daddy4ms

Date Night Hesston is this weekend.  I hope couples enjoy their time together and grow in their relationship.  I am thankful to Watermark Church in Dallas, TX for the idea and resources.  Feel free to share pictures or comments below about your Date Night Hesston Experience.  Happy Dating!

John McGee, Director of Marriage Ministry at Watermark Community Church, was the presenter.  Visit their website  here Mistake #1-Separating Marriage and Discipleship In Church, we treat marriage as a topic instead of connected to discipleship or gospel Be a hospital and university at their church Mistake #2-Start by Writing Your Own Content It is either terrible or takes forever to write Find materials and tweak them Mistake #3-No Buy-in From Senior Leadership Do not demean those above you in leadership Senior pastors are not against marriage or marriage ministry Most often they don't understand the vision or how it competes for resources Discover your pastor's language and what motivates them Mistake #4-Lack of Authenticity in Leaders A heart that is well is a heart that tells. We want couples to be honest, but we are not honest ourselves. Mistake #5-Careless Design Choices Over-reliance on quick fixes (one-time events) Train leaders wel...

<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=9780d4e36d" >John McGee at D6</a>

John McGee is director of Marriage Ministry at Watermark Community Church, in Dallas, TX. During his pre-con lab he shared their churches- 3 ½ Things They decided they were going to play offense instead of play defense. Premarried & newlyweds are often neglected in the church. Merge -8 week class for premarrieds. 2 hours-1 hour teaching from front, 1 hour at tables with facilitators. Presented a high view of marriage and let couples evaluate if marriage is right for them. After completing the class, couples will go through Prepare/Enrich. Class is offered 5 times a year. If you are worried about marriage, you will go and find as much information as you can about marriage. This is a great opportunity for the church. Foundation -Newlywed couples. 18 months. When Sinners Say I Do by Harvey, 2/3 of A Lasting Promise by Stanley, Finances developed by Watermark staff, Sheet Music by Kevin Lehman. Meet every other week in facilitator’s home. Accountability for ge...

This week (September 21-23) is the D6 Conference in Dallas. I am excited to be going along with my lead pastor and a leader in one of our ministries. We head out tomorrow afternoon to drive down to Dallas. This summer, I had the opportunity to attend the AMFM conference in Dallas as well and heard John McGee speak. Those attending D6 are in for a treat when John shares about his heart & vision for strengthening marriages. I was able to interview John McGee via email. Here are my questions and his answers below. 1. Briefly share about yourself, family, and ministry at Watermark. Pam and I have been married 16 years and have 4 kids. I have been the director of Marriage Ministry at Watermark for last 9 years. It is not a role I signed up for, but is now one I don’t want to relinquish. I am really grateful to have a front row seat for all the life change that is happening in marriages at our church and in our community. 2. What can the church do to help strengthen marria...

The third general session was held on Wednesday afternoon and was led by John McGee who is a pastor of marriage ministry at Watermark Church. He was to answer the question: What needs to happen to change marriage ministry? He started his time by showing a video that shared statistics that we all know in relation to marriage and family. He started by saying that we in the church need to believe that marriage ministry is our job and that we have something to say. We cannot always be afraid of messiness and send hurting people away when the church can minister to hurting couples and has a message that can impact marriages. He believes that if the church does this-9 things will happen: Cause us to handle the issues in the church first. God's Word, God's People, God's Spirit has something to say. Cause us to pursue excellence and rigor. Cause us to have a strategic discipleship plan and not an over reliance on programs . He shared what Watermark Church does in the area o...