Building a Healthy Marriage Ministry is a manual for Pastors and Churches who want to build a vibrant marriage ministry in the local church. Complete with Outlines and graphic ideas, this resource is a practical how-to manual to build your very own marriage ministry.

Your church or ministry will greatly benefit from the information contained within this book. Learn a practical definition for marriage in the church as well as God's design for marriage. Look at the various stages of marriage and the different forms of marriage. And learn how to use the various components of ministry to marriage, including a structure that will greatly enhance your ministry mix. Topics include: Why marriage ministry? Components of marriage ministry Structuring marriage ministry Connecting points for marriage ministry

This resource is much more than a mere leader's guide for the Focus on the Family Marriage Series; it is a manual for developing and sustaining a ministry to marriages in your church and community. With marriages in our culture-and even the Church- in dire straits, there is a desperate need for the Church and it's leaders to stand in the gap for families and marriages. Gleaned from ministries around the nation, this manual contains information on how and where to begin, types of ministry settings, staffing and organization of the ministry. It also includes basic information on learning styles and how to teach adults, develop lessons and encourage discussion. It will also include reproducible forms, publicity aids and clip art, as well as a listing of additional resources.

Healthy marriages do not simply happen, though our culture's marriage landscape suggests otherwise. Married couples need a strong foundation that the majority of people cannot build on their own. How can ministers best prepare engaged couples for the altar? And how can ministers help provide the needed material for healthy growth among married couples in their cultures? Marriage Ministry: A Guidebook by noted pastors, authors, and seminar leaders Bo Prosser and Charles Qualls provides a ready help for ministers who provide premarital counseling, perform wedding ceremonies, and generally care for married couples and their families. Full of information and ideas that encourage conversation, communication, and interaction, this book will help ministers respond to the many needs of couples in the church. Whether your ministerial needs are with the newly married, the successfully married, or the struggling married, Marriage Ministry will surely help you help them.

The Pastor's Manual is a marriage preparation and ministry resource for pastors and other church leaders for pre-marital counseling and for comprehensive marriage ministries including guidelines for training mentor couples, working with couples in groups, and relationship education for all ages. Includes everything you need to have a comprehensive marriage ministry: The Ministry of Marriage Preparation The Pastor's Role (expectations and perceptions; coaching and problem solving; experiences and attitudes) Theological Perspectives (personal responsibility and christian community; God's purposes for marriage; divorce and remarriage; marriage as vocation and covenant) Basic Goals for Marriage Preparation Ministries (religion, money, and sex; communication skills) Working with Couples First Session (wedding details, assessing the couple's preparation for marriage) Sessions with Individuals (premarital questionnaire responses, surfacing potential disagreements) Additional Sessions (finalizing wedding plans) Nurturing Marital Growth After the Wedding Mentor Couples (selecting and recruiting mentor couples; leadership team; training mentor couples) Marriage Preparation in Groups Comprehensive Marriage Ministries (relationship education for children, youth, and young adults; enrichment opportunities for married couples; support for couples in crisis) An extensive list of "Additional Resources" includes organizations and other marriage ministry programs that may be readily available and can be incorporated into local church and community ministries. Updates for these"Additional Resources, " a "Directory of United Methodist Marriage Ministry" leaders and consultants, a "Training Model" for use of GLCM, and other helps are available at www.marriagelovepower.net.

Packed with detailed looks into the makeup of a church community, Church Ministry By Design powerfully presents a step-by-step biblical guide to organizing and effectively running a church. The church of the 21st century has a number of challenges facing it, not all of them spiritual. How the staff handles the enormity of local regulations, social pressures, and legislation will affect the way ministry is done. Church Ministry by Design provides a blueprint for organizing the church for the future, and addresses a large number of ministries the church may choose to provide for its community. Author and pastor Gary H. Woolverton brings together information that assists the staff of the church in developing, maintaining, and evaluating effective ministry and is designed to help the church thrive in the 21st century. Watch for the continuation of this ministry, as the next volume in the series, Position Descriptions by Design, is released soon.

When people encounter a crisis, they often turn to ministry leaders, who may feel unprepared to guide them. In this tool kit for pastors, Christian leaders with unique expertise provide evidence-based insights and practical suggestions on challenges affecting marriages, children, and teens, equipping ministers to help families find hope.

Churches have become such an entity that they are being structured and led much as normal businesses are run. Because of this, churches must provide adequate and effective services to their employees. Proper descriptions of the jobs and related positions of the employees in the church are critical to having an effective staff that can best serve the community. Descriptions of what is expected of volunteers are also crucial to having sufficient servants to do the work God desires of them. This book is a collection of position descriptions, as well as the whats, whys, and hows of developing, implementing, and maintaining effective descriptions for both career employees and volunteers. In addition to the more than 170 descriptions included in the book, more than 950 descriptions are available for download.

**A new updated edition is now available.**. Do you want a great marriage? Most people do. Yet, few people have great marriages, in large part because it is so easy to settle for the mundane in marriage. God did not intend for marriage to be boring and ordinary. In Tools for a Great Marriage, marriage and family life educator, William Batson, uses expert wisdom and practical common sense to show how several indispensable marital tools can help any couple build a satisfying, fun, loving, and lasting marriage.Couples will learn how to: turn their bad talk into love talk; make their personality differences work for them; practice the Principle of Satisfaction in their sex life; defeat the enemy of every marriage selfishness; turn stormy times into opportunities to love each other more; keep conflicts from turning into nasty, knockdown, drag-out fights.Tools for a Great Marriage gives you the blueprint for building your marriage on God's principles in a format that is simple, clear, practical, and easy to apply. At the end of each chapter there is a section called Tool Time for Couples containing follow-up questions which set the stage for great couple times together. A resource section in the back of the book includes additional tools for maintaining a great marriage. The Foreword was written by Dr. Gary Chapman, bestselling author of "The 5 Love Language#."

A veteran pastor answers the questions that today's pastors are asking In 40 Questions about Pastoral Ministry, veteran pastor Phil Newton provides trustworthy answers to 40 of the most common and pressing questions relating to the life and work of the pastor. Covering five major categories--such as development, practices, and preaching--Newton equips pastors to successfully handle everyday duties and challenges, including: • Remaining spiritually healthy • Strengthening your marriage • Dealing with discouragement • Avoiding pitfalls • Leading elders' meetings • Mentoring future leaders • Preaching through books of the Bible • Conducting marriages and funerals • Practicing church discipline • Leading change and revitalization, and much more Basing his answers on Scripture, theological reflection, and personal experience, Newton serves as a mentor and guide for pastors at every stage of ministry. The questions and answers are self-contained, and topics of interest can be easily located. Pastors will want to consult this volume often for authoritative advice on all aspects of pastoral ministry.