Course Overview

Pre-Marriage Counseling Skills (1 CDS Module)

Professor Steve Elzinga

Do you minister to people who are getting married? The Pre-marriage Counseling Skills Course was already developed as a skills course for the Life coach minister program.  After they completed the content, the team realized that this course is formative for many areas of ministry. 

This course features Rev. Steve Elzinga, one of our popular professors who served as a pastor for over 40 years, and Mitchell and Abby Dominiak. In the summer of 2019, Abby Reyenga and Mitch Dominiak were engaged to be married. Steve Elzinga was finishing this pre-marriage counseling course. Steve offered to teach this class while modeling to all of us a real pre-marriage situation. They filmed the pre-marriage sections as skill examples. 

The Pre-marriage Skills class is ideal for:

• Volunteer Christian leaders who are occasionally called upon to perform weddings. You will be able to offer pre-marriage counseling.
• Those called to become licensed or ordained with Christian Leaders Alliance. Perfect for clergy ministers.
• A Life Coach minister in a selected specialty. 
• Ministers who want continuing education in the pre-marriage skills area. 
• Matchmaker ministers who offer pre-marriage ministry to those they help match. 
• Christian leaders who are discerning their calling to ministry. 

The Pre-marriage Skills Course has the following learning outcomes:  

• How to create permanent connections at the beginning of the marriage relationship.
• How to foster the playful connection.
• How to balance the demand for social connections.
• How to develop communication connections.
• How to lean into your purpose as a couple.
• How to grow in a spiritual connection.
• How to create a long-term physical and sexual connection.
• How to prepare for the wedding.

Assignments

View all online lectures and read all the articles on each topic. CLI computer tracks whether you do this. After viewing all lectures for the unit, take the quiz based on the lectures (100% of grade). All reading materials must be of general domain or creative commons.

Grading Scale
A 95-100%   A- 90-94%   B+ 87-89%   B 83-86%   B- 80-82%   C+ 77-79%   C 73-76%   C- 70-72%    D+ 67-69%   D 63-66%   D- 60-62%   F 0-59%
Your average for the course must be at least 60%. Otherwise, you will fail the class and will receive no credit.

Deadline
You have 180 days to finish the class. Complete all assignments before the final deadline, or you will be automatically unenrolled, and all classwork will be removed. You will have to start over and retake the class to receive credit.

Each quiz has up to 20 questions. Our usual formula for quizzes is as follows:  There are 1/3 true and false and 2/3 multiple choices.

Additional Materials

The Marriage Connection by Steve Elzinga is available to purchase through the Christian Leaders Store here. Not only is the material used as a guide for this course, but it can also be a great resource as a Bible study, retreat, or counseling tool. The book is highly encouraged, but not required for this course.