MARRIED PEOPLE: HOW YOUR CHURCH CAN BUILD MARRIAGES THAT LAST (co-author Ted Lowe) This NEW book is for any church leader who cares about helping marriages! Helping marriage needs to be the church’s business! Now, there’s a plan. Author’s Doug Fields & Ted Lowe show how the church is uniquely positioned, despite being overcommitted in time and resources, to be in the “business” of building marriages. For every ministry leader—pastor, age group minister, family minister, even the dedicated volunteer—this book offers a vision and a step-by-step strategy for empowering marriages and strengthening the church in the process. The fall-out of a bad marriage has huge impact—it impacts kids, the community, even the health of the church—your church. For example… When marriages are strong, it’s normal for the attendance, tithing, volunteerism, and even the quality of worship to improve. When marriages are weak, the opposite appears. The 2013 Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion states that children of divorced Christian parents are more than twice as likely to leave the church. Wow! It’s time for the church to be the church and help marriages with something more powerful than a yearly marriage sermon series and crisis counseling. We’re looking for some courageous early adopters who will jump into the “marriage-helping space” and join us in making a difference. This book represents Phase 1… we know there are better and smarter leaders out there who can take the movement to Phase 2 and begin to share best-practices. Because if not you… who? Maybe there’s a key volunteer connected to your ministry that you get this book for and ask him/her to devour it and take the lead. Ask a key parent. Ask a leader who is currently on the sideline waiting for a big-vision/task. Ask: “Will you read this and let’s talk about how we might be able to help marriages?” This is big… the time is now. Help has arrived. Follow these steps, make adjustments to fit your culture, and start helping families in a very practical way.
