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Marriage is an incredible adventure, and at LIFE we believe that strong families start with strong, healthy, God-centred marriages. No matter where you are on the journey, we encourage you to check out these resources such as Night School courses and recommended books to help all married couples strengthen and invest in their relationship for a healthy, thriving marriage.

Night School Courses

Click one of the categories below for the relevant courses

Marriage Course by Alpha

The Marriage Course is a 7-session course designed to support couples looking for practical support to strengthen their relationship.

Over seven sessions you will explore:

• Strengthening Connection
• The Art of Communication
• Resolving Conflict
• The Power of Forgiveness
• The Impact of Family
• Good Sex
• Love in Action

  • Every Monday from 14 October for 7 weeks
  • $70 per couple
  • Available at Central, North & South Campuses

Register here for Central

Register here for North

Register here for South

If you can’t make next term, register for 2025. Happening from Monday 10 Feb 2025:

Register here for North

Register here for South

Register here for Central

 

Parenting Course - Kind, Firm, Calm

Simple Strategies to transform parenting, especially in times of high stress, uncertainty and disruption

If juggling parenting, work responsibilities and the intensity of life in general has left you feeling overwhelmed or in need of some fresh ideas, then this is the talk for you. Kind, Firm, Calm opens the lid on common parenting struggles and provides proven strategies and insights that cut to the heart of daily challenges.

  • Monday 16 September – 6:30-8:30pm
  • LIFE Central
  • Speaker: Jenny Hale

Register here

Parenting Course - Courageous Conversations

Let’s talk about the impact of porn

Pornography is more widely accepted, accessible, affordable, and anonymous than ever before. This course is designed to help parents have courageous conversations with their children about the impact of pornography.

Through open and honest dialogue, parents will learn how to address pornography and other difficult topics. The course will provide practical information and advice on how to talk to children about sex, relationships, and being a human.

  • Thursday 21 November – 6:30-8:30pm
  • LIFE Central
  • Speaker: Nikki Denholm

Register here

Freedom Fight

This course provides tools and biblical teachings to help men uncover the powerful truths and understanding the complexities of pornography addiction and sexual brokenness.

It is a 6-week discipleship course tailored for men, which will lay out biblical strategies and teach men how to use God’s weapons to become conquerors.
Join a compassionate community of men who are dedicated to healing and growth and equip yourself with practical tools rooted in evidence-based practices with proven principles to help men conquer porn and walk in freedom.

Every Monday from 14 October for 6 weeks
Central Campus
Register here

Marriage Books

Click one of the categories below for the relevant resources

Marriage

The Marriage Devotional: 52 Days to Strengthen the Soul of Your Marriage – Levi & Jennie Lusko 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great marriages are made, not born. In this devotional, Levi and Jennie Lusko take turns showcasing the highs and lows of marital relationships and how God uses them to foster a deeper love and a more solid foundation.

  • Unlock new joy and vibrancy by recognising there is better beyond the honeymoon phase
  • Uncomplicated conflict as you learn to fight fairly as members on the same team
  • Access Godly wisdom by engaging and staying steady when your marriage doesn’t look the way you thought it would

 

Love and Respect – Dr Emerson Eggerichs 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come discover one of the greatest secrets to a successful relationship! Love & Respect will help you and your spouse achieve a deeper level of intimacy by stopping the crazy cycle of conflict, developing better communication skills, and enjoying renewed passion.

Based on over three decades of counselling, as well as scientific and biblical research, Love and Respect is for anyone: those in marital crisis, the happily married, engaged couples, pastors and counsellors.

In Love & Respect couples can find:

  • How to break down the communication code between spouses
  • How to handle conflict in a relationship
  • How to build respect for one another
  • How to foster a deep love for one another
  • How to rekindle passion for one another

 

The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts – Gary Chapman 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Falling in love is easy. Staying in love—that’s the challenge. How can you keep your relationship fresh and growing amid the demands, conflicts, and just plain boredom of everyday life?

In the #1 New York Times international bestseller The 5 Love Languages, you’ll discover the secret that has transformed millions of relationships worldwide. Whether your relationship is flourishing or failing, Dr. Gary Chapman’s proven approach to showing and receiving love will help you experience deeper and richer levels of intimacy with your partner—starting today.

Other topics in this series include:

  • The five love languages for singles
  • The five love languages for men
  • The five love languages of teenagers
  • The five love languages of children
  • A teens guide to the five love languages

Join Dr. Gary Chapman, long-time marriage counsellor and bestselling author of The 5 Love Languages for this self-led six session masterclass presentation on how to build a love that lasts. 

 

Swipe Right: The Life-and-death power of Sex and Romance – Levi Lusko

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is nothing more powerful on earth than the forces of love, sex, and romance. In fact, relationships are a matter of life-and-death importance. But as apps like Tinder foster no-strings-attached sexual encounters, sex is being stripped of any emotional or spiritual significance.

So how can you train today for the relationship you want tomorrow? In Swipe Right, Levi Lusko shares with raw honesty from his own life experiences and God’s Word how to:

  • Resist settling for instant pleasure by discovering what your heart really longs for
  • Learn how to avoid and treat sexual scars by careful living today
  • Regret-proof your marriage bed and your deathbed
  • Transform a stagnant marriage by trading predictable nearness for mind-blowing intimacy

 

Loveology: God. Love. Marriage. Sex. And the Never-Ending Story of Male and Female – John Comer

 In the beginning, God created Adam. Then he made Eve. And ever since we’ve been picking up the pieces. Loveology is just that—a theology of love. With an autobiographical thread that turns a book into a story, pastor and speaker John Mark Comer shares about what is right in male/female relationships—what God intended in the Garden. And about what is wrong—the fallout in a post-Eden world. Loveology starts with marriage and works backward. Comer deals with sexuality, romance, singleness, and what it means to be male and female; ending with a raw, uncut, anything goes Q and A dealing with the most asked questions about sexuality and relationships. This is a book for singles, engaged couples, and the newly married—both inside and outside the church—who want to learn what the Scriptures have to say about sexuality and relationships. For those who are tired of Hollywood’s propaganda, and the church’s silence. And for people who want to ask the why questions and get intelligent, nuanced, grace-and-truth answers, rooted in the Scriptures. 

 

Purity

Every Man’s Battle, Revised and Updated 20th Anniversary Edition: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time 

You can be victorious in the battle for sexual integrity. Every man’s Battle reveals detailed strategy and has helped millions of men win the war against temptation.

This updated edition of the bestselling classic offers: 

  • Guidance for navigating cultural challenges with a godly view of women and sexuality
  • Current insights into the proven connection between porn and sexual dysfunction
  • Critical advances in brain science that show how addiction affects our minds
  • Practical solutions to for lustful thoughts and wondering eyes

The Every Man Series

 

Every Woman’s Battle: Discovering God’s Plan for Sexual and Emotional Fulfillment 

 

The only way women can survive the intense struggle for sexual integrity is by guarding not just your body, but your mind and heart as well. Every Woman’s Battle can help you learn to do that whether you’re married, single, engaged or dating.

This bestselling book offers: 

  • Understand the four unique components of female sexuality
  • Design a new defence to protect every aspect of your life
  • Cultivate an unimaginable level of legacy with your husband or husband to be
  • Develop your relationship with the only one who can truly satisfy: Jesus

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Other topics in this series include:

  • Every young man’s battle: Strategies for sexual victory
  • Every young woman’s battle: Strategies for sexual victory
  • Every man’s marriage: A guide to winning the heart of a woman
  • Every woman’s marriage: A guide to winning the heart of a man
  • Every Single man’s battle: A guide to sexual purity
  • Every Single woman’s battle: A guide to sexual purity
  • Every heart restored: A guide to healing in the wake of a spouse sexual sin
Family

How to Really Love Your Child

You know you love your child. You attend school events, care for physical needs, and discipline when needed. But did you know that most children, even in loving households, doubt that they are genuinely and unconditionally loved?

In this book, Dr. Ross explains the emotional needs of a child and provides you with skills that will help your child feel truly loved and accepted. Using eye contact, affirmation, and spiritual nurturing, you’ll learn to really love your child no matter what the circumstances.

 

The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable… About Restoring Sanity to the Most Important Organization In Your Life

As a husband and as the father of four young boys, Lencioni realized the discrepancy between the time and energy his clients put into running their organizations and the reactive way most people run their personal lives. Having experienced the stress of a frantic family firsthand, he and his wife began applying some of the tools he uses with Fortune 500 companies at home, and with surprising results.

In the book, you’ll learn to answer questions like:

  • What makes my family unique?
  • What is my family’s biggest priority–its rallying cry–right now?
  • How can my family use the answers to these questions today, next week, and next year?

An indispensable resource for busy professionals with full family lives, The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family belongs on the bookshelves of anyone who has ever struggled to balance leading people at work with leading a family unit.

 

Doing Life with Your Adult Children: Keep Your Mouth Shut & The Welcome Mat Out

If you’ve raised a child, you know that parenting doesn’t stop when they turn eighteen. In many ways, your relationship gets even more complicated–your heart and your head are as involved as ever, but you can feel things shifting, whether your child lives under your roof or rarely stays in contact.

Doing Life with Your Adult Children helps you navigate this rich and challenging season of parenting. Speaking from his own personal and professional experience, Burns offers practical answers to the most common questions he’s received over the years, including:

  • My child’s choices are breaking my heart–where did I go wrong
  • Is it OK to give advice to my grown child
  • What’s the difference between enabling and helping
  • What boundaries should I have if my child moves back home
  • What do I do when my child doesn’t seem to be maturing into adulthood
  • How do I relate to my grown child’s significant other
  • What does it mean to have healthy financial boundaries
  • How can I support my grown children when I don’t support their values

Including positive principles on bringing kids back to faith, ideas on how to leave a legacy as a grandparent, and encouragement for every changing season, Doing Life with Your Adult Children is a unique book on your changing role in a calling that never ends.

 

Boundaries with Kids: How Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Children

Discover how setting biblical boundaries can improve your parenting and your relationship with your children.

In this book, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend share their research and guidance you need to raise your kids to take responsibility for their actions and emotions and enable them to lead balanced, productive, and fulfilling adult lives.

The tools and guidance provided in Boundaries with Kids will change the way you view healthy boundaries, no matter where you are in your parenting journey. You’ll learn how to:

  • Define appropriate boundaries and consequences for your kids.
  • Set limits and still be a loving parent.
  • Bring balance to an out-of-control family life.
  • Understand the six steps to implementing boundaries in your home.

 

The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively

You know you love your child. But how can you show it so they really feel loved? Discover how to speak your child’s love language and make them feel loved in a way they understand. Dr. Gary Chapman and Dr. Ross Campbell help you:

  • Discover your child’s love language
  • Understand the link between successful learning and the love languages
  • See how the love languages can help you discipline more effectively
  • Build a foundation of unconditional love for your child

Plus: Find dozens of tips for practical ways to speak your child’s love language. Discover your child’s primary language, then speak it, and you will be on your way to a stronger relationship and seeing your child flourish.

 

5 Traits of a Healthy Family: Steps You Can Take to Grow Closer, Communicate Better, and Change the World Together 

Is your family all that it could be?

So often we examine the traits of unhealthy families, but Gary Chapman paints a biblical portrait of what a loving, stable family looks like. He details five timeless characteristics that create a healthy family environment:

  • A heart for service
  • Husbands and wives who relate intimately
  • Parents who guide their children
  • Children who obey and honour their parents
  • Husbands who love and lead

 

Talking With Teens About Sexuality Book  

Talking with Teens about Sexuality will help you understand your teen’s world and give you effective strategies in the midst of cultural pressures. Drs. Robinson and Scott provide scientifically reliable and biblically based information about:

  • Gender fluidity
  • Types of intimacy
  • Online dangers
  • Setting boundaries, and much more.

Along the way, the book provides useful conversation starters and insightful guidance. Don’t let fear keep you from engaging in vital conversations. Learn how to talk to your teen with knowledge and confidence, guiding them toward a sexually healthy future.

 

Is God Anti-gay? And Other Questions About Jesus, the Bible, and Same-Sex Sexuality
– Sam Allberry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is it ok to be gay and Christian? Does the Bible really say that homosexuality is wrong? Is sexual orientation fundamental to identity? Author and speaker Sam Allberry has updated his best-selling book to acknowledge the cultural changes in the past decade and has made it more accessible to people who do not follow Jesus. It has also been expanded so that it looks, first and foremost, at the extraordinary claims and promises of Jesus, before examining his teaching on sexuality and the costs and rewards of following him. As a believer who experiences same-sex attraction, Sam Allberry has written sensitively on this topic. He challenges the current culture narrative and shows that the gospel is good news for everyone, whatever their sexual orientation. In the introduction, he says, “Above all I want people to how good Jesus is, in this area of life and in every area of life.” This book is designed to help both Christians and non-Christians struggling with the Bible’s teaching on this issue, whether they experience same-sex attraction themselves or not.

 

Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been – Jackie Hill Perry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could?

At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel.

 

Out Of A Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope. by Christopher Yuan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out of a Far Country takes a candid and very personal approach to the ongoing debate over Christians and sexual identity. Christopher Yuan writes as a sexually abstinent homosexual, and Angela Yuan tells the story of a deeply conflicted mother who struggled with her son’s lifestyle choices.

 

It's Complicated (Seperated, Divorced)

Good Boundaries and Goodbyes: Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are – Lysa Terkeust 

Relationships are wonderful…until they’re not.

Stop the dysfunction of unhealthy relationships and learn biblical ways to set boundaries and, when necessary, say goodbye.

After thousands of hours of counselling intensives and extensive theological research that transformed the way she defined healthy relationships, Lysa is now more committed than ever to loving people well without losing the best of who she is.

In these pages, Lysa will help you:

  • Understand the five factors to remember when implementing healthy boundaries.
  • Determine the appropriate amount of personal and emotional access someone has to you.
  • Stop being misled and emotionally paralysed by wrongly interpreted or weaponised Bible verses that perpetuate unhealthy relationships.
  • Be equipped with effective boundary-setting tools, such as realistic scripts and practical strategies for healthier communication.
  • Be empowered to say goodbye without guilt when a relationship has shifted from difficult to destructive.

 

Rebuilding: When Your Relationship Ends 

If you are going through a painful breakup or divorce, you may feel like the life you once knew is crashing down around you. You need help to gather the pieces and “rebuild” yourself from the ground up. In Rebuilding: When your relationship ends, Brue Fisher draws on over two decades of research to help in areas such as denial, fear, loneliness, rejection, grief, self-worth, singleness, and freedom, and many more.

Marriage Groups

Visit our Info Desk to speak to a Connection Pastor and they will introduce you or put you in touch with a Group leader. You can also explore the many Groups we have here at LIFE.