ENGAGED COUPLES
Start Strong: The Relationship Growth Method for Engaged Couples
Prepare for the marriage, not just the wedding.
A faith-based, practical 12-week program for engaged couples who want to build a strong foundation, understand each other deeply, and begin marriage with clarity, confidence, and shared direction.
You’re planning a wedding. But are you preparing for marriage?
There is so much energy around the big day. The venue. The guest list. The details. The excitement.
And yet beneath all of that, most engaged couples know there are bigger questions waiting:
How do we get on the same page about money, family, roles, and expectations?
How will we handle conflict when it comes?
How do we build a marriage that is not just beautiful at the beginning, but strong for the long haul?
What happens when the differences we find charming now start creating tension later?
Love is a wonderful start. But strong marriages are built on more than love alone.
What engaged couples often don’t know yet
Most couples do not enter marriage trying to misunderstand each other.
They simply have not yet learned how differently they are designed.
One of you may need directness, while the other needs gentleness
One may move quickly, while the other processes slowly.
One may assume things should just be obvious, while the other is waiting for words that were never spoken.
That is how tension begins.
Not because you are wrong for each other.
But because no one taught you how to understand each other well.
Here is what that can look like…
The conversation that feels clear to one of you and confusing to the other.
You both leave thinking, “That is not what I meant.”
The expectations you carry without realizing you have them.
About money, family, time, intimacy, chores, faith, and roles.
The differences that feel easy now but become stress points later.
The traits that seem harmless while dating can feel heavy once real life begins.
The assumption that love will automatically make things work.
Love matters deeply. But healthy marriage also takes understanding, skill, humility, and practice.
Now imagine starting your marriage with a clearer map
Imagine having language for how each of you is designed before frustration takes root.
Imagine knowing how to communicate in a way your future spouse can actually receive.
Imagine talking through money, family dynamics, faith, conflict, and expectations before they become hidden pressure points.
Imagine beginning marriage not just with hope, but with shared understanding.
That is what Start Strong is designed to do.
You learn why your fiancé responds the way they do and how to reach them
You build a shared language for communication before conflict becomes a pattern
You create a stronger foundation for trust, unity, and long-term connection
You uncover assumptions now, instead of colliding with them later
You begin marriage with tools you will still be grateful for ten years from now
Introducing…
Start Strong: The Relationship Growth Method for Engaged Couples
A live, in-person or virtually online, 12-week premarital program for engaged couples who want to prepare for marriage with wisdom, clarity, and confidence.
This is not just about getting through a checklist before the wedding. It is about building the kind of relationship that can carry the weight of real life with strength, grace, and resilience.
Twelve lessons. Twelve weeks. A foundation you can build on.
The program is built in three phases, each one laying the groundwork for the next. Every lesson combines teaching, practical exercises, and at-home reflection so that what you learn in the session becomes part of how you actually live together.
Phase 1
Equip – Build Understanding and Awareness
Building Your Foundation
Every strong marriage is built on a foundation that was laid in the right order. In this lesson, you’ll discover what that order is, why it matters, and how getting it right changes the health and direction of everything else.
Lesson 2: Finding Your Starting Point
Before you can truly understand your future spouse, you have to understand yourself. You’ll explore how your personality and life experiences have shaped the way you think, respond, and relate to others.
Lesson 3: Understanding Your Design
Every personality style brings real strengths to a marriage, and real blind spots that quietly create damage. You’ll identify both, honestly and without shame, so you can begin working with yourself instead of against your future spouse.
Lesson 4: Learning Your Spouse’s Route
This is where the work becomes deeply personal. You’ll map your fiancé’s design alongside your own and begin to see exactly where your natural differences could create tension, and where they can create remarkable strength.
Phase 2
Empower – Strengthen Communication and Connection
Lesson 5: Speaking Your Spouse’s Language
Knowing your future spouse’s design is only the beginning. This lesson teaches you how to communicate in the way they are built to receive, so your words build connection rather than confusion.
Lesson 6: Listening for Understanding
Real listening is a skill most of us were never taught. This lesson builds your capacity to truly hear one another, cutting down the assumptions and misreads that quietly cause the most damage.
Lesson 7: Building Trust Along the Way
Trust is not created by intention alone. This lesson maps what builds it and what quietly erodes it, and gives you a clear path toward a relationship where both of you feel genuinely safe.
Lesson 8: Aligning Your Direction
Many tensions in marriage come from unspoken expectations. This lesson brings them to the surface so you can agree, as a team, on how you want to move forward together.
Phase 3
Engage – Apply What You Have Learned
Lesson 9: Navigating Conflict
Conflict handled well draws you closer. You’ll learn a framework for working through disagreement in a way that breaks unhealthy cycles before they ever become your normal.
Lesson 10: Stewarding Your Resources
Money is one of the most common pressure points in marriage. You’ll begin building a shared approach to finances that creates unity, clarity, and peace.
Lesson 11: God’s Design For Intimacy
This lesson helps couples see intimacy as more than physical connection, it’s built through trust, safety, vulnerability, and faith. You’ll explore what strengthens intimacy, what gets in the way, and how to cultivate deeper closeness in every season of marriage.
Lesson 12: Staying Anchored in Faith
Every other lesson in this program leads here. As both of you draw closer to God, you’re drawn closer to each other, and the foundation of your marriage becomes one that can hold steady under pressure.
Start Strong is the program we wish every couple had access to from the beginning.
Total Value: More Than $3,200
Every Engaged Couple who enrolls in BACK ON TRACK MARRIAGE receives additional material specifically created for engaged couples.
Choose Your Preferred Class:
LIVE ONLINE CLASS
Sundays, beginning February 7, 2027
4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Zoom
By the end of 12 weeks, you’ll have…
A shared language for your relationship.
Using the Model of Human Behavior, you’ll both understand how you are each designed, what drives your responses, and where your differences may create friction if left unaddressed.
Greater confidence in how you communicate.
You will learn how to speak in a way your future spouse can actually hear, and how to listen in a way that builds understanding.
A healthier way to approach conflict.
You’ll gain tools for working through tension with maturity and grace, instead of carrying unhealthy patterns into marriage.
Clarity on money, time, roles, and expectations.
You’ll surface the assumptions that quietly create disappointment later and replace them with shared understanding now.
A stronger spiritual and relational foundation.
You’ll begin marriage not just with love, but with a deeper sense of purpose, unity, and direction.
Start Strong opens in February 2027. Join the waitlist, and you’ll be the first to know when dates are set.”
Why this program instead of just reading a book or doing a short premarital course?
Books can help you think.
A premarital checklist can help you cover topics.
But Start Strong gives you a guided path.
This is a live experience where you move through the work together, not just around it. You will not be left trying to interpret general advice and wondering how it applies to your relationship. Instead, you will be guided step by step through the conversations, exercises, and insights that help engaged couples actually build understanding.
This program is designed to be more:
- practical than inspiration alone
- structured than casual conversation
- personal than generic marriage advice
- foundational than simply “hoping for the best”
It is marriage preparation with depth, clarity, and real application.
This Is What “Start Strong” Looks Like
This class really helped us!
We started this class three weeks after we got married and we’ve already been hit with so much all at once. But this class really has helped us and I know it will continue to. We feel like we know you both and look up to you both. Victoria you are radiant, thank you for your joy and enthusiasm. David thank you for your boldness and leadership. Bless you both.
This is a well-thought-out course that gives couples real tools they can use immediately, rather than just theory.
Even though I’m divorced, I found it incredibly valuable. This is a practical, honest, and well-thought-out course that gives couples real tools they can use immediately, rather than just theory. Many of these principles apply not only to marriage but to healthy relationships in general. I absolutely recommend this to other couples!
We are stronger than ever before, undoubtedly.
Throughout this curriculum, we’ve experienced life-changing, generational impact. We are stronger than ever before, undoubtedly. After stepping in and saying yes to David & Victoria, and showing up each session, we have now come together in agreement and believe by faith that our two little girls, our grandchildren and a thousand generations more will have marriages that are eternal and Jesus Christ-centred.
You are present and speaking truth from the heart and from the spirit
Thank you for your commitment to invest and lead this course! I’ve sat through so many trainings and even led some myself, but when you guys speak, it’s you. You are present and speaking truth from the heart and from the spirit. Your humility to each other is a great example and you’re able to not take yourselves too seriously because you’re submitting your identities to the Father and you have freedom! The world needs this! Thank you!
We learned how to communicate in ways that actually made eachother feel heard and understood
Taking this marriage small group was truly eye-opening for my husband and I. We learned how to communicate in ways that actually made each other feel heard and understood, thanks to the DISC profile insights. No matter how long you have been married, I recommend this small group to any couple who wants to feel more connected and confident in their relationship.
It has been an amazing and eye opening 12 weeks!
Thank you so much for sharing your time, knowledge and life experiences with us! It has been an amazing and eye opening 12 weeks. It has been great having you share your “moments” and “blind spots”. It lets us know we have to adjust to certain things but that’s ok – because we are a team – we either both win or we both lose. May God richly bless you both!
Here’s everything you’ll get inside the program
- 12 live, 1.5 hour guided sessions (in person or virtual), totalling 18 hours of instruction
- Engaged couples supplemental material for all engaged couples enrolled in Back On Track Marriage
- A full companion workbook to follow along week by week
- Guided exercises and at-home reflection to help the work stick
- DISC Assessment
- SYMBIS Assessment
- Love Languages Assessment – Chapman
- Language of Apology Assessment – Chapman
- Downloadable PDFs, handouts, and bonus resources throughout the program including:
- The God Honoring Standards
- Biblical Responsibilities additional guides Expectations
- Expectations, Roles and Responsibilities Worksheet
- Non-Negotiables and Preferences
- 28 Day Challenge
- Financial Resources Worksheet
- Email support between sessions when questions come up
- Certificate of Completion
- A small class experience with personal facilitation and space to engage
We believe preparing for marriage is one of the wisest things you can do
We’re David and Victoria Glass, founders of Relationship Growth Academy. Married since 1996. Parents to one son, foster parents to more than 20 children, and partners in marriage ministry for over 30 years across churches, small groups, and communities on six continents.
As advanced DISC-certified (Personality Insights®) practitioners and SYMBIS-certified facilitators, we pair the science of human behavior with the wisdom of lived experience.
We’ve sat with couples in every kind of season, from the first year of marriage to the thirtieth, from hopeful to heartbroken. We’ve seen what happens when understanding finally enters the room.
Trusted by Communities That Value People
Our classes are small by design
Start Strong is designed as a small group experience, not a self-paced course. Each class is intentionally kept small to protect the quality of the experience and the depth of facilitation.
We run Start Strong live in person and virtually online, and we can also deliver it as a hosted class for churches and organizations.
Who is this perfect for?
Engaged couples who want to prepare for marriage, not just plan a wedding
Couples who want practical, faith-based guidance rather than vague advice
Couples who want to talk through money, communication, expectations, and faith before marriage begins
Couples getting married in a church context and wanting a strong premarital foundation
Churches and ministries looking for a high-quality premarital pathway for couples in their care
Questions we hear most often
Is this the same as premarital counseling?
Start Strong is a structured premarital education and growth program. It may complement premarital counseling beautifully, and for some churches it may serve as part of a premarital pathway. We are happy to talk through how it fits your context.
Can we do this online, or does it have to be in person?
Both. Start Strong is available live in person and virtually online. We also work with churches and organizations to deliver it as a hosted group experience.
Do we have to be struggling for this to be useful?
Not at all. This program is designed for couples who want to start marriage with wisdom and clarity. You do not have to be in crisis to benefit from preparation.
Is this program faith-based?
Yes. Start Strong is built on a faith-based foundation, and scriptural principles are woven throughout the program. We believe marriage is a covenant, and we help couples prepare for it with that in mind.
How much time will this require each week?
Each live session is 90 minutes, designed to give you meaningful progress without overwhelming your schedule. On a few key weeks, you’ll also complete a short assessment or exercise outside of class—usually anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes. We also strongly recommend setting aside 30 to 60 minutes during the week to talk through what you’re learning together, because that’s often where the biggest breakthroughs happen.
Can our church use this for engaged couples in our congregation?
Yes. We work with churches and ministries to deliver Start Strong as a hosted class or premarital pathway for couples in their care. You can also have your couples join a class with other couples, it isn’t necessary to fill an entire class with your own congregation.
We already have a strong relationship. Is this still worth doing?
Absolutely. Strong relationships still need shared tools, aligned expectations, and wise preparation. Start Strong helps healthy couples begin marriage with even greater confidence and clarity.
Ready to start strong?
Enroll now and be a part of the class opening in February 2027. Our classes are intentionally small, and spots go quickly.