About the speaker:

James Sheridan has long been known for his dynamic, humorous and creative teaching style. He began teaching college classes in 1976 and has been honing his skills in the classroom ever since.

Mr. Sheridan began teaching marriage enrichment courses in 1991, when he helped start and then led the marriage enrichment program at his church, Hope Lutheran in Adrian, MI. During the next five years, while continuing to lead that program, other churches began asking him to speak at married couples retreats for their congregations on subjects including The Biblical Model of Marriage, Communications in a Biblical Marriage, Sex and Romance in the Biblical Marriage, and The Importance of Marriage in the Christian Community. Over the years he has presented programs for virtually every major Christian denomination and many independents. (On one occasion a Jewish Rabbi was present and agreed with the soundness of the teachings on marriage.)

In June, 1996, James Sheridan founded the organization, Marriages That Work in Lenawee County, Michigan, to address the problem of divorce. He spearheaded a gathering of local ministers and civil officials who perform weddings to work on the issue and invited Mike McManus of Marriages Savers® as the primary speaker. The group met on February 14, 1997, becoming the largest gathering of the type in the history of the county. The result was striking: sixty six members of the Lenawee County clergy and all thirteen civil officials authorized to perform weddings agreed to require education in communication skills and dispute resolution, in addition to taking a premarital inventory, before they would perform weddings.

This was the first time in the United States all the civil officials in a county have joined together to require premarital education. The media went wild. James Sheridan was interviewed by over a dozen radio talk shows from across the United States, the BBC in England and Germany. Articles appeared in publications quoting Sheridan extensively in Europe, England and many cities in the United States. He was interviewed on ABC Good Morning America, The CBS Evening News, The ABC Evening News along with local news shows from Detroit and Toledo. He was also an invited guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

James Sheridan was also invited to be one of the key note speakers at the first Smart Marriage Conference in Washington, D.C., in 1997. Since then he has presented regularly at the conference. His seminar on Sex and Romance in the Biblical Marriage has been one of the best attended at the conference for the past four years. He was also one of the featured speakers at the Florida Governor’s Symposium on Responsible Fatherhood banquet in Orlando, FL, in 2001.

Mr. Sheridan also has presented public policy programs for government officials in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Ilinois, Georgia and Missouri.

Mr. Sheridan has been invited to speak on marriage and marriage related issues across the country. In 1997 he was asked by the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to put together a video presentation addressing the issue of domestic violence and the Scriptures. The resulting video tape has since been made available throughout the United States through the Synod’s distribution network. He has also helped other communities establish their own local policies regarding marriage and premarital education.

James Sheridan currently serves as the Michigan Chairman of Marriage Savers®. He also continues to be chairman of the board of Lenawee County’s Marriages That Work.

James Sheridan has served as a District Court Judge in Adrian, MI, since his election in 1978. He has been married to his wife, Sharron, since 1966, and has two children. Part of his passion for learning more about male / female relationships and the Biblical aspects of marriage is the growth it has caused in his own relationship with his wife and family.