In our experience, it is a lead couple or a pastor who has the vision for a coaching program and understands how it can complement the marital counseling that is often performed by pastoral staff. If it is a pastor, he or she can facilitate the ministry by recruiting a “Lead Couple” to oversee the program. This enables the pastor to delegate the day-to-day operations of the coaching program and it helps to get members involved in ministry.
The Lead Couple has the leadership role for the coaching program. This involves several responsibilities that can and should be delegated to other couples, but need to be accomplished to have a healthy program. These responsibilities include:
- Promoting the program through articles and announcements
- Advertising the program in the local community as an outreach
- Recruiting potential new coach couples
- Responding to inquiries about how coaching works from prospective couples
- Acting as a focal point for the pastoral staff to coordinate coaching referrals
- Referring couples desiring coaching to an appropriate coach couple
- Providing a forum for coach couple fellowship, involvement, planning, recruiting and on-going skill development
MarriageTeam can assist the lead couple with all the back-up administrative support of doing the intakes, administering the PREPARE/ENRICH inventory, and doing the follow-up evaluations. MarriageTeam provides sample brochures, announcements, procedures, materials, and curriculum for getting a coaching program started. There are many creative ideas and approaches for accomplishing these responsibilities and a small cadre of commitment coach couples can create a very successful program.
For more information contact us for specifics on how we can help you meet the needs of your church.
