Marriage and Engagement Resources

No matter what you are looking for, this article is a great place to start:

Biblical Marriage: Leading and Serving Together by Jada A. Swanson and Jon E. Swanson

Don't forget our book recommendations, too.

Resources for Marriage Ministry

Pre-Marriage Survey for Counseling Engaged Couples: Symbis Assessment

Pre-Marriage and Marriage Survey: Prepare-Enrich

Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs is a best-selling, but problematic, book. It does not align with Free Methodist beliefs and therefore should not be used in FM churches.

CBE's Bookstore can be trusted to only carry egalitarian resources.

2008 National Survey: Egalitarian Marriages Happier than Complementarian Ones (This link downloads a .pdf)

AWL recommends:

Created for Connection by Sue Johnson

Boundaries in Marriage by Henry Cloud and John Townsend

7 Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman (secular book)

Be sure and check out other resources by looking up publishers, denominations and/or authors here, or researching their stands on marriage equality for yourself.

Combatting Common Misconceptions

Men are not sex-fueled robots by Micah J. Murray

Motherhood is not a woman's primary calling, but rather part of the cult of domesticity foisted on women by the reformation:

Is motherhood the highest calling for women? by Marg Mowczko

A Medieval Makeover: Women’s Roles Before and After the Reformation by Michele Arndt

God's Protection of Women: when abuse is worse than divorce by Herb Vander Lugt

Humor: If Men Got the Titus 2 Treatment by Rachel Held Evans

See also videos on our video page such as:

Does God Say, "I Hate Divorce"?
Headship in Ephesians
"What Were You Wearing?"
The Theology of Gender