Pastoral Couples Retreat

OKLAHOMA CITY – One of my prayers as the Family Ministries Director for the Oklahoma Conference is that, as a result of our time together, we as pastoral couples will commit to modeling healthy covenant marriages for our church families.

To encourage couples in this commitment, Oklahoma Conference pastors and their wives were blessed with the opportunity to attend a pastoral couples retreat and be mentored by the North American Division Family Ministries Directors Claudio and Pamela Consuegra from Feb. 21-23. 

Throughout the weekend we laughed, we cried and we bonded. Some important concepts from the weekend were thinking about the definition of marriage and marriage as a covenant. 

If you ask Siri or Google to define marriage, the answer is pretty bland. Don’t ask for the second definition; it only gets worse. In some ways, these definitions mirror the thoughts many today have about the institution of marriage. 

Marriage has become nothing more than a legal contract, union or mixture. Strangely, when you think of divorce, it’s simply the dissolving of that contract. Instead, enter marriage as a covenant. 

A covenant to love for better or for worse. A covenant of unconditional love, long after romance fades. 

This is what we as pastors of the Oklahoma Conference were exposed to and reminded of over a three-day journey.

By Walter Martinez

Family Ministries Director