In a day and age where Biblical marriage is under attack, I believe it’s time for the church to become totally proactive in helping parents stay together. When marriages start falling apart in the church at the same or greater rates than the world, we should wake up and start doing something to stop it. I was recently at the Orange Conference where Doug Fields presented a challenging message to those of us in attendance to take back to our own churches a strategic plan to make sure our marriages were growing stronger. I’m thrilled that the ReThink Group has worked hard on a strategy to help churches do just such a thing. If you’d like to take a look at it you can find it here: 
Here are some of the notes from Doug’s session at Orange Conference 2014
Bait & Switch- Everyone experiences this from time to time.
We need to care for people in ministry- Marriages should be included in family ministry definition.
If the love of a family is not bright red, you can’t make orange.
When you say yes to helping the next generation, you say yes, to helping marriages win!
When it comes to helping marriages, the Church needs to be the hero.
You can’t teach your kids about grace, if you’re not showing it to your spouse.
What if we came up with a plan to help marriages of the kids you minister, have a strategy to strengthen marriages?
If your about kids, you have to be about their parents marriages!!
This of who care about kids need to take the lead in helping kids the most.
60% of children of divorce will walk away from their faith. ; More than twice as likely to leave the church.
We are all about discipleship and kids and they are more likely to be involved if we care about their parents marriages.
Here’s how:
* Focus on your own marriage! Don’t give your families your emotional table scraps!
*Teach your kids about marriage! Heb. 13:4 Don’t just teach about purity. Teach marriage is highly valuable.
* Recruit a mentor couple that would be around your ministry.
Part of the reason kids walk away from the church, is that we haven’t given them a chance to serve IN the church
**Want to help marriages succeed? Give a couple a date night. This is the #1 thing you can do for couples
THE UPSELL-
Doug closed out saying, “You came here thinking, you’re a children’s worker or youth worker, but I hope you’re leaving with marriage as a priority.”
Doug co-authored a book called, “MarriedPeople,” which should be available soon. There is also a website and resource you can check out at MarriedPeople.org. You can also connect with Doug on Twitter at @DougFields.
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