You’re Invited
Whether you’ve been married six months or 40 years, whether you’re in a good place or struggling, The Marriage Course offers practical support to strengthen your relationship.
What to Expect
The Marriage Course was created by Alpha International, which also runs Alpha courses around the world. The Marriage Course consists of seven consecutive sessions and is designed with the intention that guests attend one session per week. Each session lasts approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes.
The Vine’s Marriage Course will be offered as an online pilot to help us discern whether it is a good fit for our discipleship ministry. Each video session will be available on this webpage on Sunday afternoon at 7 PM. Automated reminder emails will go out every Sunday evening. All that is required to participate is a good and stable internet, a device to watch the videos from, and your journal which will be provided by the church.
Make it a Date!
Couples will commit to a consistent day and time in the week to watch the videos that works best for their schedules.
Couples are encouraged to do something special with the room, whether that’s lighting a candle or having a meal or snacks on hand while you are watching the series—create the intimate atmosphere of a date!
Course Outline
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This session helps couples to strengthen the connection between them by looking at what it takes to keep nurturing their relationship and by growing in their understanding of each other’s emotional needs and desires.
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This session looks at the importance of communication within marriage – through talking and listening – and helps couples to identify and overcome barriers to effective communication, particularly any hindrances to listening to their partner
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In this session, we look at how couples can increase their intimacy by expressing appreciation to each other, recognising their differences, learning to negotiate disagreements and supporting each other (either by praying together or by offering support in some other way).
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This session addresses the ways we will inevitably hurt each other and how to resolve these issues. We look at the process of healing through talking about the hurt, saying sorry and forgiving.
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This session focuses on helping couples to recognise how their family backgrounds affect the way they relate to each other. They also consider how to build a good, healthy relationship with their parents, in-laws and wider family and how hurt from childhood can be healed.
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Sex isn’t just the icing on the cake of a marriage; it’s a vital ingredient of the cake itself. In this session couples are encouraged to talk about their sexual relationship and to recognise where they could make changes for the sake of their partner and their whole relationship.
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Drawing on the work of Dr Gary Chapman, this session looks at five main ways of expressing and receiving love – through words, time, touch, presents and actions. Couples discover which expression of love is most important for their partner and how they can put this into practice.
