Christian Marriage Intensives
Mike and Sarah Larner lead couples through a focused one-day intensive built on God's design for marriage. One day, and you keep your family.
You are having the same one, over and over. Most couples live like this for years before they reach out, because it never quite becomes an emergency. It just quietly becomes normal.
Different night, same argument. It never resolves, so it never really ends. It goes quiet and then comes back.
You split the chores and coordinate the calendar. Somewhere along the way the friendship, the laughing, and the closeness disappeared, and neither of you can say exactly when.
They are building their picture of marriage from what happens in your house.
None of that means your marriage is broken. It means nobody ever showed you what is underneath it.
Why It Keeps Happening
You do not go to lunch unless you believe you are hungry. You do not raise your voice unless you believe something is at stake. Every behavior in your marriage, every reaction, every silence, every assumption about what that look meant, is a response to something you believe.
Most couples have never examined a single one of those beliefs. They just live inside them and wonder why the same fight keeps coming back.
That is the work we do. Not managing the argument. Finding the belief underneath it, holding it up against God's design for marriage, and changing the ones that are quietly running your marriage into the ground.
Change the belief and the behavior follows. That is why this works when trying harder did not.
We know how heavy it is to admit your marriage is in trouble. Making the first call takes real courage, and we have never once taken that lightly. There is no lecture here. Nobody gets ambushed, nobody takes sides, and what you say stays between the four of us.
We have been married to each other for 26 years, and we have led marriage life groups at Victory Life Church for over ten. We oversee those groups today. We are certified marriage coaches through XO Marriage, founded by Pastor Jimmy Evans, and every intensive is built on that framework.
There are two of us, and we are married to each other.
A husband to talk with the husband. A wife to talk with the wife. Four people in the room, and one of us has already been where you are.
Mike and Sarah Larner have been married 26 years and have led marriage groups at their church for over ten. Take two minutes and hear it from them.
Most people picture the cost of a divorce as the number on the attorney's invoice. In Michigan that runs $1,500 to $3,500 if you agree on everything, and $15,000 to $30,000 if you do not. Either way, it is the smallest part of what a divorce actually costs.
Here is what almost nobody accounts for.
Splitting everything down the middle does not leave two people half as well off. It leaves both of you worse off than the math suggests, because one household becomes two. Two rents replace one mortgage. The retirement account that was going to carry one family now has to carry two. Researchers at Ohio State found the average person's wealth drops 77% through a divorce, considerably more than dividing the assets in half would explain.
Retirement is where it lands hardest. Nearly half of divorced Americans say the divorce set their retirement back. About a third lost a quarter or more of what they had saved, to the split itself or to fees and early withdrawals.
Then there is the house. About half of divorced adults own a home. Among married couples it is closer to four in five. That is the part people describe to us later: not the courtroom, the apartment.
And if you are over fifty, the numbers get sharper. Standard of living falls 45% for women and 21% for men, and for men it tends to stay down.
We are not saying any of this to frighten you. We are saying it because a lot of people believe leaving will be the simpler, cheaper option, and the research is fairly clear that it usually is not. Even the cheap version costs more than the invoice.
Your marriage has a 100% chance of being successful if you do it God's way.
One hour, and it comes off the price of the intensive if you move forward.
Legal fee ranges: Michigan, 2026. Wealth figures: Zagorsky, Ohio State. Retirement: Allianz 2026. Standard of living after 50: Lin and Brown, Bowling Green State University.
No paperwork maze. No wondering what you just signed up for.
Fill out the short form. It takes about five minutes. We read every word, then call you for a short, free conversation.
Both of you, both of us. We teach you the Four Laws of Love, show you what is actually happening in your conflicts, and tell you honestly whether the one-day intensive is right for you. If it is not, we will say so and point you somewhere better.
Nine to five, just the four of us. You go home with the workbook, a plan you helped build, and a free follow-up session already on the calendar.
Your session fee comes off the price of the intensive if you decide to move forward. You are not paying twice.
Book Your 60-Minute SessionWhat We Offer
Where the Real Work Happens
9:00am to 5:00pm · Battle Creek, Michigan
A full day, just the four of us, spent on the beliefs underneath the pattern rather than the argument on top of it.
After you fill out the form, we call you to hear what is going on and answer your questions.
Both of you, both of us, on a Zoom call. We show you what is actually happening in your marriage and whether the intensive is the right fit. You leave with renewed hope for your marriage and your future. The session fee comes off the price of the intensive.
A full day, nine to five, just the four of us.
There are three things we do not work with: current addiction, a current affair, or abuse.
If any of those are active in your marriage right now and you are not already in professional care, we will stop and refer you to a licensed counselor. That is not us turning you away. It is us being honest that what you are facing needs professional care we are not licensed to give, and you deserve the right help rather than the closest help.
If those things are in the past, or if you are already working with a licensed professional, an intensive may still be exactly right. We are not treating an addiction or a trauma. We are giving a couple tools for a healthy marriage, and one of those tools is staying in the care you are already in.
Coaching is not counseling, psychotherapy, or licensed mental health treatment. We do not diagnose or treat mental or emotional disorders. We say that clearly on purpose.
Some couples reach out ready to do the work and the money simply is not there. The scholarship fund exists for exactly that.
Supporters give toward it. We apply it where it is needed, at our discretion, based on the situation. Every couple still pays a portion. That part matters, and we would not do it any other way. But we would rather find a number that works than watch a marriage end over the cost of an intensive.
If that is you, say so on the form. It will not change how we treat you.
You will leave a New Day intensive with more than a truce. You will leave with tools and a reason to use them.
A shared language for the hard subjects, so being honest stops costing you a three-day standoff.
And you will be able to catch it in the middle instead of three days later.
The version of you two who used to stay up talking. That couple is still in there.
God's design for marriage, applied to an actual Tuesday. Not just talked about on a Sunday.
Every marriage deserves to be a great marriage.
We struggled with communication issues in our marriage for years. It was very frustrating because we never felt like we could get over that hurdle, and it continued to pop back up in our marriage. We learned through New Day Marriage how to speak differently to one another during our conflict, and to actually be able to follow through and solve the issue instead of getting angry and never coming to a complete resolution. Mike and Sarah were able to take an actual issue that we had, and we talked it through and resolved it, learning how to speak to each other in a different way, a more productive way.
The first conflict we had after meeting with Mike and Sarah, we were able to both stay calm and walk through the steps that they taught us. We resolved the issue and we were happy. We did not have an argument; the issue was solved. Now we feel that having better communication has caused us to be able to enjoy one another and not always be on guard with each other, and it has been the best thing. Thank you, Mike and Sarah, for helping us.
Nobody stands at an altar planning to end up here. But somewhere in the middle of the jobs, the kids, the bills, and the years, plenty of couples look up and realize they have become strangers under one roof. If that is you, you are not broken and you are not the exception. You are normal, and normal is fixable.
New Day Marriage exists because most marriages that end did not have to. The couples who make it are not the ones who never struggled. They are the ones who got help before resentment hardened into contempt.
Mike and Sarah Larner are certified marriage coaches through XO Marriage, the ministry founded by Pastor Jimmy Evans. They have led marriage life groups at Victory Life Church in Battle Creek, Michigan for over ten years, and they have been married to each other for 26 years.
The one-day intensive is built on a single idea: your beliefs drive your behavior. Every fight you keep having is a response to something one or both of you believe about the other, about yourselves, or about what a marriage is supposed to be. Spend a day finding those beliefs, test them against God's design for marriage, and the behavior follows. That is a different kind of work than managing an argument, and it is why a full day is required to do it.
Our work is unapologetically Christian and genuinely welcoming. We teach God's design for marriage with grace, honesty and humility. You do not need to have your spiritual life sorted out to sit down with us. You just need to be willing.
We host one-day marriage intensives in Battle Creek, Michigan and hold the 60-minute session over Zoom with couples anywhere. Coaching is not clinical treatment. If something surfaces that calls for licensed care, we will tell you and we will hand you a name.
Whatever brought you to this page, the next step is a small one.
Because it is not a sales call. It is an hour of real work with both of us, and you leave it with tools and a straight answer. We would rather give you something worth the money than a free twenty minutes designed to get you on the phone. And if you decide to do the intensive, the session fee comes off the price.
Reach out anyway and tell us. The session is built for both of you to be on the call, so we will talk through how to invite them. What usually helps is knowing that nobody is going to be put on trial. The most common fear from a hesitant spouse is being outnumbered. There are two of us and we are married to each other, and we are not in the business of deciding who is right.
Counseling is often clinical and looks backward. Coaching is forward-looking. We teach a biblical framework, work on the beliefs and patterns underneath your conflict, and build a plan you act on. We are not licensed clinical practitioners, we do not diagnose or treat mental or emotional disorders, and when something clinical surfaces we refer you to a licensed professional.
An hour is enough to describe a problem. It is not enough to move a belief, and the belief is the actual thing driving the behavior. We are not offering ongoing weekly coaching right now, because we do not think an hour at a time gets couples where they need to go. The day exists because the work requires it.
Nine to five, with a break for lunch, in a private setting with just the four of us. The morning is teaching and belief work. The afternoon is conflict tools and application. You take home the workbook and a plan you built yourself.
Yes, and it matters. Before the day you will each complete the Four Laws of Love, the 21-Day Inner Healing, one session from Doing Marriage God's Way, and the CliftonStrengths assessment. Almost all of it is free with an XO Marriage account. The day works because you walk in having already done some of the thinking.
No. Our approach is built on Scripture and we will not pretend otherwise, but couples of every background sit with us and get the same respect. You will never be pressured about your faith.
If any of those are current and you are not already in professional care, we will stop and refer you to a licensed counselor. If they are in the past, or if you are already working with a licensed professional, an intensive may still be right. Tell us on the form and we will talk it through with you.
No. Coaching is not a licensed clinical service, so it cannot be billed to insurance. If cost is the obstacle, ask about the scholarship fund.
What you say stays between the four of us, within the narrow legal limits spelled out in the agreement you sign before the intensive.
XO Marriage is the marriage ministry founded by Pastor Jimmy Evans. We completed their certification training, and every intensive we run is built on their framework.
We host our intensives in Battle Creek, Michigan. Couples can come to us from anywhere.
Because we need to see you. Tone only carries so much, and a good bit of what we are listening for is in a face. It also keeps our personal phone numbers private, which is better for everyone.
Start Here
Tell us a little about what is going on and we will reach out to get the session on the calendar. Nothing you write here goes anywhere else.