The passengers on the bus don't go to the
Greyhound depot, walk up to the ticket window, and ask, "Which bus has
the friendliest driver?" Instead, they ask for the bus that will get
them to the desired destination. Before they buy a ticket and get on
board, they want to know the direction the bus is going.
- Rich Doebler
The Christian church has been built through a sense of mission.
The Apostle Paul's mission was to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles.
John's mission was to teach the love of Christ. And when you consider
Jesus' disciples you can clearly see they had a sense of mission. His
first twelve followers were called to be fishers of people. When his
seventy volunteers spread out across Galilee, their mission was to
proclaim the kingdom of God. When Jesus prepared to leave his followers
on the Mount of Olives, he gave them the Great Commission (Mark 16:15).
The first generation of Christians knew what their mission was.
They were to go into all their world, preaching and teaching the
gospel, baptizing believers, and gathering them into a church. This
mission was translated into operational terms they could follow.
Anywhere a Christian family moved, they started a meeting of believers
in their own home. And for three hundred years, the "house church" was
the only kind of church the Christian movement knew.
We believe strongly that the first priority for marriage mentors
should be a well defined mission. This mission needs to be clearly
stated, enthusiastically accepted, and internally believed. To be
effective, every couple who volunteers to mentor anther couple needs a
strong sense of mission.
So what is that mission and purpose? We've talked to enough
marriage mentoring churches to know that many have their own way of
articulating this. But a vast majority of local marriage mentoring
ministries have yet to define it.
As with any mission, the place to begin is with a simple sentence
stem: "The purpose of marriage mentoring is..." Once you can complete
this sentence clearly and with enthusiasm, you have locked onto your
mission. To help you do just that, allow us to give you a starting
place. After reviewing many local marriage mentoring ministries and
talking with volunteers and pastors, we believe the following sentence
captures the spirit and belief of what most are trying to accomplish.
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.
Of course, you may find this purpose statement to be right in your
sweet spot. Maybe it exactly captures what you are about. But feel free
to edit it. Adapt it. Make it your own. The point is that for you as a
couple to be great in your role as marriage mentors, you have to have a
deep sense of your mission.
