Here at Marriage Missions, we’re continually asked the question, “What book or material on the subject of marriage can we use in our Small Group to help us?”

Our answer is, it depends upon what you’re looking for. We have books and resources listed in the various categories that can help you in many different ways. We wouldn’t have them listed on our web site if we didn’t think they could be helpful. So that would be one recommendation.

Another would be to use our web site for a launching pad for your Small Group studies. Here are some suggestions you might find helpful to be able to do just that:

• Select a married couple or someone who can facilitate/lead the discussion time.

• Go into the index for a topic (of your choice) such as, “Marriage Matters,” “Sexual Issues,” “Family Matters”, etc…

• Make a copy of the “QUOTES” section for every couple (or person) participating. (NOTE: Everything on our web site is down-loadable and printer-friendly.)

• Give them a few minutes to glance through the pages you’ve given them telling them ahead of time that you’re going to have them select one statement or quote to discuss.

• Each person (or couple) is to read the “QUOTE” they’d like to comment on and say the following, giving their comment afterwards:

“I find this quote interesting because…”
-or-
“I think this is an important point because…”

This could even take several weeks to cover a subject if you have others within the group participate on the discussion after the original couple (or person) makes their comments.

If you wanted to further delve into the subject for another week or so, the teachers/facilitators could find an article which they can copy and hand out to each couple (or person) attending and ask them to read the article that week, prepared to discuss what they found important or interesting the following week.

The teacher(s) should be prepared the following week with several discussion questions they’ve put together (maybe even adding other material they’ve found on their own) on the subject.

You may want to have a book or resource list available (which we have listed under “Helpful Resources” in each subject) so the couples can do further study on the subject on their own after the class has ended.

The following week you can be prepared to go on to another subject using the same format.

Of course, you can adapt this plan however you care to. We’ve used this format ourselves and have found that it lends itself to some very interesting discussions. We’ve also heard from a number of people who use the weekly Marriage Messages as their “topic of discussion” when they meet together as couples to strengthen their marriages.

We’d love to hear from you if you use it in your group or classroom study as to how it worked for you and if you made any changes that worked well for you in any way (or even if it didn’t work well because we learn from each other’s mistakes and triumphs as well).

-ALSO-

To help you further with this idea, the following is a link to an article posted on the web site for Marriage Partnership Magazine that discusses “the power of getting couples together to share life, struggles, and faith.” To read this article, please click onto the link below:

• BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

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