After more than forty years, I retired from pastoral ministry but continued in my ministry working personally with more than 200 couples to prepare them for marriage and officiate at their weddings. What began as an in-person ministry has now grown into a structured, pastoral, theologically grounded online experience which has helped thousands of couples prepare for faithful, lifelong marriage.
My hope is simple: to offer you an easy-to-use resource that supports the important work you are already doing with couples, but without adding to your workload. I want to thank you for the care you give to this life-changing ministry of preparing couples for marriage.
God’s blessings to you in life and ministry,
Rev. Dr. Frank Nelson
Why Church Leaders Choose Online Marriage Preparation
With many approaches to marriage preparation, clergy want to know how Online Marriage Preparation can assist them in being even more effective in their ministry with engaged couples. The answer lies in the way it blends together Scripture and prayer with structured, guided conversations offering flexibility for both the couple and the pastor.
Comprehensive and Faith-Centered
- Each conversation integrates Scripture and prayer with the topic, helping couples reflect on both the practical and spiritual dimensions of marriage.
- Couples complete 10 guided conversations addressing the most important aspects of married life, including an innovative step-by-step process for resolving conflict.
- Rev. Frank introduces each topic with a teaching video before they separate to prepare for their conversation.
- Online Marriage Preparation works to complement the pre-marriage inventories used by many churches, such as the Prepare/Enrich inventory. Rev. Frank is a certified trainer for Prepare/Enrich.
Supports the Ministry of the Parish
- Online Marriage Preparation expands and supplements your marriage preparation ministry.
- The structured format ensures that essential topics are addressed thoughtfully and within the context of scripture and prayer.
- Allows pastors to focus their time with their engaged couples on pastoral guidance and spiritual preparation rather than basic instruction.
- Couples pay the course fee directly — there is no dollar cost to the church.
Encourages Deep and Honest Conversation
- Couples consistently report that the guided conversation format helps them to be open to each other and encourages authentic, real dialogue about topics they might have otherwise avoided or overlooked.
- The privacy of the guided, written reflections frees couples to prepare thoughtfully for each conversation before being asked to share their responses.
- The flexible, self-paced format makes it possible for couples to complete the course on a schedule that works best for them.
- Many couples report that the experience helped them to shift their focus from wedding planning to preparing for the lifelong vocation of marriage.
A note from Pastor Jon:
“I believe Rev. Dr. Frank Nelson (a Luther Seminary grad) has come up with an important improvement in how we prepare engaged couples for marriage. For more than a decade Rev. Frank has been working with us to prepare our couples. Couples complete the course using their smart phones, tablets or computers. His teaching videos and 10 downloadable guided conversations all make this an excellent, affordable way for our couples to prepare for their marriage.
This has not only been a great time saver for me, but I am confident that by sending couples to Rev. Frank they are getting the focused time, attention, and tools they need as they prepare to commit their hearts and lives to one another. Couples tell me that they enjoy the course and get so much out of it. It gives me great peace knowing that our couples are getting the quality, premarital education they need, and at the same time, there’s more room on my plate to serve them in other ways. I can be as involved with each couple as I am able to be.
In fact, if I had one wedding this year, I would still send the couple to Rev. Frank, because it’s an excellent, comprehensive premarital education. Couples are always grateful to me for requiring this of them.
And so, I highly recommend that you try Rev. Frank’s online approach with your next couple.”
Why Couples Choose Online Marriage Preparation
Flexible and Self-Paced
Couples complete the course on their own timeline. They can fit the conversations into their busy schedules more easily.
Private
They prepare for each conversation separately which results in thoughtful reflection and deeper conversations when they come back together for their dialogue.
Enjoyable and Meaningful
Often couples begin the course because it’s required, and then discover that the conversations are so enjoyable and life-changing that this course becomes the most meaningful part of their wedding preparation.
Faith-Centered and Practical
The course blends the Biblical teaching and prayer with real-life conversations couples need to have as they prepare for married life.
Affordable
At $95 per couple (only $75 with the discount code SAVE20), the course is an accessible option for engaged couples who are already managing the many costs associated with planning a wedding.
Meet Miranda and Max
I think we both went into this knowing we are a strong couple, but this course brought us closer together because we shared things that we hadn’t necessarily shared before. It definitely showed us what we need to work on but overall, it taught us that we can talk about anything and feel comfortable about it. The convenience of this online course was amazing! We laughed, we cried (sometimes) and we learned more about each other from the comfort of our home.
–Miranda
I thought that the questions provided for each topic did a great job of setting up meaningful conversations. Having a larger list of questions helped us get down to the details and learn more about our pasts, expectations of the future, and expectations of each other. For others, we sometimes spent 20-30 minutes sharing stories and listening to each other’s past experiences to fully understand each other. I would say this experience helped us round out our understanding and gave us some ideas on how to manage these topics moving forward.
–Max
Meet Rev. Dr. Frank Nelson
After retiring from pastoral ministry in 2008, Rev. Dr. Frank Nelson continued serving churches and couples through his ministry with engaged couples. Drawing on his experience as an author, pastor, husband, and father, he developed a simple, yet effective approach built around ten guided conversations. Couples are invited to reflect and write individually and then come back together for meaningful, honest, open dialogue.
Known for his warm, practical, and relatable style, Rev. Frank helps couples communicate openly about the realities of married life while deepening their understanding of what it means to build a Christ-centered marriage. Today, that approach has grown into OnlineMarriagePreparation.com, a flexible, online experience allowing couples to meet virtually with Rev. Frank anytime and anywhere. What began as a local pastoral ministry has become an ongoing mission: to support pastors in their vital work of preparing couples for faithful, lifelong marriage.
Resources for Church Leaders
Supplement your ministry with Online Marriage Preparation
Introduce the Course to Your Couples
When you first meet with an engaged couple, let them know about the Christian course and invite them to go to the website to order this course. Let them know that the cost is $95 (only $75 with the discount code SAVE20). You might say: “In addition to the time we’ll spend together, I’d like you to complete a series of guided conversations that will help you talk through some important areas of married life. You can order the Christian course at www.OnlineMarriagePreparation.com and begin on you own. The cost is $95, but with the discount code SAVE20, it’s only $75. The heart of this course is not content to watch, but conversations to have.”
Let them know the other resources you would like to use with them.
Online Inventories, such as Prepare/Enrich are excellent tools for initiating further conversation with your couple. Many pastors find that when couples come back after completing the online course, they are:
- More open with each other
- Better able to communicate
- More ready for meaningful pastoral conversation
This allows your time with them to go deeper, more quickly.
Receive Their Certificate and Build Upon It
When the couple completes the course, they will receive a Certificate of Completion.
- Affirm the work they’ve done
- Follow up on any areas you’d like to explore further
- Integrate their experience into your existing preparation process
In this way, the course becomes a something you can build on, not an additional task you must manage.
A Simple Goal
My goal is to support the pastoral time you spend with each couple can be even more comprehensive and fruitful. May God guide us in this important ministry!
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