Partners in Preparation

Marriage sponsor couples (MSCs) facilitate a partnership between engaged couples and the Church, and serve as a model for the Christian vision of marriage. The author shares her experience as a diocesan family ministry director in this manual for training marriage sponsor couples. This book provides organizational tips, recruitment suggestions, presentational details, exercises and photocopy-ready handouts. The programme covers ministry theory, premarital assessment instrument use, communication skills and marital spirituality. The programme has a family perspective and a contemporary vision for lay formation. Part one explains theological, scriptural and ecclesiological foundations, as well as practical reasons for the MSC approach. It also describes how to organize the MSC strategy, how to recruit marriage sponsor couples for ministry, and how to develop leader couples to train and coordinate MSCs, so that the pastoral minister is freed for his or her own role as spiritual director and team leader. Part two lays out all the details for preparing MSCs for ministry, and part three provides photocopy-ready handouts for recruitment, training and follow-up.