Numerous people have emailed us and asked for information about how to get started in forming a
marriage ministry.  Here is a checklist of some issues to consider when starting a marriage ministry:

First, look at the demographics of your congregation, to determine what services your marriage ministry could provide.
Do you have a young congregation with a lot of couples getting married each year and having babies?
Do you have an older congregation with couples who may just need marriage enrichment type of help?
Or do you have a congregation with many couples in marital strife?
Do you have a large number of couples in second marriages dealing with stepfamily issues?

Second, talk with your pastor about his marriage counseling workload.
If he is overloaded in an area, maybe that is where you would want to start.
Ask his preference. Remember that pastors became pastors because they have a heart to help people.
He may want to continue a certain amount of counseling.

Third, decide if you will limit your mentoring to couples within the church, or open it to couples in the community.

Fourth, determine your policy for referring couples to professional counseling because their issues are beyond
the capability of mentor couples to help them (e.g. an active affair, drug or alcohol abuse, or physical abuse.)

Fifth, define the criteria for couples to marry at your church.

Sixth, identify potential mentor couples in your church. These could be couples who demonstrated
by their previous actions that they have a heart for marriages (e.g. attendance at Engaged Encounter,
Marriage Encounter, Family Life seminars, etc)

Seventh, write all this down in the form of a mission statement and submit it to your pastor and church
board for approval.

After you do all this, contact us to train your mentor couples and help you set up
your marriage ministry. For additional info about our mentor training, click here