Fireproof, Close Calls, and the Five Love Languages. The room was filled, not by business people, but by therapists, clergy, marriage educators, government agencies, military personnel and counselors. The crowd represented fifty states, twenty countries, a dozen religions and a spectrum of political platforms.

 

Every chair held someone who had a heart for marriage... and by no means only their own. Simply sitting in that throng choked me up, knowing that each person present was there because they heard the call to fortify marriage.

 

One of the amazing qualities of that conference was that even the presenters themselves paid to be there. No one, not even John Gray got a free ride. That says something to me about the motivation behind the movement.

 

It was after that first conference that I said to John, "We have to put on one too." 

 

"Great! We will get experts to speak..." he chimed in.

 

"No, not just experts," I said to myself as much as to him. "Ordinary people, who care enough to share what they have learned. I want to give a voice to people who have something to say about what has worked for them." I surprised myself with how strong the feelings were. 

 

This February we will host our sixth conference. Every chair will hold someone who has a heart for marriage, and by no means only their own.

 

Forty bucks. Coffee included.