Wichita First Church of the Nazarene hosted the Responsive Relationship Marriage Conference from 17-18 October 2025, attended by 40 couples. The Conference was organized by Nazarene Discipleship International (NDI), in partnership with the Welch Therapy Institute.
Scott Marshall, lead pastor of Wichita First Church of the Nazarene, said he thinks it’s important to help build sustainable, repeatable marriage pathways in the church.
“We want marriages to have regular, repeated, and helpful investment—tools couples look forward to accessing, a community that supports them, and hope for healing and connection,” Marshall said. “That’s a tall order, but it seems like something a local church needs to invest in.”
The Responsive Relationship Marriage Conference helps couples who are dating, engaged, and married to construct or revitalize their marriages for lifelong stability. The content is structured around the objective of finding PEACE in marriage (Philippians 4:6-7), with PEACE forming the acronym for the major topic areas:
- Pursuing intimacy: understanding what intimacy is and what its key ingredients are, what it is not, why it is essential, and how to create and sustain it in marriage
- Eliminating reactivity: understanding the number one hidden cause of marital strife and how to recognize it and work together to eliminate it from personal interactions
- Acquiring responsiveness: understanding the remedy for reactivity and the tools and methods for infusing it in marriage
- Crafting connection: understanding the obstacles that impair closeness in marriage and how to overcome them
- Enabling external support: understanding the importance of regularly seeking wisdom and guidance from outside sources to aid in the development of a vibrant and fulfilling marriage
The goal of the event was to help strengthen marriages and to then train lay couples who would be “Marriage Champions” in their local churches. The Marriage Champions will have access to the marriage assessment and curriculum developed by Welch Therapy Institute, along with one year of mentoring.
“The conference was an incredible tool,” Marshall said. “Multiple couples told me how much they appreciated it, how much they learned, and how they were encouraged.”
“If you have an open heart and mind, this material will provide eye-opening information and tools to help you work at improving your marriage,” one participant said. * “You still have to implement the tools and do the work.”
Another couple said that they wish they had access to some of these tools earlier in their marriage.
“I’ve been married a number of years…” they said. “It would have saved us a lot of grief. I highly recommend these tools.”
NDI hopes to continue facilitating conferences like this one and to partner with local churches and districts to do so.
“Nazarene Discipleship International is committed to helping marriages thrive,” said Sam Barber, global NDI director. “We believe God-ordained marriages and families form one of the first and most important discipleship pathways—places where we learn to follow Jesus and include others in our Journey of Grace. A church is only as healthy as the discipleship culture in its homes. Strong, grace-filled marriages shape the life of the whole congregation. That’s why investing in healthy marriages isn’t optional for us—it’s a discipleship priority.”
To learn how your church or district can get involved, contact ndi@nazarene.org.