Are you a Marriage Champion?
A marriage champion is someone who has a passion to help couples in all stages of marriage. Whether you are already on the front lines helping couples or you have a passion to do so, we want to support you.
Very few churches have any formal program for helping couples in crisis, and many pastors feel unprepared to help couples. A recent article states Most Churches lack a ‘Marriage 911’. We’d love to see that change.
The local church is the perfect setting for a marriage mentor program. Even if a couple doesn’t attend church, they may seek help there for their marriage. And churches are the best location for equipped and discipled seniors to come alongside younger couples in support and encouragement.
Prepare/Enrich can be the backbone of your Marriage Mentoring Ministry
We use the PREPARE/ENRICH assessment in our church marriage ministry. This tool is an important part of our initial contact with a couple. The assessment is used for both engaged couples preparing for marriage and married couples seeking help for their marriages. We also employ the assessment to vet potential marriage mentor couples.
Our couples are always intrigued to find out their “results.” The insights PREPARE/ENRICH provides are always “ah-ha” moments. A wealth of information is provided in the pages of the assessment that can fuel many fruitful discussions with our couples. It can also serve to help us recommend the best marriage resource for a couple.
We’ve been certified facilitators of PREPARE/ENRICH since 2012, and have trained professionals and lay people to facilitate Prepare/Enrich since 2017. The more we learn about this great tool the more we love it.
We’d love to help you begin your church Marriage Mentoring Ministry by training certified PREPARE/ENRICH facilitators and sharing the wealth of knowledge we’ve gained in using this great tool. We are now doing training via video conferencing or in person. Contact us and let’s talk!
What is Marriage Mentoring?
92% of couples surveyed said they would appreciate having mentors. But what is marriage mentoring? What’s the difference between mentoring and counseling? These answers and more can be found in this short article. Click to download.
Other Marriage Resources we Know and Love
We are not affiliated with any of these resources, but we believe in them so much we want to share them with other churches, just because. Keep checking back for more resources. If you have suggestions, contact us and let us know.
Family Life Ministries
We attended the Family Life President’s Getaway in the fall of 2023 and loved all the new initiatives coming out. There’s still the wonderful Weekend to Remember marriage retreats and Love Like You Mean It Cruise, both of which we’ve attended. There are lots of resources for couples at Family Life, like Bible Studies, podcasts, and articles. But churches also learn how to begin a step family ministry, and equip pastors and couples to engage with marriages and families through FamilyLife Equip. Stay tuned for more exciting news in 2024.
Right Now Media
Right Now Media exists to serve the church through the world’s largest video streaming library of biblical resources. Bible study video lessons, webinars, resources for youth and children’s ministry are all included. One subscription for your church (pro-rated based on size of church) will give access to small groups, couples, families, and staff. Includes a free guide on how to encourage the people in your ministry to take charge of their faith. Our church subscribes to this great tool which we’ve personally used extensively.
Loveology
Loveology is a free relationship resource – dedicated to answering your questions. They feature timely and proven video advice from today’s top relationship experts. While anyone can access the videos, they provide a special login for Marriage Champions – someone on the front lines of helping couples such as pastors, church counselors, mentors, etc. Marriage Champions are able to suggest questions they would like to have answered. Every month more videos are added to the collection. They cover many topics, including communication, conflict, in-laws, sex, parenting, anger, intimacy, trust, time, and forgiveness.
Married People
MarriedPeople is a ministry designed to help your church help marriages. They provide plug and play, fun, engaging, and experiential Marriage Ministry kits. Our church purchased a kit and we loved the variety. Not only did we have an outline, images, and ideas for a fun date night, but we also received 4 date night kits that we printed and used to fill favor bags for the couples to take home and have their own meaningful date night. Currently we subscribe to a monthly ezine that Married People provides. Each month our staff can add their own message, but Married People has already done the work to curate something for couples to read, listen to, watch, and learn about their marriages. Download a free PDF called “3 Marriage Ministry Hacks” to get started with marriage ministry at your church.
Affair Recovery
Affair Recovery is a Christian based resource for couples struggling with affairs. The site is full of videos of real-life stories, an Affair Analyzer quiz, and resources for each spouse in the marriage. There’s a free online bootcamp that couples can complete solo or with their spouse. We personally know a couple who attended their weekend intensive and witnessed the miracle of healing in their marriage. They now serve as leaders for the follow-up groups for other couples.
Retrouvaille
Retrouvaille is a Christian marriage program, Catholic in origin. But couples of all faiths and those with no faith tradition are welcome because their ultimate goal is to save marriages. Weekend intensive programs are found all over the world, and there is a follow-up local group that each couple can join to keep the dialog going. We know a couple who were ready to divorce but went to a Retrouvaille weekend. It completely turned them around, and they’ve been asked to share their testimony at a future event.