RelateStrong | Leadership Series
Equipping the Church for Important Conversations
RelateStrong | Leadership Series Program
The RelateStrong | Leadership Series provides videos, workbooks, and other resources designed to help Christian leaders
facilitate productive and helpful conversations about difficult topics. We apply RelateStrong’s
Pain and Peace cycles framework to address anxiety, addiction, connecting with adolescents, physical intimacy, pornography, marriage,
singleness, and self-care.
Why We Developed This Program
In a 2020 survey conducted by the Barna Group and the Boone Center for the Family,
54% of the church reported being affected by a serious relational or emotional health
issue. People in and out of our churches are hurting. We developed this program to
address specific areas in need of deep healing and draw people to the church as a
place of hope, healing, and connection.
How This Program Changes Lives
Our program equips the church to address real topics affecting real people.
Integrating psychology and theology, this program provides a simple, yet profound, method for church communities to address these concerns in a way that is helpful for both the person struggling and their family member or friend.
Our RelateStrong experts are university professors, pastors, Christian therapists, executive coaches, all actively engaged in ministry. In each video, they identify the pain and unmet needs that are at the root of relational and emotional struggles. Instead of adding more “rules” and “what not to do’s,” these resources get to the very heart of a person’s pain and ways of coping, providing tools to form new, healthy patterns.
Engaging this well-researched and effective approach in the church will equip Christians
to partner with God in their own transformation from pain to peace and become communities
of support for those struggling.
Leadership Series Topics
Bring Our Program to Your Organization
Explore our suite of resources, with videos, workbooks, and quick reference guides
for each of our topics. Contact the Boone Center for the Family to discuss various ways to utilize these resources in your community.
Videos
The videos feature RelateStrong experts who address each topic by applying RelateStrong's Pain and Peace cycle framework, sharing stories, and imparting tools to equip leaders to facilitate helpful conversation on the topic. Each video pairs with a workbook.
Workbooks
The workbooks pair with the videos and offer participants a way to further engage with the video content, including guiding personal reflection and application of the Pain and Peace cycles to the topic at hand.
Quick Reference Guides
The Quick Reference Guides serve as a guide for discussion, as well as offer statistics, myths and truths, and practical applications in the church. These comprehensive brochures are available for purchase by individual topic or can be purchased as a complete set.
Meet Our Experts
Matthew and Joanna Raabsmith, RelateStrong Leadership Series experts featured in our video discussing pornography use, are clinicians, speakers, and authors who have been part of the RelateStrong community for over 10 years. They work together at their private practice, The Raabsmith Team, specializing in helping couples and individuals find healing transformation. The Raabsmiths have also served as staff in multiple church communities together, using their expertise to help build relationship and recovery programs.
Robert Scholz, featured in our addiction video, is a licensed therapist in California and Arizona. Over the past 25 years, he has worked in university, community mental health, forensic, and private practice settings. Robert has served as an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology for over 20 years, teaching courses on substance abuse treatment and forensic psychology. Robert co-authored the book Engaging Resistance, a best-seller in the forensic psychology field, and has authored several other publications on the topics of men’s mental health and addiction.
Dee Dee Mayer, featured in our anxiety video, is RelateStrong Director for the Boone Center for the Family and works as a licensed clinical social worker in private practice. Engaging her passion for seeing students and families live in the fullness of life with Christ, she served as Associate Head of School for Spiritual Life and Bible Teacher for over ten years at a large Christian high school in Southern California. Having earned a Doctor of Ministry from Azusa Pacific University in Spiritual Formation, she brings her expansive pastoral, educational, and counseling experience to co-authoring the RelateStrong Leadership Series workbook curriculum.
Rev. Chris Adams, featured in our self-care video, is an ordained minister, clinical psychologist, and certified well-being and leadership coach. His passion is developing the well-being of pastors and their families. Chris serves as Professor, Chaplain, and Executive Director of the Mental Health and the Church initiative at Rosemead Graduate School of Psychology, Biola University. He is the lead researcher for the Flourishing in Ministry project, and participates as a consultant and researcher with the Duke Clergy Health Initiative.
Drs. Melissa and Scott Symington, featured in our physical intimacy video, are both graduates of Fuller Theological Seminary and clinical psychologists in private practice. Their clinical work is driven by a passion to help individuals and couples experience greater levels of aliveness, intimacy, and healing in relationships. Melissa and Scott specialize in sex therapy and speak at professional conferences, couples retreats, and church settings about healthy sexuality.
Michael Cox, featured in our video addressing connecting with adolescents, is an ordained minister and therapist in private practice. He began serving as an ordained minister in various roles, including Lead Pastor, Domestic Missionary, and Youth Pastor in 2001. Desiring to focus on counseling couples, individuals, and families, he went back to school to earn his Master's Degree in Counseling. With 20+ years of working with young people, he continues his passion of helping adolescents grow in maturity and emotion regulation skills in his counseling private practice.
Meghan Eaken, featured in our anxiety video, is a Licensed Therapist and Certified Executive Coach. For over a decade, Meghan’s therapy practice has helped high-functioning women and men decrease their daily anxiety at work and in their relationships. As an Executive Coach, Meghan focuses on helping leaders at any level tap into their best selves through emotional regulation. She is the co-author of the RelateStrong Leader's Guide, a psycho-educational curriculum for leaders.
Additional Resources
Learn about RelateStrong’s core framework, the Pain & Peace cycles. Videos cover core concepts and RelateStrong experts applying the Pain and Peace cycles to emotional and relational challenges in their own lives.
Our comprehensive eBook delves into — and gives you tools to discuss — the topics of addiction, parenting, marriage, pornography, sexual intimacy, singleness, depression, and anxiety.
The RelateStrong blog features our therapists and ministers discussing the topics of anxiety and depression, addiction, marriage, parenting, sexual intimacy, singleness, pornography and self-care to provide helpful insights and tools for change.