Marriage Mentor Training Manual for Wives A Ten-session Program for Equipping Marriage Mentors

Marriage Mentor Training Manual for Wives Copyright © 2006 by The Foundation for Healthy Relationships Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 ISBN-10: 0-310-27125-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-310-27125-3 All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for their content for the life of this book. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other - except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Attorneys and Counselors, Suite 1000, Literary Agent, Orange, CA. Interior design by Beth Shagene Printed in the United States of America 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 - 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Session One The Preliminaries Should We Do This Training in a Group or on Our Own? Because we want to eliminate any hurdles that may exist in getting a marriage mentoring ministry off the ground, we have designed our training program to be flexible - so that it can be implemented in a small church of just a few dozen to a megachurch with thousands, by individual couples in the comfort of their own home or in a group of any size. This session of the manual will elaborate on how the training can be used best in either an individual couple or group setting. If you are doing the training as an individual couple, proceed to the section titled "How Marriage Mentors Learn Best" on the next page. If you are doing the training in a group setting, we suggest that you spend a few minutes introducing yourselves to the rest of the couples and, depending on the time available, answering at least one of the following questions: - How did the two of you meet? - How did you get engaged? Describe the proposal. - Why are you interested in marriage mentoring? How Marriage Mentors Learn Best We have taught university courses for nearly two decades. And because our university takes teaching seriously, we often are required to attend workshops on "pedagogy" (pronounced ped-a-go-gee), a five-dollar word meaning "methods of instruction." As professors, we want to know how our students best learn a particular subject, so we in turn can use techniques and tools to help them internalize it and be able to use their new knowledge effectively. We've given that same serious attention to exploring how you, as marriage mentors, will absorb, retain, and practice the information you'll be learning in this program. We conducted research on mentors-in-training. We've done pre- and post-tests to know what works and what doesn't. We've even conducted research with control groups to know if a particular piece of training makes any difference. We say all this to let you know that this program is designed with great intention. And as you will soon see, it relies heavily on interaction. Sure, you will read a bit of content, complete a few self-tests, and view some real-live mentors on the training DVD. But much of your learning will take place as you talk with each other - husband and wife. Indeed, you'll learn more from what you say to each other than you will from any lecture, workshop, or seminar on this subject. Why Do We Need Two Training Manuals?[read more]