Want to be an effective marriage mentor? Learn these five essentials... and put them into practice!

Leader Essentials:

  • Know the couple. Invest time and build rapport so you can establish trust for your future conversations.
  • Know the Basics. Get to know our flagship Marriage Basics series to understand the three pillars of a healthy marriage: choose love, earn trust, and keep talking.
  • Know the library. Dig into all of the conversation starters at pursueGOD.org, and be ready to use content from the family, faith, and life categories.
  • Know your limits. Draw on boundary on your time (if necessary), and don’t forget that you’re not a professional counselor.
  • Pray. Remember to depend on God for results, and be sure to pray as a couple for the other couple.
Discussion:
  1. Initial reactions to this topic? What jumped out at you?
  2. What are some questions you can ask the couple in the first meeting to get to know them? Make a list. (Hint: what would you want someone else to ask you?)
  3. List the three pillars of a healthy marriage. Which one do you think would be the hardest to talk about, and why?
  4. Take a look at the faith category online and identify three topics that might be great conversation starters for a couple who is investigating Christianity.
  5. What are some signs that it might be time to recommend a professional counselor for a couple? Make a list.
  6. Why is it important to pray together as a couple for the couple you are mentoring? What are the benefits?
  7. Next steps: talk through Marriage Basics if you haven’t already, and then cover additional training topics as needed.