About Charting a Course
What responsibility does God’s Word place on Christian parents? How can we best teach our kids biblical truths and guide them through the perils of growing up? How can we help them truly grasp the abundant life found only in the Lord Jesus Christ? What unique purpose has God ordained for each of our families?
Charting a Course is a ministry to help families discover answers to these critical questions. As any parent knows, the totality of family activities and school can take on a life of their own, often leaving us scattered and purposeless. For some of us, if present trends continue, we may look back on these years with regret, filled with missed opportunities and misplaced priorities. Deep down, however, we know there’s a better way. We know God has so much more in store for our family than a packed schedule and a stress-filled home. Charting a Course is an effort to help families change their trajectory — not only for the good of your family unit, but for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.
The seeds of Charting a Course were planted with Bruce & Lynn Wray, when in the early 1990s their oldest daughter first went off to college. She was a fantastic student and well-adjusted young lady. But the finality of the moment — she had left the home — brought a rush of self-reflection regarding their parenting. It was a moment of realization: the 18 years they had expected would feel so long had suddenly come to a close. What other lessons might they have taught her if they had been more purposeful? What experiences might they have incorporated? What could they change in their family for their four other children still at home?
In an effort to help other parents think through priorities and be intentional, Lynn wrote the original version of Charting a Course and put it together in a workbook to teach to young moms in a church setting. There was a great enthusiasm over the material, but there was one consistent piece of feedback: “I would love for my husband to take this course also.”
Later Lynn & Bruce’s youngest daughter, Katie Clark and her husband Graham, joined the Wrays in updating and reworking the material to a workbook format for teaching to couples. Together, the Wrays and Clarks led the first couples retreat and follow-up sessions in 2020.
Testimonials from Participating Couples
“We are so glad we went through Charting a Course! It gave us an opportunity to solidify the vision for our family and foundational values and beliefs we want to pass down to our children. We already had some ideas for how we wanted our family life to look, but Charting a Course provided us with encouragement and wisdom as we considered how to implement those ideas. We LOVED our group and our mentors – having those conversations gave us other great perspectives and helped us figure out how to make what we learned a practical reality. Since taking this course, we’ve been on the same page about how to lead our family in following Jesus. Not everything has been implemented perfectly, but we know not to expect perfection, and we know to just try to focus on one or two things at a time. We highly recommend this course if you want to feel more united with your spouse as you work together to come up with a vision for your family that is centered around Christ!”
Kirsten P.
“As we started to raise our children, we had a general idea of what we wanted our family to be, and what we valued most. But we had never put it all together to make it defined and concrete, which meant we could easily get off course. A lot of times, our good intentions would get lost or forgotten in the busyness of life. This class has helped us to be more purposeful with the vision and direction for our family, instead of just taking life as it comes. Defining our priorities and developing an action plan has helped us to be more strategic about how we are going to achieve our goals for our family. We have established our values, goals, and vision that help guide us when making decisions. Even after completing the course, we have regular, intentional conversations, helping to keep us on track.”
Patrick H.
“We really enjoyed the Charting a Course experience led by the Clark’s and the Wray’s. It allowed us to have a couple “dates” with delicious, home-cooked meals and dedicated time to discuss what we wanted to prioritize for our family. We worked to develop a family mission statement which allowed us to realize we want our family focus to be adoption and helping children that do not have a loving, Christian home. We were presented with some excellent material which allowed us to set up family values, learn the importance of cultivating the unique gifts and abilities of each of our children, and focus on being intentional with the limited time with have with our kids by prioritizing what’s important to us! We also benefited from the group discussion and conversation with the other couples in our Charting A Course group. Lastly, we sought out a mentor couple that is a few years ahead of us in life and have gleaned wisdom from their experience as parents of older children. We would encourage other couples to consider taking this course as we believe it can really bless your marriage and strengthen your entire family.”
Taylor A.