We have amazing MarriedPeople partner churches. These marriage champions are taking the MarriedPeople resources and doing things that are above and beyond anything we dreamed about.
We want you to meet them. So once a month, well spotlight a different church that is impacting not only the marriages in their church, but in their community. We want you to meet people from churches of all sizes, large and small, in various types of communities, whether urban, rural or suburban, with budgets big and small and volunteers plenty or scarce. Regardless of how different these churches may be from yours, we think youll find some relevancy to where you are.
We gave them a list of questions to find out more about their church, their team and their ministry. This month, we would like to introduce you to Brent McClintock at Devonshire Church in Harrisburg, PA.
Church: Devonshire Church (Harrisburg, PA)
MarriedPeople champion: Brent McClintock
Size of your church: 200
Approximate number of married couples: 70
Describe the area you are in: suburban
Tell Us About . . . You and Your Team
I am a volunteer.
How did you get involved in marriage ministry? Our Senior pastor attended a previous Orange Conference and wanted to start a marriage ministry. He asked me to get involved.
How many people are on your marriage ministry team? There are three couples that volunteer, either to coordinate the food and decorations or to help on stage at each Large Group event.
How did you recruit your team? Direct ask, based on knowing their personality and skills. It’s also great to find a couple with a thriving marriage to be involved.
Tell Us About . . . How You Use the MarriedPeople Resources and Strategy
What resources do you use from MarriedPeople? We use the Larger Group Experiences and monthly MarriedPeople E-ZINEs from the Strategy Pack.
What does the calendar year look like with your marriage strategy? We’ve used MarriedPeople for two years, running quarterly Large Group Nights, and send out the E-ZINE’s every month to those who signed up for it. Last year we attempted a Date Night. This year we’re planning to drop back to two Large Group events, at least one Date Night, and one Small Group session.
What are some of the unique challenges to planning events in your community, and how have you worked around them? Our first year events were on Friday evenings and attended well. We tried switching to Saturdays to make the evening less hectic, but our attendance has dipped. We’re currently surveying previous attenders to see what their preference is. But our biggest challenge is the congregation’s hesitance to RSVP. Despite all possible announcements, social media, etc., most tend to wait till one week prior to RSVP. This makes planning very very difficult.
Share with us one way you took the MarriedPeople resources and customized them to fit your church. Actually, the resources provided in the Strategy Pack are so flexible already that we’ve mostly just used the script provided.
What has been on really great thing that has come from using MarriedPeople? It’s been a great discussion starter. Some of our couples have shared how much they appreciated hearing from others around their table, and that they look forward to the Night Out events.
What has been your biggest fail and what did you learn from it? Changing events to Saturdays without asking first. I should’ve surveyed the group before making the change, instead of making the decision based solely on what I thought would be good for other people.
What’s your dream to happen next? For our couples to invite their friends and family. We’ve had a small number, but this is such a visitor-friendly opportunity, I’d love to see this take off in a direction where couples can introduce people to a Gospel community by being involved in improving their own marriage.
Thanks, Brent, and the awesome team impacting marriages in Harrisburg, PA!
For more about Devonshire Church, check out their website.
To connect with other MarriedPeople leaders, request to join the MarriedPeople Leaders Facebook group.
Tim Walker is an editor on the MarriedPeople team, and blogger at timswords.com.
