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| News & Announcements Archive |
Heart to Heart Family Ministries: A New Era - Posted Feb. 18/09
Ministry Launches with Marriage Mentor Training - Posted Jan. 12/09
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Heart to Heart Family Ministries: A New Era
On Sunday, February 8 at Georgetown Christian Fellowship in Georgetown, Ontario, Heart to Heart Family Ministries launched a new era of ministry. Heart to Heart Family Ministries was founded by Rev. Lorne Shepherd in the early 1990s as a ministry of Crossroads Christian Communications. Eventually, the ministry became a separate entity from Crossroads and has been known across Canada for solid Biblical teaching on marriage, family and sexuality. Rev. Shepherd has also personally counselled many people individually and as couples and has seen many lives improved and repaired.
In the fall of 2008, Lorne entered into discussions with David and Wende Butcher concerning a new direction for Heart to Heart Family Ministries. As a result, the Butchers have assumed directorship of the ministry and have begun to implement some of the planned changes. David and Wende know first hand the importance of solid marriages, having come from dysfunctional homes and teetering on the edge of divorce themselves after 10 years of marriage. Their solid Christian faith and their choice to stay together and save their children from the heartbreak of separation and divorce have fed their passion for seeing marriages improved, strengthened and repaired.
In January, the Butchers trained their first group of marriage mentors, marking the inauguration of a new area of ministry for Heart to Heart Family Ministries. Mentoring is a proven and effective method for helping people in many areas of their lives, and marriage mentoring is no less effective. Mentoring, based on sound Biblical principles, involves a more experienced person or couple, connecting with a less experienced person or couple to help them walk a path that the more experienced one has already navigated successfully. Generally, the mentor and mentoree couples share some similar background or experience, or have a heart for a certain group of mentorees. For example, a mentor couple might choose to mentor newlyweds because they know how important a good solid foundation for marriage is, or they might choose to mentor couples in distress because they were once in crisis themselves and, with help, were able to manoeuvre the various obstacles and problems successfully. Both mentor and mentoree couples fill out information/application forms so that the lead couple overseeing the mentoring programme in their home church can effectively match mentors and mentorees. These forms can be made available through the local church office, and can be downloaded from the Heart to Heart Family Ministries website at www.hthfamilyministries.org. The relationship and parameters of the mentoring are determined by the mentor and mentoree couples at the outset of the process and is monitored by the lead couple who will provide support and resources as needed.
The marriage mentor training is an intensive 10 session programme designed by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott of Seattle Washington and relies heavily on interaction between spouses who are taking the course. The Parrotts are leaders in the marriage mentoring field and have produced these resources based on years of study and teaching in the fields of couple, marriage and family relationships. Couples are trained to mentor engaged or newly wed couples, couples in distress or couples who would like to make their good marriages. The training is available to communities and churches across Canada and can be conducted over a weekend, as a weekend retreat, or over 4 consecutive evenings. In Georgetown, 7 couples attended the training weekend on January 10 and 11, and during a special service on Sunday, February 8 at Georgetown Christian Fellowship, pastored by Rev. David Tapley, the trained mentors were commissioned and provided with a certificate of training.
Couples who have taken the marriage mentor training have been enthusiastic in their responses both to the training materials and to the opportunities for mentoring that await them. “[We] want to help young couples get off to a great start in their marriages” said one of the trainee couples. Another couple said they wanted to “help others better their marriages... because our society is in need of strong marriages.”
In addition to marriage mentoring, Heart to Heart Family Ministries will continue to offer the same high quality marriage preparation and enrichment seminars across Canada as well as providing an online store, myriad resources, a calendar of events, webinars, podcasts and ministry materials through their website.
The new design and vision for Heart to Heart Family Ministries will result in it being one of the primary marriage resource centres in Canada, through implementation of its own programmes and partnerships with other like-minded organizations across the country. This vision includes a church affiliation programme that will provide member churches with ongoing and up to date management of their in-house marriage ministries, and will entitle them to participate in special events, programmes and conferences as they are offered. In addition, Heart to Heart Family Ministries will connect with a network of professional Christian counsellors across Canada who will provide counselling for couples and individuals. This counselling can be accessed over the phone or in person. Persons requiring this service will be able to find and contact counsellors through the website www.hthfamilyministries.org. Eventually the vision of the ministry is to produce a weekly television programme designed to feature well known specialists in the area of marriage and family enrichment.
In the coming months, more resources and materials will be added to the site, and announcements will be posted when new areas of ministry are opened.
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Ministry Launches with Marriage Mentor Training
Georgetown Christian Fellowship was the site of the inaugural weekend marriage mentor training led by David and Wende Butcher on January 10 and 11. Seven couples, hand picked by the pastor of the church, Rev. David Tapley, participated in the training which began Saturday morning and concluded Sunday afternoon.
The training weekend marked the launch of a new era for Heart to Heart Family Ministries, originally founded by Lorne Shepherd at Crossroads Christian Communications. The newly incorporated Heart to Heart Family Ministries will be led by David and Wende Butcher. This new ministry vision was born out of a long-held desire by the Butchers to see marriages across Canada improved, strengthened and repaired. Their own marriage was saved by God's intervention in 1981 when they were on the verge of separation and divorce. Now, 27 years later, David and Wende have embarked on a mission to see that vision come to fruition through marriage mentor training and marriage enrichment seminars.
Marriage mentor training is based on the premise that marriages can be helped significantly when a more experienced couple joins with a less experienced couple to help them navigate through the journey of marriage. The mentor couple commits to build a trusting, dependable relationship with the mentoree couple based on agreed goals and objectives for a mutually agreed upon duration. In this way, a newly married couple, a couple who is looking to make their good marriage great or a couple in distress can learn how and why successful marriages work and, through interaction with the mentors for the duration of the relationship, establish some tried and true strategies for improving their own marriage.
The training consists of ten sessions of approximately 1 hour each and relies heavily on interaction between the mentor trainees. They learn essential skills for effective mentoring and have opportunities to practice those skills with other mentor trainees throughout the weekend. The principles of the training are based on materials written by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott, who are relationship experts from Seattle, Washington. Their book, The Complete Guide to Marriage Mentoring, is the core text for the training, with supplemental materials produced by the Parrotts.
Participants of the weekend training were enthusiastic in their response to the training. “Great material. I love the format... I love the challenge and direction to take this material home and process it together.” Other participants remarked, “This exercise has allowed us to re-evaluate our relationship and identify areas where we need to revitalize.” And “You... showed us some areas where we could improve our own marriage.”
Heart to Heart Family Ministries is available to conduct marriage mentor training and marriage enrichment seminars throughout the GTA and across Canada and can be contacted via email. Visit their website www.hthfamilyministries.org.
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