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Marriage Ministry Considerations

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By Jim Mueller


Whether you're developing a new marriage ministry or growing an existing ministry — it's important that your staff, leadership and volunteers are on the same page on a few key items.

This list applies to pre-marriage mentoring, but has application to general marriage ministry.

  • Elder's Statement — Do you have standards in place regarding:

    Re-Marriage: Under what conditions is a person free to re-marry? Also consider a Divorce statement.

    Sexual Purity: Do you require a commitment to purity?

    Living Arrangements: What if a couple is living together?

    Spiritual Condition: How do you define equally yoked? Do you marry seekers?

    Will you marry unequally-yoked couples?

  • Who can be married at your church? Who can engage in your marriage process? Does a couple need to attend your church? For how long?

  • Will you mentor non-Christians? Seriously consider this evangelistic opportunity.

  • Marriage Criteria. What biblical principles govern whether or not your church will marry a couple? How will that be communicated to the couple?

  • Pre-Requisites. Prior to affirming a couple's ceremony date, what is required of the couple? A marriage workshop? A budget class? Mentoring?

  • Decision to Marry. Who makes that decision? Are your volunteer mentors empowered to do so? Will leadership stand by those decisions?

  • Your Mentoring Program:
    Who will mentor? You? Volunteers?

    If volunteers...
    What are your recruitment criteria? Who will recruit and train?

    Have you developed a mentor-training program?

    Marriage Mentoring...Have you considered ongoing refresher training? Consider these four important components of any strong training program —  skills training, mentoring, testing, and small group.
      What pre/marriage topics will be addressed?

      What objectives or values are most important? Community? Evangelism? Spiritual Growth? What are the core building blocks of a quality marriage?

      What will be the duration and frequency of a mentoring session?

      What kinds of issues might qualify a referral to professional counseling?

      What assessment tool/inventory (such as PREPARE-ENRICH) will be used, if any?
Ministry leaders:more Growthtrac resources here!

Jim Mueller is the President of Growthtrac.
Copyright © 2007 Growthtrac. All rights reserved.

 
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