You’ve probably heard that the divorce rate in the church is just as high as anywhere else. We all know something needs to be done – we just haven’t known what to do. Or worse, some are tempted to think it’s a helpless cause.
Truth be told, something can be done. And something is already being done in many churches around North America. It’s called marriage mentoring – where a seasoned couple walks along side a less experienced couple to invest in their relationship. Does it make any difference? You bet! How do we know? Because we’ve been recruiting, screening, and training couples to become marriage mentors for more than a decade. We’ve heard their stories. We’ve done the research. Marriage mentoring works.
It’s high time we wake up this sleeping giant in the church. Consider the facts. There are close to 400,000 churches in America. If just one-third of these churches would recruit and train ten mentor couples, that would mean one million marriage mentors. Think of the differ¬ence this would make! With a band of marriage mentors we could surely save half of the 1.2 million marriages that end in divorce each year. And think of the marriages that could move from good to great if only they had another couple with more experience to walk beside them.
You have the potential to be that couple and awaken other marriage mentors in your church. Why not? You’ll be amazed at what it will do for your own relationship in return.
By the way, in a recent survey, 62 percent of respondents said they’d like to be mentored by another couple in their church and 92 percent said they would especially like to have a mentor to help them through tough times.
You don’t have to be a marriage expert. You don’t even have to have a perfect marriage. If you are a relatively happy couple willing to be equipped, you have what it takes to awaken the sleeping giant and help stem the tide of divorce.
