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CPC Marriage Preparation Program: Background
The CPC Marriage Keepers team engaged in extensive national research on marriage and ways that churches are helping couples get started right. Author and marriage specialist Dr. Norman Wright served as a personal consultant during this process. The team discovered that there is no need to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to marriage preparation. Pastors and churches in more than 200 U.S. cities have locked arms in an effort to cut the divorce rate through the establishment of “Community Marriage Policies (CMP’s).” These policies establish minimum requirements for marriage preparation for couples married in these churches/by these pastors. One hundred and twenty-one of these cities have seen divorce rates decrease by at least 23%.
http://www.marriagesavers.org/sitems/SavingMarriages/results.htm
One of the most successful CMP’s in the nation is in Modesto, CA. Through a sustained and rigorous commitment by its clergy to marriage preparation, enrichment and restoration since 1986, Modesto has seen its divorce rate decrease by 50%!
http://www.marriagesavers.org/sitems/SavingMarriages/results.htm
The Marriage Keepers team consulted with the leadership of several CMP’s across the nation and concluded that the effective programs have several components in common:
- A sustained commitment by the clergy as the “gatekeepers” of marriage in their communities
- A minimum four-month premarital process
- The use of a relationship/personality inventory
- The involvement of trained mentor couples
- The engaged couple’s commitment to sexual abstinence until the wedding
A model based on these core ingredients, along with extensive supporting research and biblical/theological grounding, was presented to the governing body of the church (the Session) to chew on. After a thorough exploration and discussion, the Session adopted the program as a requirement for couples married at CPC.
Our prayer is that we at CPC will do our part to reduce the painful incidence of divorce in our community, and increase the formation of healthy, loving, lasting marriages and families…to the glory of God!
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