FAITH & FAMILY SERVICE

Faith & Family Foundation helps to prepare couples for the lifelong challenge of building a Christian family. Participating churches can provide premarital counseling through pastors and trained laypersons. Education and advice on Biblical marriage is also available for men and women who are preparing to take the next step towards marriage by entering a courtship.

Although the Foundation does not perform marriage ceremonies, participating churches periodically sponsor a worship service, called Faith & Family Service, for couples nearing the conclusion of courtship. The purpose of the service is to make a vow before God that hereafter the couple will build a family centered on Jesus Christ. The service also provides mutual encouragement and support of couples, and recognizes the faith journey that the couple has traveled together in courtship. Participation is voluntary, and provided for couples who desire in the near future to be married in faith. It is not a matrimony, but instead a service whereby a couple can declare their intention to become a family of faith through marriage.

The Faith & Family Service is especially valuable to couples whose parents are not believers, and whose family expects to hold a non-Christian wedding ceremony. As missions expand globally, the clash between young Christian couples and their parents/relatives is becoming a serious issue. To avoid disharmony, the Faith & Family Service allows the couple to dedicate the entire journey of their life together to Jesus Christ before marriage without breaking the the culture’s wedding tradition.

Couples that desire to participate in Faith & Family programs should demonstrate a desire to live by Biblical principles. This includes a commitment to Christian courtship. It is a fact that marriages are more likely to break apart when cohabitation is practiced before marriage. Faith & Family promotes courtship leading to marriage as part of a comprehensive faith-based approach to the crisis of divorce and family brokenness today.

The Foundation also considers sincere commitment to Jesus Christ as important for the overall health of the family. Although society is becoming increasingly pluralistic, we consider the Bible to be the ideal core component for Christian families. As believers, we should be a “city on a hill” (Mt 5:14 NIV) by revealing the light of Jesus Christ to the world through our families.