Marriage Masterpiece with Al Janssen | Understanding God’s Heart for Marriage

What is the purpose of marriage? Is it to make people happy, as portrayed by Hollywood? An unspoken expectation in marriage vows is that the couple will live happily ever after. If marriage doesn’t make someone happy, is it time to move on? What if, as the Grinch found out about the meaning of Christmas, marriage was meant for “a little bit more.”

Writer, editor, and Anglican priest Al Janssen noted that despite the end of millions of marriages annually worldwide, “it is striking that nine out of ten people worldwide choose to marry at least once in their lives. Most, if not all, of those couples begin their unions with the hope that their relationship will last for life.” he wrote in his book, The Marriage Masterpiece. “Perhaps it is time to answer the fundamental question – ‘Why Marriage?’”

Al began pondering that question in the middle of his career in the Christian publishing industry. He spent close to a decade writing and editing books, served four years as Managing Editor for Multnomah Press, then spent another 10 years running Focus on the Family’s book publishing arm beginning in 1992. Al was keenly aware that despite the plethora of high-quality marriage and family resources available, marriages, even Christian marriages, were still disintegrating. He was particularly stung by the affair and subsequent divorce of a prominent Christian leader he knew at the time.

“We have the best teaching on Christian marriage and family in history, but it has not made much difference on longevity of marriages in the Christian community,” he said.  He decided to explore the “why” of marriage, rather than focusing on the “how-to’s.”

“If you know the meaning of marriage, the other resources can be incredibly helpful,” he said. “The how-to’s without the meaning and motivation won’t work.”

With the help of his colleague Kurt Bruner, Al spent a year combing through the scriptures to discover what God, the author of marriage, had in mind when He designed it. Al found that “Marriage is central to God’s purposes. The first marriage occurs before the fall, and the last is after the world is redeemed,” he said. “Marriage was always intended to be a three-way relationship with God right in the middle. Adam and Eve decided to go their own way without God, and ever since we see the disastrous implications of that.”

Al wrote The Marriage Masterpiece in 2001 to explain God’s intent for a lifelong marriage to showcase His love and faithfulness. It earned the designation as Focus on the Family’s Marriage Book of the Year. Al compares marriage to a masterpiece designed by the greatest artist in history that needs repair, similar to the restoration of Michelangelo’s artistic creation on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. His narrative portions include a depiction of God’s interaction with man at pivotal points in biblical history from the vantage point of angelic spectators. He also translates stories from the Bible into modern language and settings. These techniques make the theology relatable. Al weaves in easy-to-understand, practical marriage examples from his own life and work ministering to athletes through Pro Athletes Outreach and Campus Crusade for Christ alongside the fictional portions.

The Marriage Masterpiece was revised to include two new chapters on communication and retitled Your Marriage Masterpiece in 2016. Content addresses God’s heart for marriage in conflict, communication, passion, covenant relationship, and adventure. “The first marriage was at least as much about relationship to God as it was about relating to each other. Adam and Eve apparently were happy until Satan suggested that they should have something more. Discontent has existed in marriages ever since,” Al wrote. “God didn’t just give us instructions about marriage. He infused marriage with meaning. He provided us with a picture of marriage, one that’s both motivational and instructional. God showed us what marriage looks like because… GOD, HIMSELF, GOT MARRIED.” God’s love for His people and the lengths He is willing to go in His “marriage” to them points us to the right direction for our own relationship with our spouse.

Al explains how God cut a covenant with Abraham in Genesis that reaffirmed his commitment to his people. While God passionately loves His people – as depicted by the romance in Song of Solomon – the heart of marriage grounds itself in covenant commitment.

“God is jealous for his beloved,” Al wrote. “Which God is He – a God of love or a God of anger? I found it difficult to reconcile the two until I began to see God as a jilted lover. Because He loves so passionately, He gets angry when His love is spurned. In that context, God’s wild emotions make sense.” Al noted God fights for his people and suggested couples should be willing to fight for their marriages. “My conclusion from Scripture is that if God feels His marriage is worth fighting for, mine is worth fighting for too. … Today, with our busy lives, I have to wonder if we are willing to invest the emotional energy to fight for our marriages.”

The book also addresses the one-sided marriage, where one party is unwilling or incapable of reciprocating. “As long as the couple are married God can use the believing spouse as an influence on the unbelieving spouse,” he wrote.

“I’ve seen too many people – even Christians – who’ve said, ‘I’m not getting anything out of this marriage, so I’m gone.’ But God’s marriage with His people has been the most one-sided in history!” Al said. He mentioned a “dear woman” in his church whose husband suffered a severe brain injury in a car accident and never recovered. She took care of him for more than 30 years. “God wants to paint a great picture or tell a great story, but if you divorce in the middle, you will never know what it could have looked like. Once we agree we are going to let God complete what He started, then the other marriage resources are very, very helpful,” Al added. “Without the big picture, what’s holding me there when life or my partner lets me down?”

The content of Your Marriage Masterpiece remains evergreen even 20+ years later. “I still believe the message will help Christians understand what the big picture is,” Al said.

“When happiness is the goal in my marriage, circumstances must cooperate, and when they don’t, I’m frustrated. But if I realize I’m involved in a greater drama, it changes my perspective … God wants to create a masterpiece with whatever material He has,” he wrote.

“Just as God walked and talked with the first couple in Eden, so God comes to marriages today and offers to be our counselor, to walk with us and guide us day by day and moment by moment. He doesn’t force His way into a marriage. But to those couples who invite His presence, the possibilities are incredible,” he added. 

While Al achieved much success in the publishing world, helping notables like Gary Smalley launch his marriage ministry and write several books, Al’s heart was longing for new opportunities. Although he felt quite pleased with the content of Your Marriage Masterpiece, he didn’t feel called to promote it on the marriage conference circuit or through a traditional American book tour.

He and his wife, Jo, started working with the persecuted church in 1994. His position at Multnomah Press had taken Al to the Soviet Union several times to bring works by leading Christian artists like John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada and Chuck Swindoll to the Moscow International Book Fair. “Christian publishing in America is a gorgeous banquet,” he said, “but I wanted to go where they’d give anything to have even one of those meals.”

Through Sealy Yates, Chairman of the Board of Open Doors International, Al met Brother Andrew, the author of God’s Smuggler, who was well known at the time for his daring work delivering desperately needed Bibles behind the iron curtain. In 1999 Al recorded 17 hours of interviews with the missionary, capturing what he’d learned working in the Muslim world. After 9/11, the Janssens knew they were called to step away from the American audience to take the message of the Gospel to those who so desperately needed it elsewhere. Al traveled with Brother Andrew for a dozen years and wrote two major books with him.

“We had some real adventures together,” Al said. “We established a relationship with a head of Islamic Jihad that continued for several years. We met the spiritual founder of Hezbollah and had relationships with several leaders of Hamas. Most Muslims have no idea what real Christianity is. When they meet the genuine object, they are intrigued. Brother Andrew often reminded me that we may be the only Jesus they will ever meet.

“360 million Christians around the globe live in serious persecution,” he said. “When you are with the persecuted church, prayers are different than they are here.” Al’s first official service in a Muslim nation after he was ordained was protected by a sniper watching from the bell tower. Pictures of eight martyred men whom Al knew personally hang in a corner of his office. “They were killed for their witness to Jesus,” he said.

Al often spoke at pastors’ conferences in Muslim countries during his travels with Brother Andrew. He noticed pastors needed encouragement for their marriages. He and Jo began using content from Your Marriage Masterpiece in the Islamic world, noting how grateful the audiences were for a course on Christian marriage. While most of the main lecturing to the couples was done by Al, Jo would minister to the women in the break-out sessions, encouraging them in their marriage and parenting struggles. She’d remind them it was not their job to change their husband. Their job was to be a woman of God and let God paint His picture and do the work in her husband’s life that needs to be done.

Since then, Your Marriage Masterpiece has been translated into several Middle Eastern languages. As Al and Jo retired from international travel at the start of the pandemic, they’ve given permission for locals to contextualize the applications and stories to appeal to their cultures. Because marriages in the Islamic community are often contractual, the concept of covenant marriage resonates with Middle Eastern audiences.

“Their picture of marriage is very different than that of Christians. We’ve been in countries where the girl never meets her husband until the wedding day. Fathers work the details out, not universally, but often,” he said.

One of their seminars included a Christian wedding ceremony, at the request of the 100 couples who had converted from Islam. They hadn’t exchanged vows, he said. The Janssens worked with an Anglican Bishop to create a service for the occasion. Everyone was attired in traditional dress, and participants were able to take communion together, receive a blessing and were given a Bible in their language engraved with the date and their name, he reported. “This ceremony freed them from the Islamic context where the man is dominant, and his wife is property, to give them an understanding of what a real Christian marriage looks like.”

He mentioned another Middle Eastern woman baptized by Brother Andrew who had a terrible self-worth problem. She had been married 15 years to a tribal chieftain and hadn’t conceived. He was under tremendous pressure to take a second wife or divorce her. But he also had become a Christian and said, “No, he would trust God.” Brother Andrew’s organization got her some medical attention, and she was miraculously able to become pregnant.

While no longer traveling in the Middle East, Al’s working on several books. His newest, written with Brother Andrew and scheduled for publication August 1, 2023, is called Fearless by Faith. It includes 60 devotions about how to fight today’s spiritual battles drawing from the life and examples of David, Elijah, Moses, Jonah, and Gideon. This resource on living fearlessly applies to all ages – from teens to retirees, he said.

“Too many Christians are living in fear today. That’s not living the Christian life God intends us to live.” Al’s also writing a biography on Brother Andrew, who passed away in September at the age of 94. Al preached at his memorial service in the Netherlands.

Al continues to encourage couples, “Our marriage is a covenant relationship that God wants to use for His glory to give the world a glimpse of what He is like. … I have found that within our covenant marriage there is almost always contentment, often genuine happiness, and occasional breathtaking moments of pure joy,” he wrote. Go the distance. Allow God to complete your marriage masterpiece.