What will be covered, when, and how do we RSVP?
- Foundations: Monday, October 6
- Communication: Tuesday, October 7
- Finances: Wednesday, October 8
- Decision Making: Thursday, October 9
- Intimacy: Friday, October 10
- Each presentation will be from 6:3o to 9pm
Where will these seminars be held?
The Summit Church, North Raleigh Campus
5808 Departure Drive; Raleigh, NC 27616
Do we have to come to all five?
You can come to a single seminar, any combination of seminars, or all five.
Do we have to be a Summit member to come or is this for anyone?
We would love to have anyone from our community to attend these seminars. This includes members of other churches. We want resource other churches in a way that enhances the quality of pastoral counseling and one another care in their congregations. We make these events available free of charge to make it as easy as possible for anyone to attend.
We would encourage you to invite your non-Christian friends who are interested in exploring how embracing the gospel would impact their marriage.
Who are these seminars for?
- Marriage Enrichment – For married couples looking to enhance the quality and depth of their relationship.
- Marital Preparation – For engaged or seriously dating couples wanting equip themselves to launch a God-honoring marriage.
- Marriage Restoration – (Not exactly) While couples in crisis would benefit from this material, it is recommended that counseling be sought in addition to these seminars (www.summitrdu.com/counseling).
What will be covered each night?
- Foundations: Why is marriage hard? Why do so many marriages that begin in sincere love end in divorce? What are the essential things a couple should focus on in order to have a marriage that flourishes? What is a covenant, and why is marriage a covenant? Why do we have a marriage ceremony? What are the roles for a Christian husband and wife? What if I don’t “fit” the masculine-feminine stereotypes or don’t have the personality to match a “traditional” husband/wife?
- Communication: What does a couple talk about over a life time? What if I’m not good with words or listening? How do we maintain friendship when we’re having to keep up with so many logistics? How do we disagree and protect our marriage without losing what’s important to each of us individually? Why do words matter so much, and why can they hurt so badly? How do we make things right after they go wrong and not let negative momentum build?
- Finances: Why are money problems the number one cause of divorce? How do we maintain reasonable expectations for money in a debt-sick culture? How do two people manage their money together when it is hard enough to manage as a single person? Who should administrate the finances, and how involved should the other person be? How do we learn self-control and contentment as a couple? How can “budget” become an exciting or, at least, pleasant word?
- Decision Making: How do we manage our time? How do we navigate situations where we each want good things that cannot both happen? How do we determine God’s will for our personal and marital lives? How do we functionally express the biblical roles of headship and submission? How do we ensure that life’s tough decisions draw us closer to God and each other instead of creating distance? How do we respond when bad things happen to a good marriage?
- Intimacy: How do you maintain the “spark” of marriage over a lifetime? How do you continue learning each other without feeling like you know all there is to know? How do we protect our expectations from highly romanticized cultural ideals? How many ways are there to express love, and why are they all necessary? How do we enjoy a balance of both intimacy and intercourse? How do we grow as lovers throughout our marriage?
What’s up with the stuff I heard about getting some kind of certificate?
Information about that can be found at www.bradhambrick.com/sebts
What’s the “big idea” for how these five seminars are meant to go together?
These seminars are built upon a central premise – God gave us marriage so that we would know the gospel more clearly and more personally. It is the gospel that gives us joy. Marriage is meant to be a living picture of the gospel-relationship between God and His bride, the church. For this reason, we have two goals for you as you go through them:
- That you would get to know and enjoy your spouse in exciting, new, and profoundly deeper ways, so that…
- … you would get to know and enjoy God in exciting, new, and profoundly deeper ways.
This series of seminars is arranged around five topics that represent the most common challenges that a marriage faces. While the difficulties of each area are acknowledged, the tone of these seminars is optimistic. We believe that those things that cause the greatest pain when done wrongly bring the fullest joy when done according to God’s design.
These seminars are both sequential and interdependent. Each seminar is meant to build upon the ones before it and lead into the ones after it. If you are going through these materials for general marital enrichment or pre-marital counseling, it is best to complete them in order. However, if you are looking for guidance in a particular area of need, it is possible to start with the subject of greatest urgency in your marriage.