Are you passionate about seeing marriages and family life strengthened in your community? In running the Pre-Marriage Course for couples in your area, you can facilitate a space where couples can build a solid foundation for their future together.
This is as easy as speaking to your church or organization about where and when your course could be hosted, then simply sign up online using Course Builder to run The Pre-Marriage Course in person or remotely.
Enjoy the user-friendly training resources that will be provided to you and familiarize yourself with The Pre-Marriage Course videos and materials to help you feel completely confident running the course.
Invite couples to attend and prepare each session as a special “date night”. This doesn’t have to cost the world… it just needs a little thought. Think about using candles and romantic lighting!
In order to run a course, you will simply create an account on Course Builder. You will then have access to all materials, training and resources related to running your course, including the option to download the latest series.
To experience the impact of The Pre-Marriage Course, you can view Session 1 below. To access all episodes, please register here.
Each person will need their own Study Journal.
Discover more here.
Do you want to talk to a coach about getting started? Yes!
Pippa and I cannot recommend The Marriage Course too highly. Whether you are a couple considering marriage or have been married for many years, this is the course for you. Nicky and Sila Lee, who founded the course, are wonderful role models whose marriage we have admired for our many decades of friendship. The course provides a wonderful foundation for any couple wishing to build a strong and long-lasting relationship.
Nicky Gumbel
Pioneer of Alpha and Chairman of the Alpha International Board
In our decades of working with couples around the world, we have seen over and over again the lasting impact of taking the time to invest in your marriage and your family. Our passion is to help couples work on their relationship and deepen their connection, because strong marriages enable families and communities to thrive.
Nicky and Sila Lee
Authors of The Marriage Book
In our decades of working with couples around the world, we have seen over and over again the lasting impact of taking the time to invest in your marriage and your family. Our passion is to help couples work on their relationship and deepen their connection, because strong marriages enable families and communities to thrive.
Nicky and Sila Lee
Authors of The Marriage Book
Pippa and I cannot recommend The Marriage Course too highly. Whether you are a couple considering marriage or have been married for many years, this is the course for you. Nicky and Sila Lee, who founded the course, are wonderful role models whose marriage we have admired for our many decades of friendship. The course provides a wonderful foundation for any couple wishing to build a strong and long-lasting relationship.
Nicky Gumbel
Pioneer of Alpha and Chairman of the Alpha International Board
When you use the episodes from Course Builder, there is music, and a countdown timer built into each episode. You can also choose the episodes in “Additional Formats: (No Conversation Timings)” where no music is added. In that situation, choose music without words that is easy to listen to. The main thing is that it is not too soft to enable couples to hear other couples’ conversations, or too loud to force them to shout!
Yes, The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course have been translated into Spanish, Chinese and several other languages. Please log-in here and create a course to see all the language options.
On Course Builder, for every episode you will find a “Share Link” button at the bottom of the Video Download page. You can send a guest who misses a night that link. Please do not put any of The Marriage Course or Pre-Marriage Course Videos on YouTube or any platform that is open to anyone to access, view or download if they are not on a course.
Running sections of the course means guests don’t get the full experience or the full benefit. The course is written in a way that the different sections build upon each other and don’t work as effectively when done independently. We would recommend you run the courses in full rather than just certain sections.
If The Pre-Marriage Course uses the Couple Survey, the course organizer or coordinator will email the Couple Survey to guests to complete before the course begins. Each partner should fill the Couple Survey out separately without consulting each other and then, after the course, they will have a scheduled appointment with a Support Couple who will go through the Couple Survey report with them both.
Due to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), we are only able to make Couple Surveys available for 60 days following the last session of the Pre-Marriage Course. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to extend this, so Pre-Marriage Course leaders and admins need to take this into consideration when organizing the Support Couple meetings. Support Couples should also be reminded of this expiration. See the FAQ ‘What is a Support Couple?’
You will be able to access the Couple Survey once you have created your account and registered your course on Course Builder accessed through the running a course page (see top menu). On the Course Builder, you will find training videos, guides and sample Couple Survey reports that equip Support Couples to interpret the Couple Survey report. The training videos and other guidance material can also be found on Course Builder. There is no Couple Survey for The Marriage Course; it is only to accompany The Pre-Marriage Course.
The Couple Survey is an optional series of questions to be completed by guests on The Pre-Marriage Course before the course begins. The purpose of the Couple Survey is to:
· Affirm areas of strength
· Highlight those issues the couple needs todiscuss
· Help them make sure they are ready for marriage
· Give a realistic view of what makes a marriage work
Couples do not receive the results of their Couple Survey and the link to the Couple Surveys expire 60 days after the last Pre-Marriage Course session. Instead following the course they have a discussion with a designated Support Couple. The Couple Survey report guides the conversation, affirming areas of strength in the couple’s relationship and highlighting issues for discussion.
Each couple on The Pre-Marriage Course is allocated a Support Couple. The requirements for Support Couples are simply that they
· are married
· have completed The Marriage Course
· are happy to host a couple from The Pre-Marriage Course (usually in their home, over an evening)
· have been approved by someone with pastoral oversight (see the sample form that can be downloaded from the Course Builder for this signed approval).
During the evening the Support Couple guides the guests in conversation using the findings of the Couple Survey, which the guests would have completed before the start of the course. The role of the Support Couple is to affirm areas of strength and highlight issues the couple needs to discuss. The Couple Survey report is very easy to use, with suggested follow-up questions for the Support Couple to ask the guest couple to facilitate the discussion. Once you register your course, you’ll be able to access dedicated training videos for Support Couples which fully explain their role. Head to Course Builder – see top menu courses to get started. There is no Couple Survey or Support Couple role for The Marriage Course. It is designed only to accompany The Pre-Marriage Course.
You can access all of our latest training videos on Course Builder. To access the videos, you must first create your account, then you can locate them on the left side menu under “Learning Center”.
All the episodes are free to download. It is at the discretion of the church whether they provide the Guest Journals, meals and other related costs free of charge or pass these costs onto the guests by charging them for the course.
To get started:
Both The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course have a similar structure, with the feel of a date night and an emphasis on private discussions for each couple. The key difference is that The Pre-Marriage Course is for engaged couples and those considering marriage, whereas we recommend The Marriage Course for couples who have been married for at least two years. The Pre-Marriage Course can also include a Couple Survey which each guest completes in advance of the course. Following the course, they look at the results of their Couple Survey over a meal with a designated married “Support Couple”.
Yes, it is very easy! All of the talks, training videos and the Leader’s Guide are available online for free. Promotional materials and other resources are also available to customize HERE or in the “Promote” section of Course Builder.
We believe that anyone who has a desire to see relationships strengthened, has experience of working at their own marriage and enjoys hosting couples can run a course. You don’t need to have the perfect marriage (no one does!) or be an expert to run it. People who are single can also run the course for couples.
The website requires a start and finish date in order for a course to be registered on Course Builder. Please note that following registration on Course Builder your course dates will show on our Find a Course page. It will remain there until approximately two weeks after your course starts.
The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course each have their own version of the Guest Study Journal. Each guest on a course requires their own Study Journal (that’s two per couple) and can be purchased HERE or HERE.
The Study Journal is a small handbook that corresponds with the topics of each session, guiding couples’ conversations, prompting discussions, and allowing plenty of space for guests to make their own notes. The Study Journal was created as an additional tool used to help couples reflect on their relationship and the meaning of marriage, as well as to facilitate conversations between them. The Journal is for each guest to keep once the course has finished.
Course Builder is where you register your course, access training and promotional resources and all the episodes.
Once the course is registered you will have access to promotional materials, training resources and the option to download the latest series. We will be uploading new training resources and course materials to Course Builder over time, so we encourage you to please keep revisiting the platform. Go to Course Builder HERE.
You’ve made a great decision to invest in relationships by offering The Pre-Marriage or Marriage Course. In this short video Nicky and Sila Lee talk to about how the Pre-Marriage Course and Alpha work together HERE.
The Marriage Course was created by Alpha International, which also runs Alpha courses around the world. Alpha is a multi-week series of sessions exploring the Christian faith. Each week, the session looks at a different question around faith and is designed to create conversation. Alpha is run all around the globe and everyone is welcome. It runs online, in cafés, churches, universities, homes—you name it! No two Alphas look the same, but they generally have three key things in common: hospitality, a talk and good conversation. Click HERE to learn how to run Alpha.
The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course have been successfully run in over 117 countries worldwide since they were created by Nicky and Sila Lee, authors of The Marriage Book.
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