About Ron & Nan Deal

For 12 years Ron L. Deal specifically has been educating stepfamilies and equipping churches to effectively minister to the stepfamilies in their communities. 

Ron is Founder and President of As For Me And My House Ministries, LLC, which provides marriage and family training and family ministry consulting to church leaders.  He and his wife, Nan, speak on a variety of family topics together including marital communication, parenting, and sexuality (see family seminars).  Nan serves as Vice President of Ministry Outreach for As For Me And My House Ministries/Successful Stepfamilies and is a freelance voice talent (www.nansvoice.com). 

Together, they manage a specific arm of As For Me And My House Ministries called Successful Stepfamilies, an education and consulting ministry that empowers stepfamilies toward healthy living and equips churches to minister to the unique needs of stepfamilies.  Ron is author of the book The Smart Stepfamily: Seven Steps to a Healthy Family, co-author with Dr. David Olson of The Remarriage Couple Checkup (in press, Thomas Nelson, 2009), and creator/presenter of the Building A Successful Stepfamily seminar which is presented in churches throughout the country.  Formerly Ron served as Stepfamily Educational Consultant to Focus on the Family.  Currently he is a member of the Stepfamily Expert Council for the National Stepfamily Resource Center, and is an adjunct faculty member of Talbot School of Theology's doctoral program in effective family ministry.  Ron is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor with 20 years experience in local church ministry.  Ron and his wife Nan are also members of the National Advisory Board for The Association of Marriage and Family Ministries.

Ron served as a member of the Couple Checkup Research Team (headed by Dr. David Olson, Life Innovations) which conducted the two largest studies of marriage ever accomplished.  They studied over 100,000 marriages and remarriages (over 200,000 people surveyed) and examined the qualitative differences between highly satisfied marriages and low-quality marriages.  The results of their groundbreaking research for married couples will be published in the book The Couple Checkup (Olson, Larson, & Olson-Sigg, release date June 2008); results for remarried couples are reported in The Remarriage Couple Checkup (Deal & Olson, release date Jan 2009). 

Ron's national radio appearances to address the needs of stepfamilies include "Focus on the Family" (and numerous FOTF broadcasts), "FamilyLife Today," "HomeWord" with Dr. Jim Burns, "America's Family Coaches" with Dr. Gary & Barbara Rosberg, "Live the Life" with AACC president Dr. Tim Clinton, "Josh McDowell radio," and many others.  National TV appearances include "Reality Talks" with Dr. Kevin Leman, "A New Harvest," "At Home Live," and "100 Huntley Street" and "Marriage Uncensored" in Canada.  He has written feature family and ministry articles addressing a variety of family matters for a number of publications and online magazines including Focus on the Family magazine, ParentLife, The Family Room, and Christianity Today.  He also writes a monthly article for HomeLife magazine.

On a regular basis Ron trains therapists, marriage educators, and ministry professionals at conferences including Smart Marriages, the American Association of Christian Counselors World Conference, and the Association of Marriage & Family Ministries conferences.  He has spoken at the National Stepfamily Conference, and the Utah and Arkansas Governors' conferences on the family.  He and Nan have three boys.