Louisville – Are you looking to enrich your marriage in the new year?

Several Kentucky Baptist churches are partnering with the Kentucky Marriage Movement to offer workshops and video-conferences to help do just that.

The “Love and Respect” video conference will be offered at Rosebower Baptist Church in Paducah Feb. 6-7, and the “Art of Marriage” video-conference is slated at First Baptist Church of Lawrenceburg for Feb. 13-14.

New Hope Community Church in Elizabethtown held its “Love and Lordship” workshop this past weekend.

“Our goal in all of these conferences is to elevate and encourage the biblical model of healthy maturing marriages,” said Greg Williams, director of the Kentucky Marriage Movement.

“Our goal is to keep that front and center, because we believe in God’s design and order, and that is where He placed emphasis,” Williams added. “If we would do the same thing, it would be a real blessing not only to marriages and families but also to the entire church.”

Bob Ehr, pastor of Lawrenceburg’s First Church finds value in hosting local marriage events.

“We’ve done marriage retreats for a number of years where we take couples off campus and go to Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, Tenn., and those have been a very fruitful time for our couples, but we also realize that not everyone can take the time to get away,” Ehr said.

Art of Marriage is a multi-dimensional DVD series by Family Life Ministries, which includes testimonies from speakers such as seminary president Albert Mohler, a number of counselors, pastors and real couples. It is comprised of six sessions, running from Friday night through Saturday morning.

Love and Respect utilizes video presentations by author Emerson Eggerichs. The conference is split into five sessions and runs from Friday night through Saturday afternoon.

The Love and Lordship workshop, which was presented by Williams, is broken into four to six sessions covering six topics that build off of one another.

“When you can pull families away, it just gives them time to really focus on marriage, hear from God, meet with other couples, and talk about what they’re going through. That extended time is needed for people to focus on being the husband or being the wife they need to be,” said Herb Williams, pastor at New Hope Community Church, which hosted the Love and Lordship workshop.

The Family Foundation and the Kentucky Marriage Movement hold conferences and workshops such as these throughout the year in various churches throughout Kentucky. (WR)