As man goes, so goes the family, the church, and the community. When church and school leaders go through our equipping programs, their own personal families are strengthened, fueling their passion for working towards biblically healthy families in their own areas of influence within their communities.
In early 2020, we faced the reality that our school in Montellano was reaching its capacity for impact. Our ministry to families had always been directly associated with our student enrollment at the Makarios School, and due to space limitations, our capacity to reach more families was limited. Our team stepped back and began to dream about how we could help strengthen families with the good news of Jesus Christ and God's biblical design for family beyond the walls of our school. Out of this desire, the vision for the Makarios Equipping Program was born. We wanted to take all that we had learned from our family empowerment program at our school and share these tools with the two major institutions that impact a family, schools and churches. Our dedicated team of staff developed and formalized the program and in 2021 the first cohort of church and school leaders entered the program in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
Around the same time, Makarios was presented with an opportunity to launch an equipping program in Pader, Uganda. Thanks to a connection with a US church partner and a pastor in Pader, Makarios was able to build a Ugandan team and formally began equipping local church and school leaders in 2021.
Since then, our teams in both countries have continued to walk alongside these church and school leaders, adding a new cohort each year, to help strengthen and empower families in their communities. We provide training, resources, coaching, and mentoring over multiple years so that churches and schools can implement sustainable family empowerment programs in their respective contexts. We believe that whole communities can be transformed by equipping these leaders with tools to cultivate biblically healthy families who live out God's purpose in their lives. Our training content, coaching resources, and continual support systems are developed and refined in our Makarios School and its associated ministries. This allows us to leverage our "in-house" improvements to help our partners grow in their own effectiveness.
We partner with local Christian schools that also share a vision of reaching the families of their students. In the first year of the program, Leadership teams from the school partners participate in training on the following themes:
- Relationship Between The School and the Family
- God's Design For The Family
- Leadership Development
- Team Building
- Organizational Culture
- Program Design & Implementation
After training, these leaders plan and strategize how they will implement their own family empowerment programs. During the second year, they put this plan into action with their teams. During the third year, our team continues to walk alongside the participants, connecting leaders from various partner schools as a form of an ongoing support network.
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We partner with local churches who want to better minister to the families in their congregation and communities. In the first year of the program, Church pastors and leaders participate in training on the following themes:
Technical Areas
- Vision/Mission (for the individual and the Church)
- Leadership 101
- Planning 101
Ecclesiastical Areas
- Hermeneutics
- Homiletics
- Shepherding the Flock
Impact Areas
- Identity in Christ
- Healthy Relationships (Marriage, Singleness & the Faith Community)
- Parenting
- Purpose
Once participants have completed these foundational trainings, they plan for how they are going to focus their efforts and implement what they have learned in their specific context. During the activation phase, our team continues to meet with church pastors and ministry leaders to offer guidance and connect them with resources and tools. Our team also connects these church partners together as an ongoing support network.
Interested in being a vessel to bring about spiritual restoration for generational impact?
Join the Makarios Family.