We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. 1 Thessalonians 2:8

In every culture throughout human history, mentoring has been the primary means of passing on knowledge and skills. Up until recently, mentoring was a way of life between generations. In the modern age, the learning process has shifted.

Why do the trades have apprenticeships and professions require internships? Because personal attention from experienced practitioners helps learners master essential skills, techniques, attitudes, and knowledge.

The purpose of marriage mentoring is to lovingly invest in the preparation, maximization, and restoration of lifelong marriages by walking alongside couples who are less experienced than their mentors.

The program is divided into three areas:

Prepare: For engaged or newly married couples. It helps build solid foundations.
Approximately 25 percent of marital disruptions occur before the third anniversary. Thirty-two percent of couples who separate or divorce do so by the fourth year of marriage (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2001).

Maximize: Helps couples deepen and enrich their stable marriage.
Some good marriages move just beyond being mediocre and think that’s it. With a little insight and a little effort, they could be on the brink of greatness. The greatest enemy to a great marriage is a good marriage.

Repair: Encourages couples in distress.
These are couples on the edge of despair, looking into the abyss. They probably didn’t see their crisis coming. They may have had little or no control over its occurrence-but they can control their response to it. With hope and encouragement, with the model of a mentor couple who has gone through it before them, they can walk away from the abyss.

Mentor: Someone whose hindsight can become your foresight.

A marriage mentor is a relatively happy, more experienced couple purposefully investing in another couple to effectively navigate a journey they have already taken. They are trained volunteers from our congregation.

• Willingly shares what they know
• Represents skill, knowledge, virtue, and accomplishment because they have gone before the couple they are mentoring
• Offers support, challenge, patience, and enthusiasm while guiding other couples to new levels of competence
• Points the way and represents tangible evidence of what another couple can become
• Exposes the recipients of their mentoring to new ideas, perspectives, and standards
• Keeps complete confidentiality

• They don’t provide professional advice
• They don’t give out money
• They don’t pretend to know it all

Generally six to seven times will be the length of commitment. You will need to arrange a suitable time with your mentors. In addition, engaged or newlywed couples will meet together as a small group (three couples and two mentor couples) that will last six weeks.

Call Julie Fischione in the Marriage Ministry office at 716-688-7165 ext. 110 or email jfischione@easternhillschurch.org