Gary T. Smalley School
of Marriage & Family
BUILDING BETTER RELATIONSHIPS ONE GRADUATE AT A TIME.
IMPACT GENERATIONS OF FAMILIES
by joining our family as a legacy donor!
A problem worth solving
Churches across the United States and the world are unwittingly working against married couples who attend their services. The church does more to pull a couple apart than it does to help them build a healthy relationship by:
- Encouraging couples to volunteer in separate areas
- Providing significantly more resources to men's or women's groups than marriage
- Allocating little budget space for developing healthy marriages
- Understaffing marriage and family positions
- Their lack of vision for a healthy marriage strategy for their couples
Our solution
Provide a superior online education for learners teaching proven strategies for successful marriage and family ministry through the local church. Strategies that can cut the divorce rate by 50%.
FUNDING NEEDED = $400,000
Start-up costs for the salaries, offices, software, and marketing/branding of the school.
Partner & Change Lives
HOW WE ARE IMPACTING GENERATIONS
Certificate of Marriage and Family Ministry
One of the fastest growing income producers for schools are Certificate programs. GTSS will launch with a highly marketable certificate program laypeople, church staff, and pastors will want in order to effectively minister to couples and families.
Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Ministry
Currently only one school offers this kind of masters degree in America. We are positioned to become THE graduate program for those individuals who want to help couples and families but don't want to go through the pain and financial burden of attending a licensed clinical counseling program.
Doctor of Philosophy in Marriage and Family Ministry
No graduate program in America offers a PhD in marriage and family ministry. GTSS is attractive for those who want to plant a church, teach, or run a successful marriage and family ministry through the local church.
The Market
Because of the Smalley brand in marriage and family, we are strongly positioned to attract men and women in the United States and around the globe who desire to work full or part-time as marriage and family pastors/coaches in a local church. Our research found the following markets where we could attract students:
- 200,000 people applied for a graduate degree or certificate in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Over 150,000 ordained protestant clergy
- 50,000 members of the American Association of Christian Counselors
- 36,000 Marriage and Family Therapists
- 108,000 evangelical or protestant attendees of churches in America.
This represents a pool of potential students of over 500,000 men and women who would be interested in a marriage and family certificate or degree to use at a church.
The Competition
We are creating a unique graduate program exclusively focused on marriage and family education through the local church. Currently the only graduate level program we could find close to marriage and family ministry is at Regent University and their M.A. in Human Services – Marriage & Family Ministry.
Of course there will be competition from some of the established schools in marriage and family therapy like Wheaton College, George Fox University, and Rosemead School of Psychology at BIOLA..
However we will be going after students who do not desire licensure in marriage and family therapy, and would prefer a more practical education specifically dedicated to marriage and family enrichment/education through the church. Students who want to be pastors and lay leaders who can run a marriage and family ministry at a church.
Why Us?
The Smalley name has long been associated with quality marriage enrichment and education. Currently there is an egregious lack of schools who are preparing students for marriage ministry through the church.
We are positioned to be the first big brand to offer a certificate, masters, and doctorate in marriage and family education. Our philosophy and vision for a premium online education will stand out to prospective students because:
- It will be significantly more affordable than competitive programs
- We offer courses and experiences no other program has developed
- Graduates will gain the benefit of the Smalley brand to help them stand out to churches looking to hire
- Our program will be the only one in the world offering advanced education in the Marriage Intensive Model we created
- The learning environment will have a second to none user interface utilizing the latest technology in online learning
