The Centre for Family Development is a voluntary, non profit making organization that is committed to restoring the sanctity of the human race using the family as the spring board. Its birth is a direct response to the heart beat and cries of God to stop the continuous slide of the human race into decay.  It is a centre with a vision to preserve and restore families to God’s original plan. 

Man is almost running out of ideas on how to stem the increasing rate of family crisis with its devastating consequences.  Conventional tools for conflict resolution in marriages are almost becoming obsolete as the rate of divorce is constantly on the increase in almost every society.  Traditional marital values are fast being destroyed and replaced with values that weaken rather than strengthen the family.  It is the vision of the centre to change these unhealthy trends.

The centre believes that one of the best things and first gift of God to man is the family.  The abuse of this gift is one of the reasons for the increasing human miseries today and the only way to reverse the increasing rate of global social and economic mishap is to restore the family to its original place in the plan of God.  There can be no restoration of human dignity outside the restoration of the dignity of the family unit.  The centre believes that the only way to restore the dignity of the family is for families to adhere to the principles of the creator of the institution as revealed in his word.

The Centre for Family Development intends therefore to be a bridge for marriages and homes by providing the antidote that will stem the collapse of the marriage institution.  It will provide a healthy and interactive platform that will encourage sound family relationships.  The vision of the centre is to lift marriages to God’s standard and stop the abuse of the family institution.

The family constitutes the singular most important institution in the history of mankind and in any nation.  Research works by a British Anthropologist John D. Unwin attest to this fact.  He studied eighty civilizations spanning over a period of four hundred years.  His studies revealed that in all eighty cases, the fall of the nations were as a result of the collapse of the family units in those civilizations.  In all the cases, the nations fell within one generation of the collapse of their family structures.  This study provides an empirical evidence of the importance of the family.  From his findings it is obvious that the family is the foundation for national development.  Any nation therefore that wants to build a solid foundation for development must invest in the family because it is the nucleus of growth and development.

The importance of the family transcends physical or mundane things; spiritual relationships and benefits to a great extent are tied to our ability to raise sound godly families.  The priest Eli, in 1 Samuel chapters 2 and 3 met with a terrible death because of his failure to build a sound family.  Our father in the faith, Abraham, got commendation from God because of his positive disposition towards his family.  “And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?  For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him” Genesis 18:17-19.  Abraham’s greatness among other factors was as a result of his ability to raise a godly family.  Before God, we cannot be greater than what we make our families to be.  This fact accounts for why the ability to rule one’s house well is an important criterion for ordaining ministers of God. 

The family is important to God and the nation.

There is hardly any nation that is ignorant of the place of the family in national development.  Even though we are aware of how important the family is to the church and the nation at large, we are not allocating enough resources to the building of families.  We have not devoted enough time to the teachings of sound principles for healthy family relationships.  Family related teachings are reserved for wedding ceremonies, women’s week or mother’s day.  No nation can build a strong and healthy family relationship if she is not prepared to devote valuable time to sound teaching on principles for building healthy families.  The Centre for Family Development is out to lay a solid foundation for the teaching and development of family and family related issues.

The centre intends to help couples to understand that family crisis is just like any other physical ailment.  Sickness in the body and sickness of a marriage are both potential instruments for the destruction destinies.  Couples need not feel ashamed that they have sick marriages; instead, just like they handle sickness of the body they should confront sickness in their marriages by seeking knowledge and help where necessary.  The centre hopes to sensitise families on the need to devote enough resources for the healing of their marriages and the improvement of their family relationships. 
 
The centre will serve as a healing centre for marriages, providing the required therapies for different marital problems.  The harvest indeed is ripe but the labourers are few.  There are lots of marriages with problems today requiring healings but few qualified men and women to handle their problems and no specialized centre designated for that purpose.  The dearth of qualified marriage counsellors and teachers and the non-existence of a specialized centre for marital issues are having devastating effects on marriages.  The centre is out to change all that.   The centre will serve as a specialized centre for the family and will train lay men and women to be able to handle family related problems. It is the first centre of its kind in the country to devote its resources for the development and growth of the family.

The activities and programmes of the centre are fashioned from a unique perspective and understanding that it is safer, easier and cheaper to prevent family crisis than to solve one.  Even though the centre provides solution for sick marriages, the centre is basically a crisis preventive centre.  This unique insight about marriage reflects in all of the centre’s activities and programmes.  The activities and programmes of the centred are structured to handle practical real life family situations and they are products of our many years of teaching and handling family related issues on TV and counselling of families.  The activities and programmes are original and unique and not modelled after any marriage institution or centre in the world.

OUR GOALS

1. Preserve the sanctity of the human race using marriage as a spring board.
2. Break the vicious circle of family crisis through the dissemination of relevant knowledge.
3. Duplicate and multiply ourselves into other so that more people can spread the message that it is possible to have a good home.
4. Show couples how to make their marriages work.  

OBJECTIVES OF THE CENTRE

1. The centre will serve as a counselling office for troubled homes.
2. The centre will serve as a counselling office for young intending couples.
3. Prepare young intending couples for marriage through the pre-marital programmes and other programmes.
4. Help couples to take their marriages to the next phase of glory through the Family Enhancement Programmes.
5. Provide solution to troubled homes through the Encore programme.
6. Equip those who are called into marriage and family counselling ministries for their assignment through the Marriage Ministers and Counsellors programme.
7. Research and proffer solution to family related problems.
8. Organise interactive workshops to address issues that affect the family.
9. Create opportunities for Families to interact and stimulate each other for enhanced Family relationship.
10.  Organise programmes that will provoke greater love and understanding between husband and wife and between parents and children.
11. Give our children, especially the teenagers a sense of direction and purpose for life.
12. Help parents to understand how to relate with their teenage children.
13. Build a specialised library for the family.

OUR AIM

• Encourage families to register as members of the centre.
• Encourage couples to register for the Family Enhancement Programmes.
• Encourage the young ones to register for the Pre-marital programme.
• Encourage teenagers to register for our Potential development programmes.
• Encourage more people to be interested in the Family ministries.
• Encourage those in the Family ministries to train for their calling.