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Community Corner

The Marriage Course

Dessert and coffee at a romantic candlelit table, great tips for marriage, and one-on-one time with your spouse

Wakefield, MA – The Marriage Course, a unique and practical seven week course will start on Friday, April 25 at 7pm at the First Baptist Church of Wakefield. The course is open to all engaged, married, and cohabiting couples and covers many of the most challenging areas of marriage – communication, forgiveness, family dynamics, and sex. The Marriage Course is an excellent tool for couples in a time when the US’s divorce rate is almost 50%. The course provides practical tools and advice to help any couple improve and strengthen their relationship.

The course was started in 1996 by Nicky and Sila Lee at Holy Trinity Brompton in London. The total number of courses running worldwide is now over 3,000.

Each week of the course starts with a chance for the couple to enjoy a romantic dessert together in a relaxing atmosphere. Then there is a short talk on a specific subject, interspersed with film clips of couples sharing their own experiences and street interviews with people from around the world. The sessions feature regular breaks for the couple to chat about the topics. They sit at their own table and talk only to each other – there is never any group work. The topics covered include:

  • Building Strong Foundations
  • The Art of Communication
  • Resolving Conflict
  • The Power of Forgiveness
  • Good Sex
  • The Impact of Family – Past and Present
  • Love in Action

All couples are welcome, whether they’ve been together for one year or sixty-one years, whether they are married or living together, and whether they consider themselves to have a strong relationship or are struggling. Although the course is based on Christian principles, its practical tools are applicable to all couples whether they are churchgoers or not.

Nick and Maria took the course last year. Nick said: “The Marriage Course reinforced the things my wife and I set as priorities when we were first married. Goals to communicate effectively, be open with one another, and do the little things that make a marriage strong easily slip by the wayside in our busy lives. The Marriage Course reminded us that we let those goals – priorities that we both had – slip a little and helped us remember to live the best parts of our marriage each day.”

The course costs $35 per couple ($30 before April 11). To find out more and sign up, visit www.fbcwakefield.org/events/marriage.

About The Marriage Course
The Marriage Course is a series of seven sessions designed to help any married or cohabiting couple strengthen their relationship. The course was started by Nicky and Sila Lee in 1996. The Lees are co-authors of The Marriage Book and The Parenting Book. They have been married for over thirty years and have four children.

Due to increasing demand for the course, the Lees developed an instructional DVD series that allows the course to be run anywhere in the world. It features the talks for each session and interviews with experts, as well as interviews with couples sharing their experiences of marriage. For more information, please visit themarriagecourse.org.

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