Frequently Asked Questions
About The Marriage Course
How to Run The Marriage Course
How to Run The Pre-Marriage Course
How to Access Resources
Trying The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course
About The Marriage Course
The Marriage Course has been run in over 127 countries for over 1 million couples and consists of two courses: The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course. The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course act as a bridge between the church and the local community by recognizing the need to go beyond the social, as well as physical, walls of the church to help couples with their relationships. The Marriage Course is designed to be easy for churches to run; with episodes that are available to buy as DVDs or download online, along with Leaders’ Guides, and journals.
The Marriage Course was developed in 1996 by Nicky and Sila Lee (authors of The Marriage Book) for couples looking for practical support to strengthen their relationship. The course equips couples with tools and techniques to keep the spark alive and stay connected. There is no group work and each couple’s conversations are completely private. Over seven sessions, the course will help you to:
- Understand each other’s needs
- Communicate more effectively
- Grow closer by learning methods to resolve conflict
- Recover from the ways you may have hurt each other
- Recognize how your upbringing affects your relationship
- Improve relationships with parents and in-laws
- Develop greater sexual intimacy
- Discover each other’s “love language” and much, much more….
For more information, head to alphausa.org/marriage
The Pre-Marriage Course was developed in 1985 by Nicky and Sila Lee (authors of The Marriage Book) to help couples invest in their relationship to build a lasting marriage. It is for couples who are engaged and for those exploring marriage. There is no group work and each couple’s conversations are completely private. Over five sessions, the course will help you to:
- Recognize the importance of commitment
- Understand and appreciate your differences
- Learn the art of communication
- Resolve conflict
- Spend time together
- Recognize the influence of your family background
- Develop a good sexual relationship
- Talk about your goals, values and dreams and much, much more…
For more information, head to: alphausa.org/marriage
Both The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course have a similar structure, with the environment 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 a year. 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 survey over a meal with a designated married ‘support couple’.
How to Run The Marriage Course
We believe that anyone who has a desire to see marriages strengthened, has experience of working at their own marriage and enjoys hosting couples can run a course. You do not need to have a perfect marriage (no one does!) or be an expert to run it. People who are single can also run the course.We have a number of short training videos that will take you through how to run The Marriage Course. Register your course on the Marriage Course Builder to access the training videos.
Yes, it is very easy! All of the talks are available via DVD or online, along with a Leaders’ Guide which has instructions for when to pause for exercises and private conversations for each couple. Promotional materials and other resources are also available once you register your course on the Marriage Course Builder.
The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course act as a bridge between the church and the local community by recognizing the need to go beyond the social, as well as physical, walls of the church to help couples with their relationships. In a world of increasing complexity, people more than ever need a tool to help with their relationships. The Marriage Course is designed to refresh, strengthen and, in some cases, transform relationships. The course equips couples with tools and techniques to keep the spark alive and stay connected. For couples who are engaged or wanting to explore marriage, The Pre-Marriage Course provides practical guidance on how to build strong, deep foundations that will last a lifetime. As marriages become healthier and stronger, so too does family life and this has the potential to transform entire communities.
We’ve created a video explaining in more depth why you should consider running The Marriage Course. Check it out here.
To get started running your course, please visit The Marriage Course website where you will find our more information. To access and download all the materials to help run your course, please register your course on our Marriage Course Builder. There are only a few resources you need to run The Marriage Course:
- The Marriage Course episodes – available as a DVD or to download online
- Two Guest Journals per couple
- The Marriage Course Leaders’ Guide
- And we recommend you watch our training videos
To access these materials to buy or download, register your course on the Marriage Course Builder.
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 recommend you run the full course as The Marriage Course, rather than just use sections.
Everything you need is in Marriage Course Builder. Each person will need their own Study Journal which can either be downloaded or purchased in English here or Spanish here.
There is no cost to run The Marriage Course or access the products. If you would like to make it possible for more churches and couples to experience resources like this one, you can give online at alphausa.org/give
How to Run The Pre-Marriage Course
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 do not need to have a perfect marriage (no one does!) or be an expert to run it. People who are single can also run the course for couples.We have a number of short training videos that will take you through how to run The Pre-Marriage Course. Register your course on the Marriage Course Builder to access the training videos.
Yes, it is very easy! All of the talks are available via DVD or online, along with a Leaders’ Guide which has instructions for when to pause for exercises and private conversations for each couple. Promotional materials and other resources are also available once you register your course on the Marriage Course Builder.
To get started running your course, please visit our website where you will find our more information. To access and download all the materials to help run your course, please register your course at Marriage Course Builder. There are only a few resources you need to run The Pre-Marriage Course:
The Pre-Marriage Course episodes – available as a DVD or to download online
- Two Guest Journals per couple
- The Pre-Marriage Course Leaders’ Guide
- Couple Survey (optional)
- Support Couples’ training videos (if using the Couple Survey)
And we recommend you watch our training videos To access these materials to buy or download, register your course on the Marriage Course Builder.
How to Access Resources
After creating your account on Marriage Course Builder you will have access to all materials, training and other resources related to running The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course, including download all the episodes. We will continuously be uploading new training resources and course materials to Marriage Course Builder so we encourage you to please keep revisiting the platform.
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 to discuss
- 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. 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. There are training videos and more information on the Couple Survey in the Learning Center of Marriage Course Builder
You will be able to access the Couple Survey once you have created your account and registered your course on the Marriage Course Builder in the section of the website we refer to as The Marriage Course Builder. On The Marriage Course Builder, you will also find short training videos that equip Support Couples to interpret the Couple Survey report. (These training videos can also be found here). There is no Couple Survey for The Marriage Course; it is only to accompany The Pre-Marriage Course. For more information on the Couple Survey, please visit here.
If your Pre-Marriage course is using the Couple Survey, your course organizer or coordinator will email you a Couple Survey to fill out before the course begins. You and your partner should fill the Couple Survey out separately without consulting each other and then, after the course, you will have a scheduled appointment with a support couple who will go through your survey report with you both.
For The Pre-Marriage Course there is an optional role of a support couple. The requirements for support couples are simply that they are married; that they have completed The Marriage Course; that they are happy to host a couple from The Pre-Marriage Course, usually in their home, over an evening and that they have been approved by someone with pastoral oversight. 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 suggests 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. There are training videos and more information on the Couple Survey and the role of the support couple in the Learning Center of Marriage Course Builder
The Marriage Book was written by Nicky and Sila Lee, founders of The Marriage Course and is available
here. You can also find it on Amazon, as well as an ebook version, suitable for Kindle.
Currently, there are no plans to create live talk scripts for The Marriage Course remake. We recommend you give the videos a try and we will keep you in the loop if there are plans for live talk scripts in the near future.
Because The Marriage Course and Pre-Marriage courses all fall under The Marriage Course ministry, we have redesigned the logo to reflect this. Moving forward, the logo is to be used for both courses but you can distinguish them by the header on the top left corner of your marketing, print and digital assets. For more information, please refer to our branding guidelines found on Marriage Course Builder.
You can share any individual episode using the link provided when you download the talk in Marriage Course Builder.
Yes, check in Marriage Builder for the full listing. The number of new languages grows every month.
Trying The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course
We would love any couple to feel welcome to attend The Marriage Course, whether married or in a long-term, cohabitating relationship. The Pre-Marriage Course is ideal for engaged couples, newlyweds, or couples exploring the idea of marriage.
While The Marriage Course is based on Christian principles, it is designed for couples with or without a Christian faith. We would love any couple to feel welcome to attend it whether or not they have a Christian faith or any religious faith at all. We are confident all couples will find the courses relevant and helpful for their relationship.
To find a course near you, visit our Course Finder and search by country, city, or area code.If you’re having trouble finding a course where you are, please email questions@alphausa.org and we will be happy to help
If you’ve been cohabiting for more than 2 years and are not engaged or considering marriage, we recommend you try The Marriage Course. If you’ve been married for less than a year and you are not aware of any major issues to address, it’s a great idea to attend The Pre-Marriage Course.
Yes. To get the most out of The Marriage Course and The Pre-Marriage Course we recommend you try to come to every session, but if you do miss one you could always ask the course organiser to catch you up by sending you the missed session’s episode. You can then work through it with your Guest Journals in your own time. (We do not recommend you attempt to do the whole course on your own like this – see the question ‘Can a couple do The Marriage Course/The Pre-Marriage Course on their own?’)
There are seven sessions of The Marriage Course, looking at the following topics:
- Strengthening Connection
- The Art of Communication
- Resolving Conflict
- The Power of Forgiveness
- The Impact of Family
- Good Sex
- Love in Action
For more information, head to alphausa.org/marriage
There are five sessions to The Pre-Marriage Course:
- Communication
- Conflict
- Commitment
- Connection
- Adventure
For more information, head to alphausa.org/marriage
If the course is run online, you and your partner eat a meal together and then log on to watch the video with others, but you will have all your conversations in the privacy of your own home. If the course is offered in person, it is meant to feel like a date-night: relaxed, romantic table for two.We believe each couple should have privacy and not have to share anything about your relationship with anyone other than your partner. Background music will ensure that you have privacy for your conversations. Arrangements will vary from course to course depending on where it is being held and who is running it, but this is how we recommend the evening be set up. Watch this
video to get more of an idea of what a session on The Marriage Course may be like.
Yes, there are many courses that are running online. Look in Find a Course and search by country, city, or area code. If you’re having trouble finding a course where you are, please email questions@alphausa.org and we will be happy to help.
As our courses are not accredited by individuals or organizations, we do not issue certificates to couples after our courses. However, we have provided a template for course leaders to verify you have completed the course, which is available when they register their course on the Marriage Course Builder.
If you had a positive experience on The Marriage Course, you may want to
Try Alpha. Alpha is a series of sessions exploring the Christian faith, typically run over eleven weeks. Each talk looks at a different question around faith and is designed to create conversation. Alpha is run all around the globe, and everyone is welcome.
