With the institution of marriage facing unprecedented challenges, Cleansing Stream Ministries will launch a new program this summer designed to give couples the hands-on help they need to make their marriages thrive.
MarriageLive retreats will be held in July and August in six cities around the country—Pittsburgh, Charlotte, San Antonio, Atlanta and communities near Los Angeles and San Francisco. To prepare for the one-day events, couples watch DVDs by well-known Christian authors and speakers Lisa and John Bevere and complete a workbook—all designed to enrich their marriages.
The live events will come at a time when attitudes toward marriage seem to be changing. President Obama recently endorsed same-sex marriage, and a Pew study late last year found that the marriage rate was at an all-time low. Many young Americans consider marriage passé, Pew has found.
“All you need to do is read the headlines to realize that traditional marriage is under attack,” says pastor Chris Hayward, president of Cleansing Stream who will lead the events. “Although God gave us the institution of marriage, it doesn’t come naturally because of our human flaws. MarriageLive is designed to help couples break out of their negative habits and experience the joy God intended them to have in marriage.”
The study materials, developed by Cleansing Stream in partnership with Berean Christian Stores, generally take about a month to complete. They emphasize the importance of qualities such as grace, forgiveness and unity in marriage.
“Marriage was never meant to be a power struggle,” Lisa Bevere says. “God meant it to be a power union.”
In his DVD, John Bevere explains the role of grace in empowering couples to have the marriages God designed them to have. The workbook compares marriage to a triad, with God completing the relationship between a man and a woman.
MarriageLive events are unlike any other marriage conference. Couples participate in Spirit-filled worship, hear teaching about marriage and receive personal ministry from trained and experienced leaders. The Cleansing Stream team will pray with couples about issues such as acceptance vs. rejection, forgiveness vs. anger and romance vs. apathy. At the end of the afternoon, couples have an opportunity to renew their wedding vows.
“We provide a loving and safe environment for couples to overcome the obstacles that prevent them from having Godly marriages,” Hayward says. “After they break down those barriers, it’s really a special time.”
More than a half million people have attended Cleansing Stream seminars around the world. Founded in 1990 by the influential Pastor Jack Hayford, Cleansing Stream is a Christian nonprofit organization that holds life-changing seminars for adults, youth and children.
For more information, to purchase MarriageLive resources or to register for a MarriageLive event, please visit cleansingstream.org.
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