Working in ministry together comes naturally for Bonnie and Daniel Hoover. For the first ten years of their marriage, they pursued music ministry, traveling by bus and RV to performances across the country. (Bonnie plays bass, Daniel electric guitar). They landed at Georgia’s NorthStar Church in 2003 as worship leaders, with Daniel transitioning to Executive Pastor in 2015. Daniel has a master’s degree in pastoral counseling, and the Hoovers loved to invest in younger marriages at NorthStar. He and Bonnie volunteered to lead pre-marital and marriage enrichment workshops as a way to continue to serve side by side after she stepped back from full-time ministry to raise their two children. … Fast forward to 2025.

Bonnie, Daniel, and teenagers Colby and Josie, all pitch in at the Little White Barn – their private retreat center located on 10 acres at the base of the mountains of North Georgia. Daniel counsels couples one-on-one in the renovated and comfortably decorated barn. Bonnie provides meals and hospitality in between shuttling the teens to their activities. When at home, Colby fires up the tractor to mow the grounds while Josie cleans the guest cabin and meeting spaces. “Our work is really a family affair,” Daniel affirmed.

The Little White Barn retreat center grew out of the vision God gave Bonnie and Daniel for The Marriage Adventure ministry during a weekend of prayer and rest in 2019. Part of that vision was that “eventually” they would retire from the church, move to some property and build a place where couples could put their marriages back together again. The Hoovers started recording marriage-themed podcasts and writing content that became The Marriage Adventure: Discovering Mission for Your Marriage book, companion couples’ guide and online Bible study.

On a whim during the pandemic, the Hoovers scrolled through realty searches until one day the farm location popped up. The land was beautiful. It initially passed their litmus test of, “We’ll know it’s our place when Mama’s heart leaps.” As Daniel described, Bonnie’s heart jumped out of her chest when they pulled up to the property. But on further discovery, they realized the existing house needed some major work – not the least repairing the damage done by three large dogs and three small boys. The Hoovers “hung out their fleece,” so to speak and made an offer. To their surprise, it was almost immediately accepted. They began extensive renovations while Daniel continued pastoring. But he felt a holy discontent – God was literally dropping everything they needed into their laps to host guests and launch their marriage ministry. Daniel jokingly compares their experience to scenes from the movie Evan Almighty where God provides Evan with unrequested ark-building materials. One bulldozer operator even volunteered to dig Daniel and Bonnie’s pond at no charge! They just needed to step out in faith. In 2023 a friend gifted them with funding to underwrite operating expenses, and Daniel felt the freedom to resign from the church to minister to marriages from the Little White Barn full time. The goal is for couples to have a quiet place to relax, focus on the Holy Spirit’s voice and allow Him to mend their relationship.

Daniel has crafted several versions of The Marriage Adventure’s signature intensive weekends held at the Little White Barn. The private, three-day intensives offer 21 hours of one-on-one counseling and coaching, meals, on-site lodging, complete access to the retreat area and grounds (complete with said pond and three miniature donkeys), an eight week Bible study along with teaching videos and two Zoom follow-up sessions.

Two similar experiences meet the needs of couples with marriages in different places.

The Marriage RESCUE intensive is designed for couples in crisis – healing from infidelity, unforgiveness or years of disconnection. Often these couples are considering divorce.

Marriage RESET intensives are for those who need to debrief and reconnect after a rough season that has drained their resilience. Daniel has also tailored a RESET intensive specifically for ministry couples needing refreshment after a difficult ministry season. Daniel believes intensives can be transformative as they allow couples uninterrupted time free of distractions to dive more deeply into what they are walking through.

“Men especially take more time to get to the depths of their emotions,” Daniel said. “It’s really difficult to get there in an hour-long, weekly counseling session.”

Once couples get to The Little White Barn, the private retreat area is all theirs. They can swing on the porch, pet the donkeys, walk to the pond or relax by the firepit. All the Intensives are private – one couple at a time.

“People don’t usually get a lot of slow and quiet. We all need a little more ‘Andy Griffith’ time,” Daniel said. “It’s a peaceful, quiet place to hear from the voice of the Lord and fix your marriage.”

Sessions begin with teaching couples to build their spiritual foundation, what Daniel calls his secret sauce.

“No amount of self-effort apart from the Holy Spirit is going to fix a marriage,” he said. “Marriage was never meant to be a self-effort task. We need the power of the Holy Spirit working through both of us to have a healthy Biblical marriage.  We can learn tactics for communication or conflict resolution, but when you are in an argument and emotions hit the fan, tactics go out of the window. Only the Holy Spirit can produce the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness. If you had those evident in your marriage, would you even be here needing help? We teach people first to rely on the Holy Spirit.”

The second day Daniel brings in topics of safety, connection, friendship and intimacy – the elements every good romance movie is built on, he explained, after which he introduces the skills of communication and conflict resolution. These are important and needed, he said, but can’t happen well if a couple is not connected and feeling safe. And all the skills and tactics in the world won’t work without the spiritual foundation first, he emphasized.

“We’ll accept Christ for salvation, but we don’t accept him for daily living. We think we need to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and do life without God. I teach couples what it means to trust God, be obedient, walk with him and allow the Spirit to empower them. He can create that connection and safety when we abide in Christ and walk with him in trust.”

Daniel noted the principle he teaches of abiding in Christ is the one most often noted in feedback as the key element that made a difference. One wife told Daniel her father even noticed the change in her husband.

In 2025 Daniel released The Marriage Reset: Pressing Reset on Your Relationship, a book, small group video series, and Bible study, which walks couples and small groups through “the nuts and bolts” of the Marriage RESET curriculum on their own.

The book helps people understand how marriage operates, he explained. “As I abide in and walk with Jesus, he empowers me to love my spouse in the spirit and creates safety and friendship. We’ll still argue, but when we are walking with Jesus and deeply connected to our spouse, we can get over it quickly.”

Daniel uses a construction metaphor to explain how couples can rescue even marriages they consider unsalvageable, “If you seek to reset your relationship by building your marriage house correctly, from the Foundation to the Structure to the Cosmetics, you’ll find that when the winds blow, you’ll both be safe, secure, and happy inside.”

He considers his and Bonnie’s story of launching the Little White Barn retreat center as a reminder that God has the ability and willingness to work in miraculous and unexpected ways.

He shares inspiration from his parent’s 63-year marriage in the Marriage Reset’s conclusion. “How have they stayed happily married for sixty-three years? Here’s how: they had a strong, unwavering foundation in Christ and passed that along to their sons. They always maintained a deep connection and friendship, allowing them to weather any storm that came their way. It’s truly a picture of what God created marriage to be.”

Daniel and Bonnie also enjoy hosting The Marriage Adventure pre-marital workshops twice a year for two to three dozen couples. The Hoovers are certified Prepare/Enrich instructors, so they begin with the program’s assessment. The day-long event includes a catered lunch and covers six sessions. The workshop allows local pastors to outsource the heavy lifting of pre-marital counseling to The Marriage Adventure, trusting that Daniel will alert them if he notices any red flags with a couple. Hosting pre-marital workshops is “a great way to resource the local churches in the area,” Daniel said.

While The Little White Barn retreat center can only house one couple at a time in the guest cabin, The Marriage Adventure does host church marriage workshops, enlisting the help of nearby Airbnb’s to lodge attendees. Daniel and Bonnie also are available to present either RESET or Marriage Adventure workshops at churches.

The Hoovers wrote their first book, The Marriage Adventure: Discovering Mission for Your Marriage, during the pandemic. Each chapter takes couples along a leg of Daniel and Bonnie’s two-week road trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, Arizona, when Colby and Josie were in elementary school.

The book helps couples develop a mission and vision for their marriage and family. When Daniel stepped into the Executive Pastor role, NorthStar went through an extensive strategy process to define and clearly articulate its mission, with new branding, colors and logo.

“It changed the direction of our church,” Daniel said. He felt convicted when he opened the doors to his home and realized, “Nothing was written on my walls like it was at church. I had spent all this time developing mission and vision for the church and hadn’t for the most important people in my life – my family.” The next Saturday the family held a strategy session – complete with white board and sticky notes. They talked about what would be their core values and set goals. The Hoovers revisit the process annually to discuss what they feel God has for the upcoming year and celebrate successes.

The Hoover family has reaped many benefits from this practice, Daniel reported. “You develop your friendship and team mentality as a family. There’s an intimacy created when you live on mission together. For years, Bonnie and I were on the road traveling together, that was our mission. We walked through five years of infertility. We got on the Dave Ramsey plan and stayed debt free. We moved out to the country and built the retreat center – these are all missions God has had us on. You can’t live disconnected lives and accomplish a mission.”

“The Marriage Adventure: Discovering Mission for Your Marriage invites you to join a road trip across the country to help you discover the unique, grand mission for your marriage relationship,” as described on Amazon.

The Marriage Adventure will equip you to:

• understand how a mission can change your family and world around you. • develop a mission statement and core values for your marriage (worksheets provided). • break bad patterns and avoid common detours that can derail your adventure. • use your strengths to work together and become more intimate friends. • enjoy your God-ordained, unique Marriage Adventure!

The Marriage Adventure has been expanded and includes a small group curriculum and online videos. The book has been endorsed by Gary Chapman, Sacred Marriage author Gary Thomas and Mark Batterson, New York Times best-selling author of The Circle Maker and Lead Pastor of National Community Church.

“God created marriage to be far more exciting than living together for fifty years to buy homes, attain status, raise children, and manage day to day activities. Like a family road trip, marriage is an adventure filled with highs, lows, and everything in between,” Daniel wrote.

Find resources, along with blogs and podcast links, at https://themarriageadventure.com/ and https://themarriagereset.net.