The Series was created in response to the following facts:
1. Married couples who pray together on a daily basis experience dramatically fewer separations or divorces than the national divorce-rate averages. Published reports from responsible sources estimate the divorce rate for married couples who pray together on a daily basis to be fewer than 1 divorce in every 1000 marriages.
2. At the same time, there is virtually no difference in the divorce rate of Christian married couples and the divorce rate of the general population of the U.S. Both experience an approximately 50% divorce-rate, and have for many years.
3. Remarkably few Christian married couples do, in fact, pray together on a daily basis. (Ask your own church congregation how many married couples are praying together, even for just a few minutes, as part of their daily lives.)
4. The two main reasons given by Christian husbands and wives for not praying together on a daily basis (even though many express serious interest in doing so) are: 1) ”I wouldn't know how to go about it" and, 2) “I'd feel too vulnerable doing that."
The hopeful news behind these difficult facts, and the reason behind the specific structure and content of the Couple Prayer Series, is that these and the other "reasons why we don't pray together" most often expressed by hesitant couples-of-faith are learnable factors. Couples can learn how to discover, in simple stages, those prayer forms that are most genuinely
"their own." That's learnable. Couples can learn how to create a safe environment for themselves and their spouse, finding
that personal shared-prayer environment in which they can both pray safely and grow closer to God and one another comfortably and consistently. These things are learnable. They can be experienced, discussed, explained, encouraged and achieved, because this is God's plan for our marriages. This has been God's plan for marriage all along. Prayer is the currency of the in-breaking Kingdom of God, and it is impossible to imagine that two individuals -- called, positioned and empowered by God to be so intimately joined that they've become a "new creation in Christ" -- cannot learn to enjoy sharing even a few minutes together each day in the intimate company of God, and in peaceful, joyful and wonderfully fruitful ways.
That, in short, is what the Couple Prayer Series can help couples experience, again and again, for a lifetime.
Some areas of special focus in the Series include: The blessings of daily Couple Prayer. Obstacles and rewards. Suggested do's and don’ts. Praising and thanking God together. Praying prayers of petition and intercession together. Praying with Scripture together. Praying with other helpful resources together. Praying for the power to forgive together. Worshipping God together. And the wonderful experience of blessing each other, and of blessing their children, together.
The Couple Prayer Series is designed as a six-week Series to help married and engaged couples grow gradually, safely and consistently closer to God and one another through the extraordinary experience of simply sharing a few minutes of "Couple Prayer" together every day.
In easy and comfortable ways, the Series: 1) Presents God's incredibly promising invitation to join together with Him daily through Couple Prayer; 2) Teaches couples how to peacefully develop a wide and substantial menu of solid shared-prayer approaches that are most natural and blessed for them; 3) Encourages each couple's commitment to pray together -- not just as a six-week experience -- but as a way of life that will dramatically enhance their faith, the loving intimacy of their relationship, and the on-going faith, happiness and well-being of their children, and the generations still to come.
