Dr. Les Parrott is a professor of psychology at Northwest University. He and his wife, Leslie, speak to a wide variety of audiences on the topic of marriage. The Governor of Oklahoma appointed the Parrotts as the first ever statewide Marriage Ambassadors. The Commander of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, invited them to assist his soldiers with re-entry into family life upon returning from Iraq. In addition to speaking at seminars, Les is the author of several books including Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts.
Key Questions for Les Parrott:
– What are the trends you’ve seen on how pastors are handling marriage ministry?
– What topics have you found are crucial for husbands and wives to discuss?
– How are you proposing to lower the divorce rate in the church?
Key Quotes from the Interview:
“If you want to love like Jesus, you’ve got to be mindful, in other words, you’ve got to set your own agenda aside, temporarily, and see what other people don’t see.”
“Our [big goal] in our ministry for many years now has been to see the divorce rate lowered in churches by a third in our lifetime.”
“Every single percentage point that we drop the divorce rate, the lives of more than a million children are positively impacted.”
“You can almost guarantee to lower a couple’s chances of divorce by 31 percent by…bringing [certain] topics to the forefront with them. If you spend a minimum of five to six hours going through with them…we know from research their chances of divorce drop by 31 percent…and their level of contentment and happiness increases by at least 30 percent.”
“We never had marriage counseling, but we spent the first year of our marriage in therapy.”
“Pre-marriage ministry is one of the great untapped portals for evangelism in the church today.”
“Most people don’t realize how you experience time is different than how your spouse does.”
Links Mentioned by Les Parrott in the Show:
Love Like That by Dr. Les Parrott
Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott