Preparing Couples for Love and Marriage: A Pastor's Resource

by Cameron Lee, James L. Furrow

Pre-marriage guidance in a flexible four-session framework to help couples begin a successful marriage. While no one can smooth away all the rough spots in the marital road ahead, couples can be coached to pay attention to warning signs, see the bumps before they hit them, and deal more skillfully with inevitable conflicts. The good news is that you don’t need any formal background in counseling, because the kind of work we’re talking about isn’t counseling―it’s coaching couples to respond positively to the differences between them. It’s not about having all the answers; but helping couples manage difficulties before they become serious threats to the marriage. For more tips, ideas, resources, and advice, go to preparingcouples.com.

Genres: Counselling, Marriage

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2013

Reviews

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated how the authors emphasize the importance of ‘process’ (how we communicate— both listen/speak) even above ‘content’ (what we say) in healthy communication.
The questions in the appendix are particularly helpful.

[Falon Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book because I was officiating my first wedding, and it is cast as the rare egalitarian Christian book for pastors doing premarital counseling with couples. There was good content, and for future officiating prep, I will refer back to the Jumpstarter questions, but in terms of content, I was underwhelmed. It all seemed very basic and obvious, and it unfortunately leaned on some stereotypes and made some references to truly horrendous books (though it did so in a way that if you didn’t know their content, you probably wouldn’t know how problematic they were).

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for pre marriage conversations. It includes conversation starters that are a good way to get to know couple and for them to get to know more about each other. I will continue to use this as one of my resources.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A possible companion for pastors for their pre marital counseling - discusses a lot of the same items as prepare-enrich in more detail