In this podcast, Geri and I introduce a foundation spiritual practice called the Community Temperature Reading (CTR for short). This is especially relevant as so many of us are under particular relational pressures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
When Geri and I became followers of Jesus, we learned a number of spiritual practices, or disciplines, such as Bible study, worship, fasting, and prayer. Their purpose was to mature us in our love for God. We didn’t learn, however, spiritual practices to mature us into great lovers of people. It wasn’t until we hit our own Wall in our marriage that we realized this enormous gap.
We also realized people were supposedly growing in love for God, but that this wasn’t translating into greater love for people. People with zeal for Jesus were often defensive, judgmental, critical, unapproachable and unsafe. And that included us! So we began the journey, in 1996, of developing spiritual practices, or skills, that eventually evolved into what we call today The Emotionally Healthy Relationships Course.
The theme of this podcast is skill, or practice, of the CTR See below:
The CTR creates a structured framework to build healthy connections in the new family of Jesus. You will notice it has 5 areas – appreciations, puzzles, complaints with possible solutions, new information and hopes and wishes.
Geri and I explain each area and then model it live for you in this podcast.
Our hope and prayer is that you will actually practice it multiple times this week and meet God in the process!
Blessings,
Pete (and Geri)
