ABOUT AVENEW
… AVENEW is a great place to discover God’s mission for your relationship and learn practical ways to love and honor one another through life’s highs and lows. Ready to get on the same path?
Let's do it!
- Upcoming Classes
FALL SEASON
Sundays, Sep. 11 through Dec. 4, 2022†
5 to 6:30 p.m.
Christ Chapel Fort Worth Campus: Oak Room
$50 per couple
† Not meeting on Nov. 27
Let's do it!
- Upcoming Opportunities:
2023 FALL SEASON
Sundays, Sept. 10 through Dec. 3 2023*
5:30 to 7 p.m.
Christ Chapel Fort Worth Campus: 2nd Floor Link Classroom
$50 per couple
* Not meeting on Nov. 26
2024 WINTER SEASON
Sundays, Jan. 7 through Apr. 14, 2023†
5 to 6:30 p.m.
Christ Chapel Fort Worth Campus: 2nd Floor Link Classroom
$50 per couple
† Not meeting on Feb. 11, Mar. 10 or Mar. 31
Let's do it!
- Upcoming Opportunities:
AVENEW WEEKEND: 2023 SPRING
Friday, May 19: 5 to 9:30 p.m. and
Saturday, May 20: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Common Grounds: 3110 Greene Ave.
Per-couple rates: $90 month of April | $110 month of May
2023 FALL SEASON
Sundays, Sept. 10 through Dec. 3 2023*
5:30 to 7 p.m.
Christ Chapel Fort Worth Campus: 2nd Floor Link Classroom
$50 per couple
* Not meeting on Nov. 26
2024 WINTER SEASON
Sundays, Jan. 7 through Apr. 14, 2023†
5 to 6:30 p.m.
Christ Chapel Fort Worth Campus: 2nd Floor Link Classroom
$50 per couple
† Not meeting on Feb. 11, Mar. 10 or Mar. 31
Meet the Faculty
Curriculum Preview
- 12 sessions of really great content on relationships
- About 6 friends in the same life stage
- 2 Coaches who will always be in your corner
- 2 workbooks that you will want to reference again and again
- Opportunities for other gifts and resources throughout the season!
FAQs:
In short: Young couples in their 20s and 30s.
Longer answer: We love that AVENEW is one of the only programs out there that is relevant both for married couples and for those moving toward marriage (seriously dating/engaged). We’re more about what you need to process than how old you are. That being said, AVENEW is typically made up of young couples in their 20s and 30s. If you feel that a circumstance places you outside of the AVENEW demographic, please reach out to us! We’d love to hear how to best meet you where you are. Email us at [email protected] and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.
When you arrive at AVENEW, there are a few things you can expect: a welcoming community, genuine stories, great teaching by different couples every week, plenty of interaction and a purposeful challenge that you can take home and apply each week. Here’s what your time would look like:
- Gather (about 10 minutes)
- Listen to a video lesson from a teaching couple (25 to 30 minutes)
- Talk about the lesson (about 25 minutes)
- Wrap-up with your hosts (about 10 minutes)
- Take-Home Challenge (something to talk about or do before the next meeting)
You are certainly welcome to show up for Session 1 to any of the campus AVENEWs and complete onsite registration before entering the classroom. However, we cannot guarantee you and your partner will be able to join us because we are usually on a waitlist for these major course offerings. The best way to ensure you have a spot is to pre-register online. The earlier the better, so we can thoughtfully place you in a group.
Yes. Your registration is fully-refundable if you reach out to us a week before the start date of the AVENEW that you are currently registered for. We can also move your registration from one AVENEW to another. Just let us know by calling 817-731-4329 or emailing Michael at [email protected].
No, but you do have to be a couple who is at least seriously dating. How you define “seriously dating” is up to you! You may even want to use AVENEW as a means for defining your relationship. Most couples who go through AVENEW as dating couples get engaged during or shortly afterward, though there are a few who realize they need to pump the brakes. If either of those outcomes worry you, take a deep breath and trust us – we wouldn’t lead you toward anything that wasn’t absolutely in your best interest!
Yes! And you can come to a campus group or an offsite group, too – doesn’t matter to us! We’d just be glad to meet you and spend these 12 weeks getting to know you, no strings attached.
No. Why? Well it’s because we have laid out these 12 topics in an order that build upon each other, and because – as you go through AVENEW – you develop a closeness to your peers and Coach couple that we don’t want to interrupt by altering the people in the group in any significant way.
We offer AVENEW seasonally, which pretty much means there’s going to be at least one fall option (Sep.), one winter option (Jan.) and one “Weekend” option in May. Check this website for the actual listing, which may include more options and locations! The most popular times to join AVENEW are in these two fall and winter seasons.
Maybe you aren’t in the area often enough to commit to a traditional 12-week AVENEW program, or you’re on the way home from school for summer, or you simply have an ever-changing work schedule (talking to you medical professionals!).
An AVENEW Weekend is your way to get most of the same great content from our teaching on marriage in a two-day conference-style intensive.
Check out this website for the most current info on the next Weekend option.
AVENEW was created by people who didn’t like doing homework in school, so you won’t find anything called “homework” (or any other assignments, for that matter) in the curriculum. We offer what we refer to as a “Challenge” each week after the lesson. These are opportunities to reflect personally and connect on a deeper level with your significant other. Couples who accept and complete the Challenges are happier and more unified than those who don’t, but we still leave it up to you. We won’t baby you or make you do them, but we will ask you how they went from time to time!
Time commitment: The AVENEW gathering is about 75 minutes long each week, plus about 20 minutes to an hour (or more – this depends on you) to do the Challenge. So plan for at least an hour and a half per week that you’re spending on AVENEW stuff.
Yes! We are a Twogether in Texas premarital provider. You simply need to complete 8 of the 12 sessions of AVENEW in order to qualify for a certificate of completion. Please remind your Host if you need a certificate during or immediately following your time at AVENEW.
Here are our session titles, in order:
- Introduction & Mission of Marriage
- Purpose
- Covenant v. Contract
- Compatibility
- Conflict
- Invisible Battles
- Emotional Intimacy
- Reconciliation
- Power
- Money
- Sex
- Friendships & Families
Our church has done it many ways, but the leadership of AVENEW stands behind this model for a variety of reasons:
- Most premarital programs are done in about six sessions or less. Sometimes couples walk down the aisle having met just once with their officiant. AVENEW offers 12 intentional sessions that build topically to tell a story about God and how He created your relationship.
- Two mentors are better than one. We want you to have both male and female perspectives; not just one counselor.
- 24 teachers are better than one. Each topic is taught by a different couple, so if you don’t connect with someone, have no fear … you’re bound to resonate with others!
- The voices of 8 to 10 are usually more balanced than 2 to 3. When people are open and honest about their ideas and struggles, there is more variety to interact with — not to mention more energy and excitement in your group!
- Peers also offer accountability. Participants are less likely to miss out if they’re missed by their friends.
- Relationship > Content. The main goal of your Coaches is to begin a relationship; not teach a bunch of material. No one wants to be taught at, but we all want someone we can text or call when we’ve had a bad day. Your Coaches want to be those people in your lives — and that goes beyond AVENEW. They’re available outside of AVENEW for 1-on-1s, 2-on-2s, dinners, coffees … whatever.
- We want you to walk away with people you’re closer to in your same stage of life. It’s hard to say no to friends!
Your AVENEW gathering should be equipped with an older couple we fondly refer to as “Coaches.” These are the awesome individuals we’ve selected to encourage and facilitate group discussion. Our hope is that you reach out to them as needed during — or even after — this series. They’d love to talk with you one-on-one or two-on-two during the week! They have big hearts so expect to hear from them each week as they remind you to come or touch base with you about how they can pray for and encourage you in your walk.
During registration there is a text box “Anything else you want us to know?” That would be a good place to let us know your preference. However, because of the many variables we are working with, we cannot guarantee we’ll be able to accommodate your request.
We look at what you provide during registration to match you to what we think might be the best fit for developing community and conversation at your tables. We usually try to match dating couples with other dating couples, engaged couples with other engaged couples, and married couples with other married couples near their same stage of life. However, there may be other reasons we think it best to mix a group up. We ask you to trust us, and trust the Lord with where you’re placed. However, we always offer our best efforts to move you if you really aren’t happy with your group. Just let your Host know after the first session is over.
We value what happens in group time when both male and female perspectives are shared. We believe this adds balance to the topics discussed, furthers accountability among participants and promotes unity when a person is heard by their significant other. We do split men/women during the group discussion time of Session 11 due to the topic covered (sex). We do this to encourage more frank and honest conversations between participants and their Coach.
We made the decision to invest in a high quality version of the AVENEW teachings in order to offer AVENEW more frequently and at different locations. If our standard was excellent teaching, back in the day, we couldn’t offer that teaching whenever we wanted. We had to carefully schedule teachers at times that worked with their busy schedules. Oftentimes that wasn’t when young couples were available to attend. We also wanted to maximize your time and allow for more group discussion with your peers and Coaches. With an edited video we know exactly how long each lesson will take. (All of them are less than 30 minutes.) After shooting these 12 lessons in mid-2018 we were blown away by the quality, the feel, and how they actually added to the live AVENEW environment rather than detracting from it. Our goal was to make it seem like you are watching from the second row, and we think you’ll see that our team accomplished that when you attend!
The original spelling, avenue (ˈavəˌn(y)o͞ o), yields a couple of definitions:
- A road or path, especially one that leads to a house
- A way of approaching a problem or making progress toward something
We say “get on the same path” because we want you to walk together, at the same pace, in the same direction. Otherwise, you’ll find yourselves in different places years down the road. We also want to give you tools for approaching situations together and working on your home, biblically. That’s a different avenue of thinking than you’ll get from anywhere else! Plus, you’re on a new path in life. So we tweaked the spelling a bit to reflect the time of your life where you’re joining two paths together into one NEW path. Welcome to AVENEW!
Just like when you were five and wanted to go on the ride again … but this time you don’t have to ask mom! Yes, you can, though be advised that the main content will repeat. You’ll hear the same 12 teachings and utilize the same workbook. If you don’t need new workbooks, use the code on the second page of yours to take the cost of the workbooks off of your future registrations.
It’s not that we don’t want you to, but we designed this program to be something you unpack with mentor Coaches who are rooting for you all the way through. They are there to be neutral third parties in your relationship, and are especially there for you after AVENEW is over. Therefore, we don’t allow the video teachings to be utilized outside of our program.
We are flattered to get this question and would enjoy hearing from you! Please reach out to Michael Koiner at [email protected] or 817-546-6178 to set up a longer phone conversation.
Coach
with us
Curriculum is great, but we believe the magic really happens in community. Every 3 to 4 couples who attend AVENEW have a married “Coach” couple to help direct conversation, develop community, connect new people to Christ Chapel, and act as mentors to engaged and newly-married couples who need a little extra encouragement.
Let us know you’re interested, or jump right into our online training course to learn more!
FAQs about Coaching:
We cover this in part of the required training, but essentially we always look for married couples who are willing to be real about the highs and lows of married life. These couples are able to purchase an environment of safety for younger couples through their own vulnerability.
Instead of looking primarily at age and years married, we look at experience and growth. Sometimes a couple who’s dealt with a lot over 6 years of marriage (with humility and honesty) has more wisdom than a couple who’s been happily married for 20 years with little to no obstacles (and without as much vulnerable communication).
If it’s your first time, you’ll need to complete the online training (button in the section above), which takes roughly two hours. (It can be divided up however you like, or done in one sitting.) All Coaches have been through this and it allows everyone to speak from the same level.
When an AVENEW season is on the horizon and you’re needed, you will join the staff for a pre-season huddle (usually a fun dinner meeting) where you learn about and pray for the couples in your group. You will also get to ask any last-minute questions and get advice from other Coaches.
Once the season has begun, your commitment is to simply prepare and attend each of the 12 sessions. Preparation can take as little as 20 minutes, but you might enjoy taking longer as you talk through and answer the questions yourselves! The sessions themselves are about 90 minutes from beginning to end. So all in all, plan for about two hours per week.
A few times during AVENEW our staff has a “check-in” with all the Coaches. This adds 30 to 45 minutes to the Coaches commitment for those sessions.
Our staff likes to celebrate its leaders, so we hold a grand celebration for all of the Coaches who served in our marriage ministries about once a year. It’s something you won’t want to miss!
We don’t want you to miss a lot, and especially not Session 1, but when you do need to miss for health reasons — or for that family trip — your Hosts have you covered. Hosts not only open and close the AVENEW gatherings; they sit in for Coaches who are unable to be with their couples. We ask that you let them know ahead of time. If only one of you can make it, then it’s best for the one who can be there to lead their table alone. We want to protect the relationships you’re building!
Great question! In addition to the front-end training and pre-season meeting, a few times during AVENEW our staff has a “check-in” with all the Coaches. This is where we provide some additional training, hear from you about what’s going on in your groups and check with you on the “life change” section we introduced in the online training. Additionally, our staff is here to talk through any unique topics you want help with, and wants to be your friend! In fact, we tend to feel like our coaches are more like our family than anything else! You also have the support of Soul Care, for any couples who need to work out more intense issues someplace other than in AVENEW.
The Soul Care staff also stays in touch throughout the seasons of the year, prays for you and helps out when needs arise. We’re more than interested in how you serve Jesus. — We want to serve Him by serving you, too!
