Marriage Requirements
In order for GNG staff to conduct either premarital counseling or the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom must meet the following requirement set forth by the GNG Leadership Team.
1) Bride and groom must individually confess a personal relationship to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?2 Corinthians 6:14 - 16
2) Couples must participate in up to seven marital preparation sessions and a mentoring program. This must begin six months or more prior to the wedding date.
This will include:
- Taking a premarital inventory
- Participating in the inventory follow-up
- Partnering during this time with a mentor couple
3 By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; 4And by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Proverbs 24:3 - 4
3) Bride and/or groom must have been a regular attendee of Good News Gathering for a minimum of six months prior to beginning premarital classes.
4) Bride and groom must abstain from physical intimacy or co-habitation.
If you have been sexually active with each other, we will expect you to refrain from sexual intercourse until the wedding. The ability to control your sexual desire is vital to a successful marriage. If you don't govern your sexual desire before marriage, it is unlikely that you will be able to do so afterwards. Sexual purity until marriage is an investment in a fulfilled life together. The divorce rate for those who are sexually active prior to marriage is much higher than for those who refrain from sex until marriage. If you have already had intercourse with each other, now is a good time to begin exercising self-restraint and invest in your future.
If you have been living together, we will expect you to change or adjust your living arrangements until the wedding. While we understand what society says about living together without marriage (e.g. "if we break up, we won't have to get a divorce," "Well, you test drive a car before you buy it"), we believe that God's plan is far better. Indeed, statistical studies prove that God's plan is twice as good! The divorce rate among couples who live together before marriage is about 80%. By contrast, for couples who don't live together and who stay sexually pure, it is less than 40%. Clearly, God's plan -- to stay sexually pure and live apart from each other until marriage -- is more successful than the way society sees it. If you want God's blessing on your marriage, we will ask you to enter the marriage covenant God's way.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 – 5; 7 – 8
5) In case of premarital pregnancy, the marriage may or may not be performed depending on the maturity of the persons involved and other considerations. The final decision to perform the ceremony will be determined by the minister.
6) No remarriages after divorce of a spouse will be performed until at least one year has passed from the time the divorce is finalized. It is required that those involved in remarriages attend a divorce recovery program prior to entering a new marriage.
Re-marriages are just as valid and sacred to God as first marriages. Acknowledging that even the most optimistic statistics indicate that second marriages have a least a 60% divorce rate and that these marriages usually dissolve within six years, we desire to help your marriage with every opportunity to succeed.
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