Marriage Remade is a one-week Grow2Serve online course designed to help you understand some fundamentals of cultivating a healthy and missional marriage while living and ministering in a cultural context that is not your own. The course asks you to invest 5-7 hours of learning time over an 8-day period.
Marriage is one of God’s most beautiful creations, but it can also be one of the most challenging journeys of life. God’s wonderful design for marriage reflects His relationship to mankind, and He makes marriage the context for nurture, support, and laboring together fruitfully.
So what happens when God’s calling transplants a marriage into an entirely new context?
- God has defined what marriage is.
- Our home culture defines what marriage is and how it functions.
- Our new culture defines what marriage is and how it functions.
Is it possible to unravel these three “voices” from each other and remake our marriage so that we will not only be healthy and God-honoring, but also participate fully in the calling God has placed upon us?
God’s calling sends couples into new mission in a new context which opens the door to three new realities:
- A New You
- New Temptations
- New Roles
Are you ready for this journey? Don’t go it alone! Many have already trod this pathway and offer help and suggestions. Many are in the same stage of the journey as you, and perhaps you can lean on each other.
As a result of participating actively in the course, by the end you should…
- understand and celebrate how marriage is the same in all cultures and how marriage differs in all cultures.
- be aware of new realities that will be brought on by your new context and mission and be able to navigate those realities in a healthy and constructive manner.
- be able to make bold, intentional steps to remake your marriage in ways that will honor God and fulfill His calling for your lives.
- be willing and able to engage others in helping your marriage change and grow.
Content, Community, Consultation, Connections
Marriage Remade will afford you not just the opportunity to explore some interesting information regarding cultural adaptation, but, more importantly, it will connect you with other married couples who are in a similar stage of cross-cultural life and ministry. You’ll be able to help each other and learn from one another. Your course facilitator(s) will also be a great resource for clarifying what you are learning and for providing input on assignments you will complete and discussions in which you will participate.
Is this Course for Me?
Marriage Remade is designed for those who desire to live and minister well in a new cultural environment. If you’ve been settled into your place of ongoing ministry for at least 2 months and are committed to growing your marriage in your cross-cultural context, this would be a good course for you. The course contains several activities that married couples are asked to complete together, and thus, ideally, this course is one that couples would both complete at the same time.
Learning about Missions and Marriage – learn by doing!
The course creators and facilitators for this course are Mark & Julie Morgenstern. Mark, formerly the training director for ReachGlobal, is currently the director for continuing learning through the CIT Next ministry of Center for Intercultural Training. Julie is the operations director for Grow2Serve. She formerly served as a church-planter and pre-field training leader with ReachGlobal and in several senior leadership roles at South Suburban Evangelical Free Church.
Please note that for maximum learning impact in this course, a learner will ideally spend 30–90 minutes daily (Monday–Friday) working on the material. Some of the coursework will involve reading, writing, listening, and viewing videos on the computer. Other pieces will involve practicing the skills you are learning by interacting with your spouse and other learners, and by engaging in your local community.
