Why run The Parenting Courses?
Anyone who wants to support and encourage parents and other carers and who enjoys hosting a group can run the courses.
Key features:
Login and watch some short videos to help you get started.
You need The Parenting Children Course DVD or The Parenting Teenagers Course DVD along with a Leaders’ Guide and one guest manual per person. You can purchase these at the Shop.
- Find a venue
- Ask people to help you run the course
- Decide what/if to charge guests attending your course
- Budget for food and/or drinks and promotion
Add your course details to our website here, you can receive 10% discount when purchasing course materials.
Access leader information including talk scripts, warm up games and promotional material.
Use the leaders’ Resources for support to run your course.
Determine whether you are going to run a morning or evening course. A mid-morning course after the school run may be more suitable for stay at home parents.
Each of the five weekly sessions lasts two-and-a-half hours. This includes time for something to eat and/or drink, the talks and the small group discussions. Alternatively, the course can be run over ten weeks with shorter sessions lasting one-and-a-half hours.
Do a little information gathering ahead of time to find a counsellor in your area to whom you will you feel comfortable referring couples to if they need more specific professional help.
The most effective way to encourage guests to come on your course is to personally invite them.
Promotional materials such as postcard invitations and banners can help and are easy to use - they can help generate interest and spread the word about your course to those outside your personal network.
- Add your course details to our website here. Choose to promote your Alpha to thousands of people via our website and social media channels, resulting in increased guest attendance.
- Promote your course from the front of church with a fun video or by sharing feedback from previous guests.
- Give out invites and encourage everyone to invite one couple.
- Place posters and postcards in strategic locations such as coffee shops, gyms, crèches and libraries, etc
- Make sure the date, time, venue and contact information are clear on your communication.
- Give the course a final push the week before it starts, as many couples decide to book on at the last minute.
How can we use the Course as a sustainable strategy for spreading the gospel?
The Marriage Course helps churches develop a comprehensive strategy to spread the gospel starting from the family ministry and taking the next step with power in the community and between intergenerational bondings.
Easy to run, simple to learn
The Course contains a thorough package of resources, including training resources, course DVD, Leaders' Guide and Guest Journal. It is easy to learn, use and copy. Not only pastors but also leaders, in general, can easily run the Course.
Build a team to run continuously
The church may run their first Marriage Course for the core couples in the church. The Course runs once a week on a continuous basis since it values the relationship between the participants and the spirit of self-help and cooperation, instead of mere knowledge transfer. Thus, participants gain a sense of acceptance to the concept and effectiveness of the Course. By turning the consumer mentality of the participants into the mindset of supporters or helpers, they may become helpers, leaders or even the core members of the team in the next Course. They may also encourage friends and family to join the Course by telling them their experience of the Course. By then, the Course continues to bless more people.