In April of 2003, Dewey and Lynne Wilson made a dramatic midlife career change when they traded building houses using sticks and bricks for building marriages using their life experiences and the Word of God.

Having already used by God to help other couples restore their marriage, the Wilsons responded to God's call to full-time vocational ministry. More hurting couples within their church began reaching out, and the Wilsons soon realized they needed more mentors and a structured process to follow.

Well, God did what only God can do, and within one year, Dewey and Lynne were surrounded by an army of mentors. At the same time, they created and published the Devoted workbook, full of biblical principles and practical tools for marriage.

Devoted became the primary resource for a new certified mentors training and discipling process. Hundreds of mentors were getting trained in the Dallas area, and 2006 became the year Marriage Mentors was officially established as a non-profit organization.

Since then, many more mentoring tools have been developed, including our unprecedented online mentor support system. Today, thousands of mentors across the country and Canada are being empowered to help other couples with an amazing success rate.

As church leaders contacted Marriage Mentors for additional information, we were consistently getting asked, "Do you have any resources for small groups or premarriage? After many months of saying "no," we finally got the idea that maybe we should consider creating what these churches were looking for.

We answered the challenge and soon introduced The Key to the Marriage You've Always Wanted, which is our first small group study in a series entitled, Doing Life Together. 

We also created and published our new premarriage resource called I Promise, complete with its own relationship assessment and online support. These resources now serve as avenues for partnering with new churches and organizations, along with introducing them to marriage mentoring.

But we weren't finished just yet. To help churches get a real perspective on the marriages in their church, we now have Marriage Snapshot – a free online survey tool for married couples attending a local church. Once a survey is completed, an aggregate report is available for church staff along with free downloadable marriage resources for participants.

With so many new resources, including marriage mentoring, we needed a parent organization that would best explain why we exist. Marriage mentoring is still very much a part of who we are. We remain incredibly passionate about mentoring and believe real, lasting change comes through mentoring relationships.

Marriage Mentors, Marriage Snapshot, and I Promise — all work alongside each other and today, make up our new ministry known as Strong Marriages.

Today, our future looks brighter than ever. Same organization, just a different look, and a different name — doing what we can to build authentic Christian community.