Jamie Murphy saw first hand as a family pastor at Immanuel Baptist in North Augusta the relationship between children and parents and how often those relationships could grow very sour. 

So Murphy took a ten-week, California based study program that teaches parents how to better relate to their children and introduced it to several families in the North Augusta area. The Parent Project teaches parents how to better communicate with their children through love, discipline, direction, and overall positive influence. 

The Parent Project, which has spread nationwide, is taught primarily out of a workbook with the last four weeks of the course taking a support group format. Each week focuses on identifying destructive behaviors in children along with finding help and support and developing effective communication skills.

The course, offered at Immanuel Baptist Church for free, has seen extremely positive results from the community. Currently, the church has an arrangement with the Aiken county court systems, where parents of children who have broken the law can be ordered to attend the class. Murphy hopes to see similar arrangements in other areas of the state.

But in order for the program to grow around the state, trained facilitators are needed to offer the program at various times in their communities. The South Carolina Baptist Convention and the Woman’s Missionary Union have partnered to offer training for individuals to become facilitators in the program. The goal is to have one facilitator for every association. Church leaders, school administrators, teachers, counselors, court officials and others working with children are encouraged to attend. The course is a 40-hour training and will cover five days, June 23 – 27 at the SC Baptist Convention building in Columbia.

Murphy says the pay-off in his community and church has been tremendous with the majority of parents who attend not knowing what else to do or where to turn. The ministry potential has been exponential and an encouraging role for Immanuel Church to play in their community.

The registration cost for the facilitator training is $400 for any person from a South Carolina Baptist Church or $700 from any other agency personnel. The registration fee includes all training materials, daily meals and other materials to get started. Space is limited to sixty participants. A non-refundable deposit is due by April 15. Log on to www.scwmu.org to register or contact Irene Murphy at (800) 723-7242 ext. 8506. For more information on the Parent Project, log on to www.parentproject.com.