We have amazing MarriedPeople partner churches. These marriage champions are taking the MarriedPeople resources and doing things that are above and beyond anything we dreamed about.
We want you to meet them. So once a month, we’ll spotlight a different church that is impacting not only the marriages in their church, but in their community. We want you to meet people from churches of all sizes, large and small, in various types of communities, whether urban, rural or suburban, with budgets big and small and volunteers plenty or scarce. Regardless of how different these churches may be from yours, we think you’ll find some relevancy to where you are.
We gave them a list of questions to find out more about their church, their team and their ministry. This month, we would like to introduce you to Shelly Wilson of First United Methodist Church in Brandon, FL.
Church: First United Methodist of Brandon (Brandon, FL)
MarriedPeople champion: Shelly Wilson 
Size of church: 2000+
Describe the area you are in: Suburban
Tell Us About . . . You and Your Team
Shelly is part-time on staff and is responsible for many different things—Family Ministry Director, Children’s Ministry, overseeing nursery paid staff
How did you get involved in marriage ministry? I saw the need and volunteered!
How many people are on your marriage ministry team (including you)? Me plus six volunteers
How did you recruit your team? I just asked. They saw the importance and happily joined.
What are the demographics of the couples in your church? We have young marrieds, retirees, parents with kids and couples without kids.
Tell Us About . . . How You Use the MarriedPeople Resources and Strategy
What resources do you use from MarriedPeople? Strategy Pack, Larger Group Experiences, Date Nights and the monthly MarriedPeople E-ZINEs
How do you use them? In what settings? Mainly events. I would like to start small groups as an option this fall, and I’m working with our Small Groups Coordinator to make that happen.
How do you communicate with your couples?
Handouts, bulletin, verbal announcements, emails, church website, social media
Does your marriage ministry have a social media presence? Not a strong presence, but it’s more in conjunction with what our church already does—FB, Twitter.
Do you encourage/invite couples from the community to your marriage events? Yes, but only by word of mouth. I need to be more attentive of that.
How do you reach couples outside your church? Word of mouth
What has been your greatest success so far? Surprise Date Night. We set up a surprise date night and had couples meet us at church. We organized childcare through our nursery staff, and we then gave each couple the surprise location to meet us at—which was laser tag! We had a great time playing and getting to know each other. We had a light dinner before we left the church, it would have been better if we could have had the dinner/snacks at the laser tag venue, but it was not possible. We have done 5 large group experiences, of which 4 were a success—one was just a bad weekend.
What has been your biggest challenge? Getting the WHOLE church on board and even our senior leadership. They believe in strong marriages and supporting them, but not enough to make a big presence in the main sanctuary! And the older crowd thinks it is for the “younger” people. We are a 135-year-old church, so changing culture can be slow.
What’s your dream to happen next? I would REALLY like to make an impact in our community. I would like for the senior leadership to see the BIG PICTURE. I also need a way to help the married couples who are empty nesters to see that this is a great resource for them too!
Thanks, Shelly, and the awesome group of volunteers impacting marriages in Brandon, FL!
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